Microsoft is making a deliberate effort at stopping HDDs from being used as boot drives, according to a recent executive brief from data storage industry analyst firm Trendfocus, which can reveal that OEMs have been asked by the tech giant to drop hard drives as the primary storage device in pre-built Windows 11 PCs by 2023. This may not be the worst idea that has come from the Windows maker, as SSDs remain one of the best upgrades that enthusiasts can make for their greater speeds, which blow past the performance of their HDD counterparts by many orders of magnitude. Microsoft has yet to provide any firm SSD requirement for Windows 11 PCs, however, and OEMs don’t seem thrilled by the idea, having reportedly pushed back on the deadlines.
Microsoft’s most current list of hardware requirements calls for a ’64 GB or larger storage device’ for Windows 11, so an SSD isn’t a minimum requirement for a standard install. However, Microsoft stipulates that two features, DirectStorage and the Windows Subsystem for Android(opens in new tab), require an SSD, but you don’t have to use those features. It is unclear whether or not Microsoft plans to change the minimum specifications for Windows 11 PCs after the 2023 switchover to SSDs for pre-built systems.
Source: Trendfocus (via Tom’s Hardware)