Help Me Choose: Hard Drive
Primary storage, also referred to as your hard drive, is a critical component of your laptop. Dell recognizes not everyone has the same requirements and therefore offers a choice in the type of primary storage to best fit their unique needs. Dell offers the following types of primary storage products on Vostro™ laptops:
5400 rpm Hard Drives — are the standard in mobile storage.
7200 rpm Hard Drives with Free Fall Sensors — Dell Vostro, Latitude™ and Precision™ Mobile 7200 rpm hard drives have free fall sensors on the drives that can sense if a system is falling and “park” the heads in a safe position to help protect the drive from failure and potential data loss. By having this technology in the hard drive instead of the motherboard, these Dell drives can detect and react quickly to protect your data.
7200 rpm Full Disk Encrypted (FDE) Hard Drives — Data loss is always a concern. Sensitive data such as customer information, financial records and critical business plans can be better protected by encrypting the data on your hard drive. We recommend using a hardware-based encryption solution, like a full disk encryption hard drive (FDE), to avoid a negative impact on the performance of your system. On FDE drives even the password is encrypted, so your data is safe whether the drive is in the system or on its own when stolen. FDE drives are easy to use and deploy with a quick and secure erase for HDD disposal or reuse.
Solid State Drives (SSD) — are the latest revolution in notebook storage. Dell SSDs provide exceptional system performance and added durability and reliability unattainable by standard hard drives. SSDs are virtually silent, put off less heat and are lighter than standard hard drives, creating a better experience for the mobile user. SSDs are available in selected Vostro notebooks.
5400 rpm Hard Drives — are the standard in mobile storage.
7200 rpm Hard Drives with Free Fall Sensors — Dell Vostro, Latitude™ and Precision™ Mobile 7200 rpm hard drives have free fall sensors on the drives that can sense if a system is falling and “park” the heads in a safe position to help protect the drive from failure and potential data loss. By having this technology in the hard drive instead of the motherboard, these Dell drives can detect and react quickly to protect your data.
7200 rpm Full Disk Encrypted (FDE) Hard Drives — Data loss is always a concern. Sensitive data such as customer information, financial records and critical business plans can be better protected by encrypting the data on your hard drive. We recommend using a hardware-based encryption solution, like a full disk encryption hard drive (FDE), to avoid a negative impact on the performance of your system. On FDE drives even the password is encrypted, so your data is safe whether the drive is in the system or on its own when stolen. FDE drives are easy to use and deploy with a quick and secure erase for HDD disposal or reuse.
Solid State Drives (SSD) — are the latest revolution in notebook storage. Dell SSDs provide exceptional system performance and added durability and reliability unattainable by standard hard drives. SSDs are virtually silent, put off less heat and are lighter than standard hard drives, creating a better experience for the mobile user. SSDs are available in selected Vostro notebooks.
The following factors should be taken into account when deciding what type of storage option will best meet your needs.
- Capacity requirements. More gigabytes (GB) mean more capacity. Presentations, videos, spreadsheets and photos take up much more space than word processing documents and emails and will require a hard drive with more capacity.
- The importance of the data. Data loss is always a concern. Sensitive data such as customer information, financial records and critical business plans can be better protected by encryption. We recommend using a hardware-based encryption solution, like a full disk encryption hard drive (FDE), to avoid a negative impact on the performance of your system.
- Performance. System performance and boot time are influenced by the type of storage you select. For hard drives, the speed of the drive, measured in revolutions per minute (rpm) indicates the performance of the drive. Generally speaking, a higher rpm means higher performance.
Solid state drives have no moving parts, so their speed is not measured in rpm. Rather, solid state drives rely on flash memory to enhance performance. Flash memory can enhance drive performance by allowing data access without waiting for the drive to spin up. This can provide advantages in boot time as well as application launches. Solid state drives provide better overall performance than standard hard drives. Durability. Most hard drives have moving parts, making them vulnerable to certain impacts, vibrations and other movement that can lead to drive failure and potentially data loss. Solid state drives, shock-mounted hard drives and free-fall sensor drives can all help reduce the risk of failure. SSDs have no moving parts, which reduces the potential for damage or failure and provides the peace of mind that your data is protected. SSDs are the most durable, reliable choice for storage.
Overview
The system you are configuring may or may not include all of the options listed here.
| If you need... | Choose... |
| Enough capacity for extremely demanding applications such as financial modeling, graphic design or video editing | 1TB* 7200 rpm Hard Drive |
| Enough storage and performance for demanding applications and large files such as photos, music or videos | 500GB* or 750GB* 7200 rpm Hard Drive |
| Enough storage for typical business applications and files | 250GB* 7200 rpm Hard Drive |
| Data encryption and storage in highly mobile laptop which subjects to a wide range of temperatures, altitudes, vibration or moisture | 128GB* to 256GB* Solid State Drive |
| Data protection from hardware or software failure | Dell DataSafe storage options in 250GB* to 1.5TB* |
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