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I also thought that about SSDs. Then I stumbled upon this on the Apple store when configuring your disk options: "Your MacBook Pro comes standard with a 5400-r

I also thought that about SSDs. Then I stumbled upon this on the Apple store when configuring your disk options: "Your MacBook Pro comes standard with a 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive. Or you can choose a solid-state drive that offers enhanced durability." So, why do they say that? What SSD do they built in? Is that a particular special SSD with enhanced durability? Even more enhanced than regular harddisks (like they are claiming)?

fredoliveira 16y ago
There is indeed no such thing. What they can always say is that since there are no moving parts in an SSD drive, you don't have to fear screwing up your data by moving your laptop around while working. In that sense and in the hands of a careless laptop user, it would indeed be more reliable. What I describe above is just an excuse they can (and probably) use. The reality is that it's just marketing text to up-sell you something. I bet it works in many cases.
- krolley 16y ago
  Surprising, though, that they use "enhanced durability" to upsell the hard disk and not "increased performance".
Hoff 16y ago
Reading that statement in English and not in my native Geek, that statement simply refers to the replacement of a more failure-prone device with a less failure-prone device. SSDs have long been marketed as being more durable than mechanical HDDs, and are quite often used in environments subject to sudden shock or vibration. The particular underlying marketing going all the way back to the classic "solid state" marketing and the removal of vacuum tubes (valves) from computing decades ago, and this irrespective of the acceleration sensors and other schemes intended to reduce the numbers of head crashes with HDDs. With LCDs, SD/CF/flash/downloads and now SSDs, the remaining non-solid-state devices are being removed from computing, and following the path as the Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), floppies and CD/DVD drives and HDDs. As rugged as CRTs and HDDs have become, vacuum tubes and flying heads still do not deal with shock and vibration particularly well.
sp332 16y ago
If you jostle your laptop, there's a chance that the drive heads might come into physical contact with the disk surface, gouging it and causing irreversible damage. SSD's have no moving parts and very high tolerance to shock and impact. So they are more durable in the sense that they can take more of a beating without losing your data.
colanderman 16y ago
Durability =/= reliability. SSDs are more durable (resistant to shock, etc.) because they have no moving parts. They are not necessarily more reliable (long-lived), as this article shows.

fredoliveira 16y ago

There is indeed no such thing. What they can always say is that since there are no moving parts in an SSD drive, you don't have to fear screwing up your data by moving your laptop around while working. In that sense and in the hands of a careless laptop user, it would indeed be more reliable. What I describe above is just an excuse they can (and probably) use. The reality is that it's just marketing text to up-sell you something. I bet it works in many cases.

krolley 16y ago
Surprising, though, that they use "enhanced durability" to upsell the hard disk and not "increased performance".

Hoff 16y ago

Reading that statement in English and not in my native Geek, that statement simply refers to the replacement of a more failure-prone device with a less failure-prone device. SSDs have long been marketed as being more durable than mechanical HDDs, and are quite often used in environments subject to sudden shock or vibration. The particular underlying marketing going all the way back to the classic "solid state" marketing and the removal of vacuum tubes (valves) from computing decades ago, and this irrespective of the acceleration sensors and other schemes intended to reduce the numbers of head crashes with HDDs. With LCDs, SD/CF/flash/downloads and now SSDs, the remaining non-solid-state devices are being removed from computing, and following the path as the Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), floppies and CD/DVD drives and HDDs. As rugged as CRTs and HDDs have become, vacuum tubes and flying heads still do not deal with shock and vibration particularly well.

sp332 16y ago

If you jostle your laptop, there's a chance that the drive heads might come into physical contact with the disk surface, gouging it and causing irreversible damage. SSD's have no moving parts and very high tolerance to shock and impact. So they are more durable in the sense that they can take more of a beating without losing your data.

colanderman 16y ago

Durability =/= reliability. SSDs are more durable (resistant to shock, etc.) because they have no moving parts. They are not necessarily more reliable (long-lived), as this article shows.