Direct MP3 Download: My Hard Drive Died #2 – Solid State Drives VS. Hard Drive
Hosted by: Scott Moulton of MyHardDriveDied.com and Steve Cherubino of Podnutz
Topics discussed:
Solid State Drives (SSD)
A solid-state drive is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data.
It emulates a hard drive interface; it is basically a hard drive with no moving parts
SSD drives has a built-in processor, keeps track of contents, has logs and also emulates IDE or SATA drives,
A proper name for SSD drives should be something like “IDE Flash” or something that will differentiate them from SSD memory cards
New generation of SSD have buffer for better performance
There is a size issue with SSD drives in terms of pricing:
– 500GB costs around $1,000
– 128GB costs around $500.00
Scott favors SSD drives if there was no need of space
SSD drives add additional hours of power on a laptop
They have less problems with heat, they have no fans, they are very quiet, and they have no moving parts
On a desktop he recommends using a regular physical spinning disk
The data recovery market for SSD drives is still not ready yet but as time goes on it will start to catch up.
SanDisk compared to MicroCenter sticks are way just much better.
SanDisk uses “TrueFFS” (True flash file system) encoding format which is one of the best
Samsung also uses this encoding format, they are a reseller for iPods and iPhones
Listeners emails:
Door-To-Door-Geek:
Q: How do you feel about whole disk encryption?
A: Encryption doesn’t really tax the drive, it taxes the CPU instead BUT today’s processors are much faster and more reliable
From a data recovery perspective, you can recover a drive that is encrypted without decrypting the content
Types of encryption:
– PGP (Used on corporate environment)
– SafeDisk
– BestCrypt
– GPG (Open Source Version, also known as GnuPG)
– TrueCrypt (Free version)
Door-To-Door-Geek:
Q: Is SATA going to be the standard drives connector for any length of time?
A: SATA will be the connector that is going to survive, is the most robust connector
There is another connector “ZIF ribbon cable” (PATA connector – Parallel ATA)
They don’t last very long, allow probably 20 connections, ZIF to USB connector is hard to find
Ribbon cables is better to buy new ones instead of cutting them
Blaine:
Q: Which store controller chip is more reliable (Intel, JMicron, Oxford)
A: Intel chip is one of the most robust and reliable
Scott likes “High Point” controllers with built-in processor, they also sell IDE/SATA controllers
PCI controllers still use your CPU
Blaine:
Q: Has Scott found any drive mounting orientation to be better (Vertical, Horizontal) ?
A: There is no better orientation, physically the drives adapt to the orientation and angle
If a drive is changed from one orientation to another, little fragments that come off the platter during spinning, sometimes may affect the performance of the drive and may get it stuck.
Blaine:
Q: Has Scott found any external enclosures to have better built quality than others? Which are the more reliable brands?
A: All depends on the chip they are going to use
Vantec & Maxtor drives have higher quality
Data Recovery Classes
Data Recovery Forensics Course (SEC606)
Notes by Jorge Hernandez of 123ComputerRepair.com
