Computer Hard Drive Storage
- WD - easystore 5TB External USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black. Model: WDBAJP0050BBK-WESN.
- When shopping for an internal hard drive, there are several things you need to consider, including storage type, capacity, speed, and other features. Internal hard drives are divided into three distinct categories: the traditional magnetic storage hard disk drive (HDD), the solid-state drive (SSD) and the hybrid drive.
If you are wondering about the type of Hard Drive installed on your computer, you will find below three different methods to Check if Hard Drive is SSD or HDD in Windows 10.
Check If Computer Has SSD or HDD Type Storage
The type of Hard Drive or the internal storage drive installed on a computer can either be HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) type.
While, traditional HDD (Hard Disk Drive) type storage is cheaper to buy, it is much slower compared to SSD (Solid State Drive) type storage.
In addition to providing significantly faster data transfer and retrieval rates, SSDs are shock resistant and consume much less power, compared to HDDs.
External Computer Hard Drive Storage
Since only small amounts of data from hard disk does need to be loaded into the system memory at one time, computers typically have much more hard disk space than memory. For example, a 2012 computer may come with a 2 TB hard drive, and only 16 GB of RAM.
With this understanding, let us go ahead and take a look at different methods to check if the Hard Drive Type installed on a computer is SSD or HDD.
1. Find if Computer has SSD or HDD Using Defragmenter
The easiest way to check the type of Hard Drive or storage installed on a computer is to open the Defragmenter or Optimize Drives utility.
1. Right-click on Start button and click on Run.
2. In Run Command window, type dfrgui and click on OK.
3. On the next screen, the type of Hard Drive will be listed under Media Type Column.
As you can see from above image, this computer has SSD type storage.
2. Find If Computer has SSD or HDD Using PowerShell
Another quick way to check the type of Hard Disk installed on a computer is by using PowerShell utility, as available in recent versions of Windows 10.
1. Right-click on Start button and click on PowerShell (Admin).
2. On PowerShell screen, type Get-PhysicalDisk and press the Enter key on the keyboard of your computer.
3. Once the Command is Executed, it will list the Hard Disk type on your computer under Media Type Column (see above image).
3. Find if Computer has SSD or HDD Using System Info
You can find detailed information about Hard Disk, RAM, Processor and other hardware installed on your computer by going to System Information screen.
1. Right-click on Start button and click on Run.
2. In Run Command window, type msinfo32 and click on OK.
3. On the next screen, navigate to Components > Storage > Disks in the left-pane. In the right-pane, you will find detailed information about the Hard Disk installed on your computer.
In above case, the entry next to Media Type is listed as Fixed Hard Disk, which does not clearly specify whether it is SSD or HDD type.
However, the first two methods as provided above do confirm that the computer has SSD type storage.
Answer: Memory and disk space are two of the most widely-confused terms in the computing world. To understand how your computer works, you must first know the difference between memory and disk space.
The hard disk, sometimes called the 'hard drive' (which is actually the mechanism that holds the hard disk), is a spindle of magnetic discs that can hold several gigabytes of data. Therefore, disk space refers to how much space you have available on your hard disk for storing files. When you save a document or install a new program, it gets stored on your hard disk. The more files you download, install, or save on your hard disk, the more full it becomes.
Check Disk Space Windows 10
Memory, on the other hand, is not the same as disk space! Memory refers to the random access memory (RAM) inside your computer. RAM consists of small chips also known as memory modules. Your computer uses memory (RAM) to store actively running programs on the computer, including the operating system. For example, the operating system's interface and other processes get loaded into memory when the computer boots up. When you open a program like Microsoft Word, it gets loaded into the computer's memory as well. When you quit the program, the memory is freed up for use by other programs.
RAM can be accessed hundreds of times times faster than a hard drive, which is why active programs are loaded into RAM. Since only small amounts of data from hard disk does need to be loaded into the system memory at one time, computers typically have much more hard disk space than memory. For example, a 2012 computer may come with a 2 TB hard drive, and only 16 GB of RAM.
If your computer informs you that you don't have enough disk space to install a program, you will need delete files from your hard disk that you don't need or buy an additional hard drive. If your computer says there is not enough memory to run a certain program, you will need to upgrade your memory by buying more RAM. Knowing the difference between these two computer components can save you both time and money.