Computers do calculations, that is what defines them as computers. Anything that can put numbers together, like a calculator for example has some sort of mechanical or digital storage. There are 2 different kinds of main drive storage that is used in computers. The different kinds of storage are digital and mechanical. Storage is storage, just like in real life space, is space so choosing one or the other won’t really make a difference.

The main difference of the two drives is how there storage is managed and used. Mechanical storage is also called a hard disk drive, and has been around since the dawn of computers. This method of storage is very aged, but still works. Almost every computer in the world has some sort of mechanical hard drive and just like every piece of mechanical technology, it will have a short lifespan and break within a couple years (about 4 to 5.) This is the problem with many hard drives, there is also no warning of a failing hard drive and everything on the drive could be deleted or corrupted beyond use. But we have been using these drives since the computers have been made for in home use, so it’s been a long living problem. Hard drives, the word hard meaning its hard storage meaning that it is burned to a disc, or multiple disks inside of a hard drive case. Unlike digital storage hard drives have about 5 discs that carry plenty of empty space for anything that is stored on a PC, being cheaper than SSD’s the hard drives have many flaws. One downside is the speed of a hard drive. Hard drives are read by the computer like a vinyl record. The disc spins around at about 3000-6000 RPM (depending if you’re downloading a file or not), which is fast, but compared to a digital line is much slower. Solid State Drives are digital meaning they do not contain disks and the memory is used through digital lines (basically a wire.) They are more expensive than hard disc drives, but one thing that will allow it to stand out from the hard drives is they solid states drives never break or go bad (they do break from physical stress from outside sources though.) Solid state drives allow for files to be downloaded faster, but only at the limit of the internet speed. They allow for files to be loaded and searched faster, and the one reason that many PC enthusiasts prefer these over hard storage is that they are reliable and are faster when it comes to loading files, such as a video game’s files or word documents.

A hard drive is more for those who don’t want a speed demon computer that can’t open up files at triple the speed. Many would want something like that in their computer, but many don’t because of the prices of the SSD’s. It is worth having a small SSD for very important files though since a SSD can’t break from age. The reason is there are no moving  parts like a disc, so mechanical values are impossible.