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Without given the price of both hard disks and there is no PC nearby that you can connect both hard disk to see whether it is a SSD or SATA, so is there any way to differentiate ssd hard disk and a sata hard disk based on just physical appearance?
You may assume that the label on the hard disk was being overlap with stickers and both hard disk have the same storage space size.
Jack
Posted 2012-02-21T01:14:18.493
Reputation: 487
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Check the label (naturally). Also, look at the bottom - most 2.5 inch HDDs have the bottom of the drive motor visible though a circular or part circular cut out, and the motor connected through a flexi connector to the controller board.
. An SSD is likely to have no visible controller board, and no motor.
Journeyman Geek
Posted 2012-02-21T01:14:18.493
Reputation: 119 122
They are also quite a bit lighter – Matt H – 2012-02-21T01:55:46.780
Good illustration. fyi - both hard disk was cover with a case but together with Matt H answer, I think it is completed. Thanks. – Jack – 2012-02-21T02:06:10.387
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In addition to Journeyman's answer, SATA drives have an additional 4 pins to used in specifying options (spinup, etc) that are motor- or drive-related, and are thus not present on SSDs (see this question for more information).
WindowsEscapist
Posted 2012-02-21T01:14:18.493
Reputation: 1 828
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SSDs are not really hard-drives at all; they are basically just large, fast flash-drives/memory cards with a hard-drive connector, and they look like it too (specifically compact-flash cards).
Synetech
Posted 2012-02-21T01:14:18.493
Reputation: 63 242
1I would suspect that you can guesstimate based on weight, but I haven't handled any 2.5" non-SSD drives in a long time, so I'm not sure. – Myrddin Emrys – 2012-02-21T01:23:16.183