Hybrid hard drives (SSHD) and data recovery. Hybrid hard drives: are they worth buying? How to install the system on a hybrid hard drive

Why choose a hybrid hard drive over an SSD
A hybrid hard drive combines the performance of a solid-state drive with the capacity of a mechanical drive. They are larger than SSDs and faster than a simple hard drive.
It is sometimes referred to as a solid-state hybrid drive (SSHD). The drive automatically caches data into 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. 1 GB of solid state drive costs $0.58, and 1 GB of mechanical drive costs $0.06. An affordable solid-state drive has a maximum capacity of 256 GB, while a mechanical drive has a capacity of 2 or 3 TB. Mechanical drives are slow, but have enormous capacity at an extremely low cost per gigabyte.
To take advantage of both types of drives, many people equip their computers with both solid-state and mechanical drives. 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 require particularly quick access, such as a collection of films. This requires installing both drives into the computer and choosing which programs and files to put on each drive. You have to move files to another drive yourself. Moving a program to another disk means deleting it and reinstalling it in another location.
A hybrid drive consists of a magnetic disk and a solid-state drive with the volume of a small solid-state drive. 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 to the solid state. The drive's firmware determines what makes it onto the solid-state drive and what doesn't.
The SSD part of the disk serves as a “cache” - files that are often accessed - files of the operating system and programs, the firmware is stored in the SSD drive. The cache is stored in non-volatile semiconductor solid-state memory, surviving reboots and thereby speeding up the boot procedure.
System and program files are accessed at the speed of a solid-state drive, while providing magnetic disk capacity for other files. The drive handles this on its own—you don't have to move files back and forth or decide what goes where.
Most hybrid drives have a small SSD storage capacity. Some of them have 1 TB of mechanical capacity and only 8 GB of semiconductor memory. 8 GB is enough to store system and program files, but this volume is not comparable to 128 or 256 GB, which can accommodate all system and program files.
Apple's Fusion Drive is also a hybrid and is equipped with a magnetic capacity of 1 to 3 TB along with 128 GB of solid-state memory.
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 regular 2TB mechanical drive, but cheaper than a 256GB SSD, which has even less free space.
A major 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 a solid-state drive and the capacity of a mechanical drive, then a hybrid drive is the best solution.
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.
Hybrid drive is slow when first used. When it first starts working, caching has not yet been done, which means that the disk will be just as slow as a classic magnetic one. As you use it, the drive will learn which files to cache and speed will gradually increase.
It’s up to you to choose which drive to use, but our team prefers a hybrid drive with at least 32GB of solid-state memory.

Hello admin! I want to buy a 1-2 TB hard drive, one computer geek I know advised me to buy an SSHD drive (a hybrid of a hard drive and an SSD solid-state drive), since it works noticeably faster than a regular HDD, but is not as expensive as an SSD. What can you say about such discs?

Hello friends! Very good question. Yes, the SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive) hybrid hard drive works 30% faster than a conventional hard drive, and is about the same amount more expensive. If a regular 1 TB hard drive costs 4,000 rubles, then an SSHD can be bought for 5,400 rubles. Such disks are produced both for regular computers and for laptops.

Firstly, What is a hybrid hard drive?

The technology for the production of hard drives (the only component of a computer that has moving mechanical parts) has long been at a dead end and it is almost impossible to increase the performance of a hard drive through production, which is proven by the appearance on the market of solid-state drives SSDs and hybrid hard drives SSHD. But if a solid-state drive is a completely non-mechanical storage device based on memory chips, then a hybrid hard drive is, first of all, a regular hard drive with an MLC fast flash memory card (8 GB capacity) soldered onto it, used in the production of solid-state drives. that is, it turns out that SSHD is a hybrid of a regular hard drive and an SSD..

Secondly, why is an SSHD hybrid hard drive faster than a regular hard drive?

Seagate SSHD hybrid drives use self-learning technology - Seagate Adaptive Memory, which examines the operating system installed on the disk from the first seconds of operation, as a result, the most frequently used programs and files are copied to the flash memory of the SSHD disk, such files include, first of all, the elements involved in loading the operating system, which means that Windows will be installed from the second or third time boot faster, because Windows will be loaded from flash memory. For example, on my computer, loading Windows 8.1 installed on a regular HDD takes 35-40 seconds, on an SSHD - 20 seconds, on a regular SSD - 15 seconds. The same applies to applications you constantly use; they will launch a little faster. Let’s take, for example, a modern game that requires computer resources and that you constantly play; according to my observations, such a game will load three times faster than on a regular HDD.

Hybrid SSHD hard drive is the golden mean

In general, the ideal configuration of drives in the system unit of an ordinary home user looks like this: buy two drives, the first is an SSD (volume 120-240 GB) for installing the operating system, and the second is a regular HDD for storing files (capacity) 2-3 TB , you need about 10,000 rubles for all this. And if you purchase one 1 TB SSHD hybrid drive, it will cost you 5,400 rubles, and a 2 TB SSHD will cost you 7,000 rubles. Of course, everything won’t fly (as is the case with an SSD), but maybe you don’t need such speeds. A hybrid SSHD drive is coming out, this is the golden mean - for little money you get good performance and a large amount of disk space.

Which SSHD to buy

Until recently, SSHD hybrid drives were produced by the company that developed them - Seagate. In total, there are now three Seagate Desktop SSHD models on the market with capacities of 1, 2, 4 TB.

Seagate Desktop SSHD ST1000DX001 1 TB

Seagate Desktop SSHD ST2000DX001 2 TB

Seagate Desktop SSHD ST4000DX001 4 TB

Also, recently Western Digital began to produce SSHD, but they are few on the market, and the model that I came across - WD Blue SSHD, WD40E31X with a capacity of 4 TB, was no different in speed characteristics from the similar model Seagate ST4000DX001 4 TB.

