Solid State Drives: A new trend in storage technology

Small, light and robust – is it any wonder that solid-state drives are fast outdating the traditional hard drives? Due in mid 2007, the Samsung 64 GB 1.8 inch model increases the capacity available in SSDs. Hot on its heels are SanDisk, with its 32 GB flash drive, and Fujitsu with SSD as an option in certain LifeBook laptops.

What’s great about SSD is that they contain no moving parts whatsoever- dramatically reducing the potential for data loss. As hard drives get bigger (1TB is the latest size), they also become heavier. To meet the demand for increased capacity and faster transfer speed, manufacturers are being forced to squeeze more platters inside 3.5-inch hard drives, resulting in higher temperatures and a higher risk for data loss. In fact, SSDs are much less likely to fail due to bumps, drops, shocks, or changes in temperature.

As drop-in replacements for standard hard drives, SDDs offer superior performance and reliability. They are cooler, quieter, and require less power than traditional hard drives. Samsung’s 64 GB unit can read 64 MB/S, write 45 MB/s, and uses just half a Watt when in operation (one tenth of a Watt when inactive). In comparison, an 80 GB 1.8-inch hard drive reads 15 MB/s, writes 7 MB/s, and consumes 1.5 Watts, irrespective of whether it is in operation or not.

In the past, the use of large capacity flash-based drives has been largely based within the military, aerospace and telecom industries. This is due, in part, to heavy demands placed on performance and reliability by these industries and the high costs incurred by solid-state technology. However, with flash-memory costs falling, solid-state drives are likely to become more feasible in terms of costs and availability. It is believed that within the next ten years, solid-state drives will replace the traditional hard drive, with a range of HDD / SSD hybrids being launched in the interim. This creates a world of possibility for the portable storage industry. The only thing that might slow down the diffusion of solid-state technology is its price.

So what does this mean for data recovery providers such as Kroll Ontrack? Although more resistant to damage and the dangers of data loss, SSDs are by no means infallible. Kroll Ontrack’s team of R&D experts continue to foster close and long-term relationships with computer equipment manufacturers to ensure its Ontrack Data Recovery services can recover from new technology such as SSD. However, it is unlikely that the recovery process will differ greatly from current methods used to recover data from SD, MMC and other digital media. All in all, it looks like good things really do come in small packages.

References

‘Fujitsu First to Offer Solid State Drives in Its Pen-Enabled LifeBook Notebooks’ http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www/newsdetail.shtml

‘Krakow: Your Drive is Now Obsolete’ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16545386

‘Samsung Announces 64 GB Solid State Drive’ http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/12556/samsung_announces_64_gb_solid_state_drive

‘SanDisk Launches 32 GB Solid-State Drive’ http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/12453/sandisk_launches_32_gb_solid-state_drive

‘Conventional Hard Drive Obsoletism? Samsung's 32 GB Flash Drive Previewed’ http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/09/20/conventional_hard_drive_obsoletism_uk/

‘Solid State put to the test’ http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1083/solid_state_put_to_the_test_team_16gb_2_5_inch_ide_solid_state_drive/index.html