Tour of Disks Old and New

When someone says “disk,” most people imagine a hard drive or maybe a DVD from their childhood game collection.
But the world of storage is way bigger, quirkier, and more specialized than that.
From blisteringly fast SSDs to old-school tape drives still humming away in data centers — each type has its own quirks, strengths, and “why on earth would anyone use that?” moments.

Let’s take a quick walk through them.

1. HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

What it is: The spinning platters you’ve probably heard whirring inside your old PC.
Speed: Moderate — think seconds, not milliseconds.
Usage: Desktops, budget laptops, big cheap data storage.
Pros:

• Cheap per gigabyte.
• Great for storing large amounts of data that you don’t need instantly.
  Cons:
• Slower than SSDs.
• Moving parts mean they can fail if dropped.

💡 Fun fact: Some cloud providers still use HDDs for “cold storage” where speed isn’t a priority.

2. SSD (Solid State Drive)

What it is: A bunch of flash memory chips that remember your data even when the power’s off.
Speed: Very fast — milliseconds or less.
Usage: Laptops, gaming rigs, servers where performance matters.
Pros:

• Fast boot times, quick file loads.
• No moving parts → more durable.
  Cons:
• More expensive per gigabyte than HDD.
• Performance can slow down after heavy use (unless managed well).

💡 Fun fact: If you’ve ever upgraded from HDD to SSD, you know it’s like giving your PC a triple espresso.

3. LTO (Linear Tape-Open)

What it is: Magnetic tape in a cartridge — yes, tape is still a thing.
Speed: Slow to access (have to wind the tape), but fast sequential writes.
Usage: Long-term backups for enterprises, archives for movies, scientific data.
Pros:

• Extremely cheap per terabyte.
• Can last decades if stored right.
  Cons:
• Not random-access — you can’t just “jump” to a file instantly.
• Requires specialized drives.

💡 Fun fact: Hollywood studios back up movies on LTO tapes because hard drives can fail in just a few years.

4. Tape (non-LTO old school)

What it is: The classic reel-to-reel or cassette-style storage from the early computing days.
Speed: Painfully slow by modern standards.
Usage: Pretty much only for archival or historical curiosity.
Pros:

• It worked for decades and was the backbone of early computing.
  Cons:
• Obsolete for most real-world use.

5. BD-R (Blu-ray Disc Recordable)

What it is: A Blu-ray disc you can write to once.
Speed: Optical — not lightning fast.
Usage: Archiving, storing media, backups.
Pros:

• Relatively stable for long-term storage if kept properly.
• Cheap for small archival jobs.
  Cons:
• Can’t rewrite — once it’s full, it’s full.

💡 Fun fact: Some people still use BD-Rs to store wedding videos or family photos for safekeeping.

6. BD-RE (Blu-ray Disc Rewritable)

What it is: A Blu-ray you can write, erase, and rewrite.
Speed: Same as BD-R.
Usage: Reusable storage for projects, small-scale backups.
Pros:

• Reusable.
• Good for test backups or moving large files physically.
  Cons:
• Limited rewrite cycles.
• Optical drives are rare these days.

Which One Should You Use?

• Need speed? SSD.
• Need space on a budget? HDD.
• Need to store it for decades and don’t mind slow access? LTO tape.
• Need something you can physically hand over? BD-R or BD-RE.

If you’re curious about how these disks stack up in real-world prices, I keep a small side project that tracks them here: Disk Prices.

Final Thought

Storage is like transportation.
You wouldn’t use a cargo ship to deliver a pizza, and you wouldn’t use a sports car to move 100 tons of steel.
Each medium exists for a reason — the trick is knowing which “vehicle” to use for your data.