by James Wallis
Hard Disk Drives

Or, the hard disk itself could be removed and copied. However, a hard disk is difficult to carry around and can be damaged very easily.

One needs to be very careful while handling hard disk drives. They can get damaged very easily. It also has other disadvantages. It consumes a lot of electricity, it is heavy and isn’t easily portable. There is also the question of long it will last as it isn’t very shock resistant.

Need For Something Better

For a long time, an adequate replacement for the hard disk drive was being sought, mainly solid state storage. This was when flash drives were introduced. Instead of magnetic storage on plates like hard drives, flash drives store data in the form of electrical impulses on semi conductor chips. The underlying principle behind a flash drive is the EEPROM or Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. The problem with EEPROM was that deleting information could not be done in parts. Exposing it to UV light would delete all data. Later on, the disk was broken down into bits that could be erased individually. However, the process became more complicated and required a separate microprocessor. That is how the flash drive was built.

They are typically lightweight and come encased in plastic bodies, which make them easy to transport. The only part exposed is the ISB connector. They can also be used on any computer or device with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port. On the other hand, compact disks and floppy disks are compatible with systems that have either CD drives or floppy disk drives. They are also faster and hold more data.

Flash drives only work when they are connected to a host computer. They also consume less power, that is only what power the USB connection supplies. However there are high speed flash drives that require a separate power hub. The amount of data that can be stored on a flash drive is determined by its density. Over the past few years, this density has increased manifold making a strong competitor for hard disk drives.

Advantages

Flash drives, however, have numerous advantages over hard disk drives. One is the absence of any moving part. Flash drives are also scratch proof and can handle much rougher handling when compared to hard drives. Computers can also boot up from flash drives. If the drive has a memory large enough to hold an operating system, you don’t need a hard disk to boot the system.

There are cases where flash drives that have been submerged in water, dried and then used, have been known to work perfectly well, whereas that definitely cannot be expected from a hard disk drive. Flash drives are also rewritable, though repeated data writing and erasing might damage the life of a drive. Most drives can take up to several hundred thousand cycles of write and erase before any damage is done. The lack of physical moving parts means that less energy is consumed and data is easier and faster to access.

Disadvantages

One disadvantage is that some flash drives are not write protected, which makes it susceptible to modification by the host computer. However, there are some drives that come with a write protect switch.

Also flash drives cost about one and half times a hard drive, but it does offer a lot of performance bonus. Flash drives are increasingly finding place in cell phones, i-pods and notebooks. They have even replaced hard disk drives in some mini notebooks. Because flash drives are more cost effective, the battery life of notebooks is increased by a substantial amount. There is also scope for use of flash drives in car navigation systems and for operation of large data systems. When there is an application that can be run without being installed on the host system, flash drives are used. They can also hold software for system maintenance and are used by system administrators.

Thus, flash drives seem to be taking over hard disk drives. But, manufacturers are trying to make lot of improvements in hard disk drives. The main disadvantages of the flash drive are that they are more expensive and that they aren’t write-protected. Will flash drives replace hard disk drives? Only time will tell.

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk

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