thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Commonly confused · IT Support & Hardware

HDD vs SATA SSD vs NVMe SSD: What's the Difference?

An HDD stores data on spinning magnetic platters read by a moving head, giving cheap capacity but slow access. A SATA SSD uses flash memory with no moving parts but is capped by the SATA interface. An NVMe SSD uses flash over PCIe lanes, delivering several times the speed of SATA.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Full definition
vs

SATA SSD

vs

NVMe SSD

Hard Disk DriveSATA SSDNVMe SSD
Storage mediumMagnetic spinning plattersNAND flashNAND flash
InterfaceSATA (or SAS)SATA III (6 Gbps)PCIe (x4 lanes typical)
Typical sequential speedAbout 80-250 MB/sUp to about 550 MB/sAbout 3,500-14,000 MB/s depending on PCIe generation
Form factors3.5 inch and 2.5 inch2.5 inch, M.2 (SATA keyed), mSATAM.2 (M key), U.2, add-in card
Moving partsYes; vulnerable to shockNoNo
Cost per GBLowestModerateModerate to high
Failure symptomsClicking, grinding, slow performanceRead-only mode, sudden failureRead-only mode, sudden failure, overheating
Remember it

Spinning, SATA-limited, or PCIe-fast: same job, three speeds.

Exam tip

A+ questions test that an M.2 slot can carry SATA or NVMe, so a drive may not work in every M.2 slot. Also know HDD speed is quoted in RPM (5,400, 7,200, 10,000, 15,000).

Tested on

More IT Support & Hardware look-alikes