Our FolderSizes (disk space analysis and reporting) and Duplicate File Detective (duplicate file management) software products are used by many thousands of people all over the world, many of them members of Fortune 500 entities that depend upon them for daily storage management capabilities.

For this reason (and because we're just generally geeky), we have a wide range of hardware in our development and test labs. This includes pretty much every type of removal storage device you can imagine, Internet connected storage mechanisms, large SANs (storage area networks) packed with millions of files (usually for stress and scalability testing purposes), and more. You can't take two steps in any direction around here with tripping over an eSATA or USB drive, and yes - there have been a few minor injuries as a result. But hey - it's all in the name of science! Errrr, software.

Testing all these gadgets (and optimizing our software as a result) is important, though not generally all that exciting. However, one particular class of devices - SSDs (solid state drives) - have really captured our attention as of late. In fact, I have a 128 GB Crucial SSD installed in the laptop that I'm using to write this blog entry. And you know what? They'll be prying it from my cold, dead hands.

The impact that SSDs have on general computing performance is simply startling, especially when coupled with Microsoft Windows 7. I mean, there is just nothing more soul-sucking than sitting around waiting for some clunky 5400 RPM mechanical hard drive to load Visual Studio 2008 - or any other equally large application, for that matter. With SSDs, even the chunkiest of applications launch almost instantly. And because most laptops often have a bit less RAM than their desktop counterparts, they often make heavier use of disk-based paging. This means that installing a solid state drive has a very broad and compelling affect on the performance of the entire machine - no matter what you're doing.

The other thing I love is that I no longer need to be constantly worried about moving my laptop around. The simple fact of the matter is that normal hard drives really shouldn't be moved at all while they're spinning, and they're one of the most common points of failure in notebook computers. My current Toshiba laptop even came installed with a little taskbar applet that alerted me to such movement, and it nagged me constantly. Frankly, this is just one bit of stress I don't need.

Thankfully, SSDs mean no moving parts, and they have amazing shock and vibration tolerance. No more "mobile computing anxiety" for me. And my laptop is even a tad lighter with it.

Oh, and the SSD is absolutely dead silent. This is one of those things that I never really thought I'd care about until I experienced it for myself - the silence is just... beautiful.

Bottom line - if you value performance, reliability, and peace of mind, SSDs are the real deal. Yes, they're more expensive than the old mechanical drives, but I can tell you from personal experience - they're worth it!