In today’s article, I suggest you consider the Seagate Desktop SSHD ST2000DX001 2 TB model and here’s why. If we take the Seagate Desktop SSHD 1 TB model, then 1 TB of disk space is no longer enough for a modern computer user. If we take the Seagate Desktop SSHD 4 TB model, then on the contrary, not everyone needs a large volume of 4 TB of disk space, and its price is quite high (11,500 rubles), and what is also important is the spindle speed of this drive: 5900 rpm, that is, it is slightly slower than other SSHDs with a capacity of 1 and 2 TB (spindle speed 7200 rpm) and this will certainly affect the performance of the operating system.

So, I persuaded you and we have a model in front of us Seagate Desktop SSHD ST2000DX001 2 TB

Upon closer inspection, the Seagate Desktop SSHD ST2000DX001 2 TB hybrid drive turned out to be an ordinary hard drive, only it says SSHD on it.

Disk space - 2 TB

SSD buffer capacity - 8 GB

Cache memory size - 64 MB

Spindle speed - 7200 rpm

On the back of the drive we see a special Adaptive Memory printed circuit board, with 8 GB of fast MLC memory and a “hybrid” controller soldered on.

It’s very easy to install the drive into the system unit.

SMART hard drive in the CrystalDiskInfo and Victoria program.

The hybrid drive is new and has been used for 0 hours.

Read and write tests

To make sure that our disk is really good, let's perform several tests on reading and writing using special programs: CrystalDiskMark 2.0, ATTO Disk Benchmark and SiSoftware Sandra. These utilities will sequentially read and write information to our hybrid disk in small blocks, then show us the result.

CrystalDiskMark 2.0

The simplest and most frequently used program in this regard, you can download it on my Yandex.Disk

The utility is very simple, select only the desired drive letter (in our case E:)

And click AII, the SSHD disk performance test will begin.

1. Test of sequential reading and writing of large blocks of data;

2. Test of random reading and writing in 512 KB blocks;

3. Test of random reading and writing in 4 KB blocks;

I can say that the result is very worthy, especially the recording in 512 KB and 4 KB blocks.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Let's test the hybrid disk with another program - ATTO Disk Benchmark.

Select the drive letter of the SSHD hybrid drive and click Start.

Result.

SiSoftware Sandra

A global program capable of diagnosing all computer components and having its own official rating.

As a result, our disk is ahead of 94% of the results. Excellent performance.

Disadvantages of SSHD

In my opinion, the only disadvantage of SSHD is the small amount of built-in flash memory 8 GB, it would be great if its size increased to 32 GB, then more running programs would be placed in the solid state cache and the performance of Windows would be exactly the same as if it was installed on the SSD.

Many people have already heard about the new hybrid hard drives, but most are wondering if they are worth buying? Or maybe, instead of hybrids, it’s better to take a small SSD drive (or a large one, there’s a lot of money), install the 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. There is no space in the laptop for a separate SSD drive, so you can only plug one device into it. I settled on a Seagate ST1000LM014-1EJ164 hybrid hard drive with a capacity of 1 TB, and an SSD cache of approximately 8 GB. This is certainly not as much as we would like, but it’s better than nothing at all. This hybrid drive cost me almost 7,000 rubles.

The hybrid disk cache is entirely hardware and there are no programs to configure or optimize it. Programs and files that are frequently used, including system files, are cached.

Pros 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, the system loads 25-30 percent faster,
applications that we often use launch several times faster,
copying files up to 500 MB, even within different logical drives, occurs at high speed, equal to approximately 200-300 MB/sec (I think the file is first copied to the cache, and then transferred to the hard drive during idle time),
the whole machine works faster and there are fewer bottlenecks.

Cons of a hybrid drive

Let us note some disadvantages, but they are not critical:

the cost is almost 2 times more than a regular hard drive,
low SSD cache volume (in general, there are all sorts of disks, they have 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 operating conditions for the computer.

I think it’s worth buying them only for laptops when it is not possible to install a second separate drive in it. If you have a desktop computer and there is space in it (usually there is always some), then it would be best to take a separate SSD drive with a capacity of 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.

Read about what a hybrid hard drive is and what they are. Features of data recovery from SSHD. Hybrid hard drives or SSHD (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 speed capabilities, hybrid hard drives promise to offer the best of both worlds.

At least in theory. Is it worth buying a hybrid hard drive, what are its advantages, and what to do if the 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 (available in tools like Hetman Partition Recovery) to scan the SSD part at a low level in order to recover files that may be cached on it. But due to the nature of hybrid storage media, your chances of recovering anything other than a group of system files are very slim.

If your hard drive is still operational and you determine data loss, simply treat your hybrid system as you would a regular hard drive. Download the appropriate data recovery tool and recover your data as if you were using a regular hard drive. In most cases, it will be better if you disable the SSD part in your computer's BIOS; but this is not necessary.

But what if you have an SSHD from one device? Your actions should be the same, with some exceptions. If the SSD part has failed (for example, due to wear and tear due to a large number of rewrites), you are better off replacing the SSHD drive completely, or continuing to use it, but with the SSD part disabled and Smart Response Technology deactivated. You will have access to all your 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 damaging data or losing information written to the disk. If the SSD part fails, disconnect it.

Finally, what if you have a real SSHD drive, without any visible separate SSD and HDD partitions, and the SSD part fails? In this case, to recover files from such a drive, you can still use a data recovery tool like Hetman Partition Recovery. 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 end up with damaged files sooner or later.

Did this help you become? Leave your comments.