Mobility is a huge part of laptops SSDs are both smaller and lighter than HDDs. SSDs are far less likely to be affected by impacts. HDDs with their moving parts can be damaged if they're spinning when the drop or impact happens. Laptops can take a beating while they travel with you - having a storage device that isn't disrupted by bumps is a huge boon. There are a number of reasons why you might want to opt for an SSD in place of a standard HDD. Most SSDs instead use NAND flash memory, which is relatively stable and will last for years. In fact, there are no moving parts at all. Unlike traditional hard-disk drives (HDD), there is no actuator arm that has to move across a spinning magnetic platter to read or write data. It has an In/Out interface, usually in the form of SATA or PCIe, that feeds power and transfers data. When you get down to a base level, an SSD is just some memory chips on a circuit board.
We take a look at solid-state drives and what's inside them to help prepare you for your next storage device. Many Windows PC users wade into the solid-state drive (SSD) market without the knowledge needed to make an informed buying choice. Update March 13, 2017: We've refreshed this article with some new resources and more information on swapping out your old drive with a new solid-state drive.