SSD boot drives to become mandatory on Windows 11

June 13, 2022
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Solid idea? Logical insanity? Or perhaps something that should have been the case from the start? No matter which side of the fence you are on, prepare for a little drama come next year.

That’s because Microsoft is on track to make SSD boot drives a system requirement for Windows 11.

For OEMs, at least.

The software titan is apparently telling original equipment manufacturers—companies like Dell and HP that make Windows devices—to replace hard drives with solid-state drives for new machines powered by the operating system by 2023.

And the reasoning for this is simple enough: To ensure a better experience for end users.

The news of this change comes the way of John Chen, CEO of storage research firm TRENDFOCUS. He revealed that Redmond is pushing vendors behind the scenes to ensure that SSDs are compulsory as boot drives, and the traditional HDDs are no longer allowed to be used as such.

The idea is for this big switch to go live at some point in 2023, at most in 2024.

His full statement on how things are currently shaping up:

“The original cut-in date based on our discussions with OEMs was to be this year, but it has been pushed out to sometime next year (the second half, I believe, but not clear on the firm date). OEMs are trying to negotiate some level of push out (emerging market transition in 2024, or desktop transition in 2024), but things are still in flux.”

Although the general hardware requirements for Windows 11 still do not warrant an SSD, Microsoft has already made it mandatory for some features, like running Android apps natively on the operating system.

And there is sure to be some pushback to this idea, both from users and hardware makers.

The switch itself is no big deal; almost everyone knows the performance advantage SSDs provide compared to traditional HDDs.

But at the end of the day, it all comes down to money. Capacity still trumps performance for plenty of users. A switch like this will likely mean dropping from a 1TB HDD to a 256GB SSD, which becomes a problem in the more budget-focused line of devices.

Particularly in developing countries, where the costs quickly add up.

Nevertheless, now that the cat is out of the bag, we do know that OEMs will eventually make the transition, even if it means pairing a tiny SSD with a more capacious hard drive.

Article Categories:
Compatibility · Featured · Hardware · Strategy · Windows 11

Fahad Ali is a professional freelancer, specializing in technology, web design and development and enterprise applications. He is the primary contributor to this website. When he is not typing away on his keyboard, he is relaxing to some soft jazz.

All Comments

  • your last sentence: ”
    Even if it means pairing a tiny SSD with a more capacious hard drive.” So it is possible you could have a minimal SSD drive for booting and a larger HDD drive for storage and normal program processing? Even office pro 365 needs 3 gig alone for it, not to mention all the imaging and special files for cad/cam and other file types, that storage gets expensive for SSD drives later. 256 Gig does not last like it did in the “old days.”

    Rug Ratz September 28, 2022 4:04 pm Reply

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