You can easily have a look at disk type for your drives whether they are SSD or HDD without having to physically look at them. Here are some methods to find out what disk type you are using.
If you are a Windows 8 or 10 user
METHOD 1. In Microsoft Drive Optimizer
- Open Optimize drives
- In the media type column you can see the disk type
METHOD 2. In PowerShell or Command Prompt
- Open PowerShell
- Copy and paste the command below into PowerShell, and press Enter.
> Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table -AutoSize - In the MediaType column, you will see the disk type (SSD or HDD) for each disk listed
- Or you can see the same on your command prompt using command
> PowerShell "Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table -AutoSize"
If you are a Linux user
METHOD 1. Check if the Disk is Rotational
Linux systems can automatically detect SSD. So executing the below command will tell you if a disk is SSD or HDD.
# cat /sys/block/sda/queue/rotational
If the output of above is 0 (zero), then the disk type is SSD (because SSD does not rotate). But if you see output 1 on machines, that has HDD disk.
METHOD 2. Using lsblk command
To install lsblk
# yum install util-linux
Now check if the disk is rotational or not using the below command.
# lsblk -d -o name,rota
If the output of above is 0 (zero), then the disk type is SSD (because SSD does not rotate). But if you see output 1 then the machine has HDD disk.
METHOD 3. Using SMART monitoring tools
To install smartmontools
# yum install smartmontools
# smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep 'Rotation Rate'
If the disk is HDD, you will get this output:
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
