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Notebook Storage SSDs and HDs Compared
The Raindog sends us a particularly timely showdown article comparing seven 2.5" mobile hard drives, four of them HDs and three SSDs, across a wide range of application, file-copy, power-consumption, and noise-level tests. Tom's Hardware was recently forced to issue a correction to a claim, which we discussed here, that SSDs aren't actually much more power-thrifty than HDs. The Tech Report's in-depth comparison provides some data points on the question of whether solid-state storage is ready to supplant traditional mechanical hard drives, but notes that the price disparity is still substantial.
flash based drives simplify mil spec laptops, though. imagine having to design a laptop with a conventional HDD knowing that it has to survive being thrown into the back of a jeep carelessly, or be able to still work after a soldier pile dived on top of it trying to avoid machine gun fire, or even expected to still work if it had taken a pretty big shock as a result of nearby artillery or grenade blasts.
they used to have really good shock absorbing cages to protect the drive...
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
I was babysitting my mother's new puppy a few months back.
I was happily IRC:ing away from the couch, when I heard the puppy standing by the door.
For those of you that don't know, the thing about puppies is that they do prefer to pee outside, but their bladder system isn't really that good, so when they decide they want to go out, you only have a few seconds to avoid an accident.
So, I quickly put my laptop on the table, throw my headset away, and start to quickly move towards the door. Unfortunately, I didn't really put the computer down very good - half of it was hanging outside the table. As I tried to move past it, my knee touched it, and that was enough to throw the computer of the table, letting it fall for 4-5 decimeters before it hit the floor. It gave up a faint "peeep!" before it died.
My hard drive only kindof worked after that - booting was fine, but there were lots of broken clusters that sent the computer into a (seemingly) infinite loop, forcing the computer to use all CPU resources waiting for the hard drive, in effect freezing it. Slowly but surely, more and more clusters broke down, more and more files got damaged, until I finally bought a new drive. Trust me - at that point, I really, really wanted to buy a SSD.
Oh well, at least the puppy got out in time...
Actually, I have a funny story. For Marines in Iraq movies get passed around on HD's alot. Me and some buddies had a 320g external hd at the time. Well, one day theyre watching Lost and we get attacked, I jump down and kick the cord. We all watched in Tivo slomo while the poor thing went all the 3 feet from desk to floor. It even had the entire album of some of my fancy themselves rappers friends. They blamed me, I blamed them for stringing a 10 foot usb to the laptop (which was hooked to a projector, its funny what you can get in the middle of nowhere when you know the supply officer)and the terrorist blamed the hard-drive. We lost over 200 movies, and SSD just might have stopped the whole thing, and now im ranting, but theres one of my war stories, buy me beer/scotch if you want more/better ones.
"It's ok, I'm completely secure as long as my iron is off"
I have kids and it isn't an option for me to simply stop using the laptop when the two year olds are around. I need zilch for storage capacity and love longevity. $200 more for a notebook that lasts a year longer, speculatively speaking? Sign me up!