How do ssd hybrid drives work

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Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Mark Kyrnin. Mark Kyrnin is a former Lifewire writer and computer networking and internet expert who also specializes in computer hardware. Updated on June 29, Jon Fisher. Lifewire Technology Review Board Member. Article reviewed on Oct 21, Tweet Share Email. In This Article. Benefits of SSHD.

A Closer Look. SSHD vs. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Best Gifts for Cutting the Cord.

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Mozilla Fights Double Standard. Connect to a Hidden Wi-Fi Network. Change the Size of the Touch Keyboard. Check Bluetooth Device Battery Life. Reader Favorites Take Screenshot on Windows. Mount an ISO image in Windows. Solid-state drives are everywhere these days and are the most common type of storage in laptops and highly recommended for DIY desktops.

It used to be that the best option was to pair a small-capacity SSD as the boot drive, and then use a big hard drive for storing most of your stuff. Especially in laptops, where weight is critical, having an M. Beyond hard drives and SSDs there is a third type of drive that is still around and may interest some.

Especially for those who only want one storage media in their PC, but want better performance than a standard hard drive can produce. These are called hybrid hard drives or an SSHD, and they use traditional rotating platters and a smaller amount of high-speed flash memory inside a single drive enclosure.

Hybrid storage products monitor the data being read from the hard drive, and cache the most frequently accessed bits to the high-speed NAND flash memory. The data stored on the NAND will change over time, but once the most frequently accessed bits of data are stored on the flash memory, they will be served from the flash, resulting in SSD-like performance for your most-used files. It used to be that SSHDs were popular choices because of cost, and that is less true today.

One good thing about SSHDs is manageability. The hybrid storage volume can be as big as the hard drive being used, and can serve as a standard hard drive. Boot times also see some improvement. Where hybrid products falter is with new data. Due to the fact that hybrid products rely on caching software, they can also be somewhat more difficult to configure.

Western Digital. My Passport 5TB external hard drive.