Visit Microsoft’s page listing the system requirements for Windows 11 bit.ly/3zfrqsj and you’ll see that you need a storage device that’s 64GB or larger. But nowhere does it specify what kind of drive that needs to be.
As long as it’s big enough, why should Microsoft care whether you’ve got a hard drive or asolid-state drive (SSD)? Well, it seems that Microsoft might be developing an interest in what’s under the bonnet of your computer. A report by Trendfocus, analysts for the data-storage industry, says that PC manufacturers claim Microsoft is asking themto ditch hard drives for SSDs as the primary boot drive in all their machines, starting next year.
Microsoft didn’t comment on the report, but it’s not hard to see why the company would want all Windows 11 computers to have SSDs. They have many advantages over hard drives, being faster, quieter and smaller, as well as lasting longer and consuming less energy. From Microsoft’ sperspective, why wouldn’t you choose an SSD?
The faster your computer, the smoother Windows will run. Many laptops and PCs already come with an SSD for the boot drive, with some using a secondary hard drive for storing large files, such as photos, music and videos. But this extra speed comes at a cost. SSDs are getting cheaper all the time, but typically they are still much more expensive per gigabyte than hard drives.
You’ll notice this difference if you shop for drives online. Our current favourite SSD, Corsair’s MP600 costs £85 for 500GB (https://www.amazon.in/s?k). For that price you could buy almost three 1TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives (from https://amzn.to/3PJNdzg). It’s why many users stick with hard drives, sacrificing speed for
Manufacturers have to make the same cost calculations when deciding which components to fit inside their computers. Trendfocus Vice President John Chen told our sister site Tom’s Hardware that to keep costs the same, PC builders would have to downsize from a 1TB hard drive to a 256GB SSD and most don’t consider that to be enough capacity for many users. Chen added that building a computer with a 512GB SSD would “break the budget” for manylower-end machines.Unsurprisingly,m anufacturers have knocked back Microsoft’s demand.
Chen claims that originally Microsoft wanted to push it through this year, but was persuaded to delay it to the second half of 2023. If that date sticks, it’ll probably be for laptops only, with PCs following in 2024, though he said “things are still in flux”. What does all this mean for you? Whether or not Microsoft gets its own way, you should take it as another sign that SSDs will eventually replace all hard drives. If you can afford one for your current machine, we’d suggest upgrading. And if you’re looking to buy a new computer, choosing one with an SSD as the boot drive should ensure it lasts longer. But we can’t see Microsoft changing its system requirements to force SSDs on existing users. Yes, there are two features in Windows 11 that do require an SSD Direct Storage (makes games load faster) and the Windows Subsystem for Android (lets Android apps run in the operating system) but neither are essential. Microsoft’s more pressing concern is getting people to upgrade in the first place.
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