Storage options for computers has changed greatly over the years. Floppy disks and hard drives have been widely used for years. What if a newer option could make the hard drive as obsolete as floppy disks? Solid state drives have massively higher performance, and they run silently. They come in many form factors, ranging from the traditional 2.5" SATA drive to a M.2 drive with a size similar to that of a stick of gum.

Although this technology seems impressive, it is not without flaws. Certain types of SSDs could be prone to failure, and larger drive sizes are still quite expensive. SSDs work great as a drive to run the operating system on, or for storing video games that need to load quickly. However, other alternatives may work better for other situations.

When it comes to storing large amounts of data, hard drives are unrivaled. They come in sizes of many terabytes, and they are a dependable technology that our computers have relied on for decades. Although it would be nice to use SSDs for everything, their price and reliability can make that difficult. For personal usage, running the operating system on an SSD and storing large, infrequently accessed files on a hard drive is best.