Which type of drive would be least susceptible to damage when dropped?

Which type of drive would be least susceptible to damage when dropped?

• A. Hard Disk Drive
• B. Solid State Drive
• C. Hybrid Drive
• D. Optical Drive

Answer: (B)

Durability under physical shock is largely determined by whether a storage device has moving parts. A solid state drive stores data in NAND flash memory with no moving components, so a drop won’t disturb a read/write mechanism or cause surface damage. Hard disk drives rely on spinning platters and a tiny, precisely positioned read/write head that hovers above the surface; a shock can cause the head to contact the surface or misalign the platters, leading to data loss. Hybrid drives include both spinning disks and flash memory, so they retain the mechanical vulnerabilities of HDDs while also offering some flash-based resilience. Optical drives require a motor to spin the disc and a movable laser assembly; a drop can misalign optics or damage the disc and mechanism. Because it has no moving parts, the solid state drive is the least susceptible to damage when dropped.

Durability under physical shock is largely determined by whether a storage device has moving parts. A solid state drive stores data in NAND flash memory with no moving components, so a drop won’t disturb a read/write mechanism or cause surface damage. Hard disk drives rely on spinning platters and a tiny, precisely positioned read/write head that hovers above the surface; a shock can cause the head to contact the surface or misalign the platters, leading to data loss. Hybrid drives include both spinning disks and flash memory, so they retain the mechanical vulnerabilities of HDDs while also offering some flash-based resilience. Optical drives require a motor to spin the disc and a movable laser assembly; a drop can misalign optics or damage the disc and mechanism. Because it has no moving parts, the solid state drive is the least susceptible to damage when dropped.