page_title: Hybrid drive
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Hybrid drive / Types
context_page_description: In computing, a hybrid drive is a logical or physical storage device that combines a faster storage medium such as solid-state drive with a higher-capacity hard disk drive. The intent is adding some of the speed of SSDs to the cost-effective storage capacity of traditional HDDs. The purpose of the SSD in a hybrid drive is to act as a cache for the data stored on the HDD, improving the overall performance by keeping copies of the most frequently used data on the faster SSD.
  There are two main configurations for implementing hybrid drives: dual-drive hybrid systems and solid-state hybrid drives. In dual-drive hybrid systems, physically separate SSD and HDD devices are installed in the same computer, having the data placement optimization performed either manually by the end user, or automatically by the operating system through the creation of a "hybrid" logical device. In solid-state hybrid drives, SSD and HDD functionalities are built into a single piece of hardware, where data placement optimization is performed either entirely by the device, or through placement "hints" supplied by the operating system.
context_section_description: There are two main "hybrid" storage technologies that combine NAND flash memory or SSDs, with the HDD technology: dual-drive hybrid systems and solid-state hybrid drives.
caption: A high-level comparison of SSHD and dual-drive or FCM designs