What is the Difference Between Flash Memory and a Hard Drive?
There are significant differences between a standard hard drive and flash memory. A hard drive is a fairly heavy palm-sized device composed of several spinning platters and a roving head that reads data that has been magnetically imprinted on the platters. Flash memory refers to a memory chip about the size of a postage stamp, or smaller. The memory chip is solid-state, or has no moving parts and is therefore less likely to fail. It is virtually weightless, retains data without a power supply, is faster than a hard drive, does not generate significant heat, and requires little power. This is excellent news for extending the life of laptop batteries, reducing their weight, and eliminating fan noise from systems. Flash memory is used in flash drives and derives its name from the electronic process of flashing a ‘cell’ within the memory chip in order to clear or change the data stored. Certain types of flash drives are also called memory sticks, or flash cards, and are sold in a variety o
There are significant differences between a standard hard drive and flash memory. A hard drive is a fairly heavy palm-sized device composed of several spinning platters and a roving head that reads data that has been magnetically imprinted on the platters. Flash memory refers to a memory chip about the size of a postage stamp, or smaller. The memory chip is solid-state, or has no moving parts and is therefore less likely to fail. It is virtually weightless, retains data without a power supply, is faster than a hard drive, does not generate significant heat, and requires little power. This is excellent news for extending the life of laptop batteries, reducing their weight, and eliminating fan noise from systems. Flash memory is used in flash drives and derives its name from the electronic process of flashing a ‘cell?within the memory chip in order to clear or change the data stored. Certain types of flash drives are also called memory sticks, or flash cards, and are sold in a variety of
Flash memory is non-volatile computer memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It is a technology that is primarily used in memory cards and USB flash drives for general storage and transfer of data between computers and other digital products. It is a specific type of EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) that is erased and programmed in large blocks; in early flash the entire chip had to be erased at once.
Flash memory is a static memory chip that is ‘flashed’ to be written. a hard drive is a platter that is magnetized to be written. Flash memory is completely shock resistant (withing limits of physically cracking the device) A hard drive does not like too much vibration. hard drives are also slower, due to the physical nature of retrieval. the head has to actually move along the platter to read the information. In a flash chip, there is no physical movement, just electrons. hard drives are much better now than what they used to be on these fronts, and they are much cheaper per storage space. the price factor is what is really keeping the HD alive.
