Installing windows 10 on a hybrid drive. Hybrid hard drives, is it worth buying? Speed ​​parameters or HDD and SSD vs SSHD

Read about what is a hybrid HDD and what they are. Features of data recovery from SSHD. hybrid hard disks or SSHD (eng. Solid-State Hybrid Drives or solid-state hybrid drives) are not yet very common devices, but they are gradually gaining popularity. Combining the properties of traditional magnetic hard drives and the well-known properties of solid state drives with their extremely high allowable speed, hybrid hard drives promise to offer the best of both worlds.

At least theoretically. Should I buy a hybrid hard drive, what are its advantages, and what to do if SSHD fails? To find out, read our comprehensive review.

First, identify the problem. Is your HDD drive still in working order, or has it failed due to mechanical damage? If it fails due to mechanical damage, you can take the HDD drive (with or without SSD parts) to a repair shop and ask them to save the information from this drive to another medium. You can also use signature-based data recovery technology (which is available in tools like Hetman Partition Recovery) to scan the SSD part at a low level in order to recover files that might be cached on it. But due to the nature of the hybrid media, your chances of recovering anything other than the group system files, are very small.

If your hard drive is still operational and you have identified data loss, simply treat your hybrid system as you would a normal hard drive. Download the appropriate data recovery tool and recover your data as if you were using a normal hard drive. In most cases, it will be better if you disable the SSD part in your computer's BIOS; but this is optional.

But what if you have SSHD from one device? Your actions should be the same, with some exceptions. If the SSD part fails (for example, due to wear and tear due to a large number of overwrites), you are better off replacing the SSHD drive completely, or continue using it, but with the SSD part disabled and Smart Response Technology deactivated. You will have access to all data, albeit at a slower speed. Do not use an SSHD drive with a worn out SSD part in hybrid mode! If you do this, you risk data corruption or loss of information written to the disc. If the SSD part fails, unplug it.

Finally, what if you have a real SSHD drive, with no visible separate SSD and HDD partitions, and the SSD part has failed? In this case, you can still use a data recovery tool like Hetman Partition Recovery to recover files from such a drive. In some cases, you will even be able to read the files normally without having to use a data recovery tool. However, you should not continue to use such a device, as you will probably have corrupted files sooner or later.

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Many have already heard about the new hybrid hard drives, but most will wonder if they are worth buying? Or maybe instead of hybrids it is better to take SSD drive a small volume (or a large one, there is a lot of money), install a system on it, and install a regular hard drive for data? Now I will try to shed light on this issue.

After my laptop fell off the table, the hard drive had to be replaced. The laptop has space for a separate SSD drive No, so only one device can be plugged in there. I settled on a 1TB Seagate ST1000LM014-1EJ164 hybrid hard drive and about 8GB SSD cache. This is certainly not as much as we would like, but so much is better than nothing at all. Cost such hybrid drive me almost 7000 rubles.

The cache of the hybrid disk is completely hardware-based and there are no programs to configure and optimize it. Programs and files that are frequently used, including system ones, are cached.

Benefits of a hybrid hard drive

I list the advantages that I was able to identify when using a hybrid from Seagate:

  • when using \”quick start\” windows system loads 25-30 percent faster,
  • applications that we often use run several times faster,
  • copying files up to 500 MB, even within different logical drives, occurs at a high speed, approximately 200-300 MB / s (I think the file is first copied to the cache, and then transferred to the hard drive during idle time),
  • the whole machine runs faster and there are fewer bottlenecks.

Cons of a hybrid drive

We note some disadvantages, but they are not critical:

  • the cost is almost 2 times more than usual hard drive,
  • low amount of SSD cache (in general, there are all sorts of disks, they have both 32 and 64 GB, but the cost is appropriate).

Conclusion, is it worth buying?

Let's move on to the most important thing, and here I have two answers, and they depend on your computer operating conditions.

I think it's worth buying them only for laptops when there is no way to put a second separate drive in it. If you have a desktop computer, and there is space in it (usually it always is), then it would be best to take a separate SSD drive, from 64 GB to 128 GB (this is if you plan to keep only the system on it). And if finances allow, then you can fork out for a 1-2 TB SDD, I think it will be great.

Why choose a hybrid hard drive over an SSD
A hybrid hard drive combines the performance of a solid state drive with the storage capacity of a mechanical drive. They are larger than an SSD and faster than a simple hard drive.
It is sometimes referred to as a Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD). The drive automatically caches data to solid-state storage for faster file access.
Solid state drives are much faster than mechanical drives. Prices have dropped noticeably, so it makes sense to upgrade to an SSD. But even cheaper drives are less capacious. A 1GB solid state drive costs $0.58, while a gigabyte of a mechanical drive costs $0.06. Affordably priced solid state drive is 256 GB maximum, while a mechanical drive is 2 or 3 TB. Mechanical disks are slow, but have huge capacity at an extremely low cost per gigabyte.
To take advantage of both types of drives, many people equip their computers with a solid-state drive and a mechanical drive at the same time. The solid state drive is used for system files and programs that need speed. A large mechanical disk is used for long-term storage of files that do not need very fast access, such as movie collections. This requires you to install both discs in your computer and choose which programs and files to put on each disc. You have to move files to another drive yourself. Transferring the program to another drive means deleting it and reinstalling it in another location.
A hybrid disk contains a magnetic disk and a solid state drive with the volume of a small solid state disk. This disk appears to the operating system as a single disk. You are not responsible for which files go to the mechanical drive and which go to the solid state drive. The drive firmware determines what gets on the SSD and what doesn't.
The SSD part of the drive serves as a "cache" - files that are accessed frequently - files operating system and programs, the firmware stores in the SSD drive. The cache is stored in non-volatile solid-state memory, surviving the reboot and thereby speeding up the boot procedure.
Access to system and program files produced at the speed of a solid state disk, while providing the capacity of a magnetic disk for other files. The drive handles this on its own - you don't have to move files back and forth or decide what to put where.
Most hybrid drives have a small SSD drive capacity. Some of them have 1 TB of mechanical capacity and only 8 GB of semiconductor memory. 8 GB is enough to store system files and programs, but this amount is not comparable with 128 or 256 GB that can accommodate all system and program files.
Apple's Fusion Drive is also hybrid, with 1TB to 3TB of magnetic storage along with 128GB of solid-state storage.
Hybrid drives are cheaper than solid state drives because they contain less solid state memory. A 2TB hybrid drive with 8GB of cache is more expensive than a conventional 2TB mechanical drive, but cheaper than a 256GB SSD, which has even less free space.
The big advantage is that the hybrid drive is a single physical drive. If your laptop only has room for one drive, but you need the speed of an SSD and the capacity of a mechanical drive, then a hybrid drive is the way to go.
It's all about price and capacity. If magnetic and solid state drives were the same in cost, then hybrid drives would not be needed at all. Solid state drives would be better in every way.
The hybrid drive is slow on first use. When it is just starting to work, caching has not yet been performed, which means that the disk will be as slow as a classic magnetic one. As you use the drive will figure out which files to cache, and the speed will gradually increase.
It is up to you to choose which drive to use, but our team prefers a hybrid drive with at least 32GB solid state memory.