wonder about HDD vs SATA drives

An HDD is a drive; SATA is a type of connection.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/what-is-sata/

5-6 years is very good service in my opinion. I replace HDDs after 5 years. I've had some 20 year old HDDs that still worked just fine. But as cheap as they are, why take the risk? After max 5 years they get shredded now.

Hi,

If you mean SATA as SSD, I think semiconductor SSD is life longer than mechanic HDD.

SSD drives come in many styles for use in different enclosures. Some SSD drives have a SATA interface, and can be used where a rotating magnetic drive (also with a SATA interface) used to be.

Some go on a PCIe card, so they have a different interface. May be called M2 or NVMe or PCIe.

bikeman5 wrote:

Do SATA drives last longer than HDD drives?

What is the average life of a SATA drive

i was only getting 5 to 6 years out of HDD drives and my SATA is getting close to 6 years old now.

thank you,

bikeman5

Drives can fail at anytime...

SATA hard drives are actually rotary hard drives with spinning platters and a moving needle that writes data to consecutive sectors on each platter.

bikeman5 wrote:

i am sort of confused, my mid 2012 has the drive of picture posted above. it is mechanical, im guessing it was the mid 2012 Retina display that got rid of the mechanical drives then all 2013's and up.

thanks for your info a big help

i will hit question solved just waiting to here your reply of this message. on the mid 2012's

That's right the mid -2012 was mechanical HDD

the RETINA mid- 2012 model was the transition to SSD. All retina models are SSD...

How many Macs are you backing up with your Time capsule?

The Time Capsule is an older combination Router and backup device. if its drive is dying, it may be time to re-think your Network setup, as there are better solutions available in both Routers and Backup drives/devices.

I used to have a Time Capsule style airport Router, but I forgot to notice it had (and needed) an air intake at its base. I kept it under the bed, and it ate too may dust bunnies, overheated and died.

When I went to look at replacements, Apple had decided to get out of the Router business, and the high-performance Wi-Fi-6 solutions available were remarkably good, but the best were physically very large. Most Wi-Fi-6 Routers also included a USB port where a backup drive could be connected.

SATA is not out of date, and neither is the rotating magnetic drive. Rotating magnetic drives can not overwhelm a SATA connection, because their data speed is limited by how fast the data bits are spinning under the read head, and that is limited by how fast the magnetic disk platters are spinning.

For Time machine backups drives, there is no speed benefit to using a faster SSD drive over a cheaper Rotating magnetic drive. Time machine works at low priority in the background, and its speed requirements are therefore very modest.

bikeman5 wrote:

thanks i understand much better now

SSD solid state drive are digital is still a better option if available because of no moving parts? i know they can fail but because of no moving parts can a SSD typically last longer.

is the MacBook Pro 2021 m1 max SSD? or do they still have mechanical drive.

thanks?

Mac notebook computers have not used mechanical HDD since mid-2012.

So your new SoC m1 would be considered 'SSD' soldered to the board, and non- removable:

more reliable, yes but not without it's faults

ref: https://9to5mac.com/2022/02/11/apple-flash-storage-contamination/