Travel gear tip: Get a solid state hard drive

About a year ago my PC started acting crazy. After taking it to IT, they said that I needed a new motherboard and hard drive. Oh and by the way computers belonging to people who travel wear out faster than those who don’t, due in large part to the damage to the moving parts of the hard drive.

At this point, even though I have worked in the computer industry before, I kind of felt like my eyes were going to roll back into my head. Whaaaaa? Moving parts what? And I care why? Oh right. Because my computer is broken.

A little background: a traditional computer hard drive contains spinning disks and read/write heads. A solid state hard drive does not. The moving parts are more susceptible to physical shock, so when your computer is jostled around a lot, i.e. in and out of your briefcase, carried around at the airport, etc, the chances of it breaking or having issues are higher. (Thank you Wikipedia!)

When it was time for me to get a new system earlier this year, IT highly recommended I get a solid state hard drive since I travel so much. They have been on Macs for years, and are now available on certain PCs. So hopefully my new system will last longer than the old one!

Readers, have you had any experience with computer issues due to travel?

(I just want to reiterate that I am NOT a technical person, so if I’ve gotten terminology or anything else wrong, please be gentle!)

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