--- title: Why I store my games on HDDs instead of SSDs in 2026 description: A personal take on why using HDDs alongside SSDs remains a practical storage strategy for gamers in 2026. Key reasons include: most backlog and older games... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-store-my-games-on-hdds-instead-of-ssds-in-2026-emlzb0xnc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why I store my games on HDDs instead of SSDs in 2026 | daily.dev og:description: A personal take on why using HDDs alongside SSDs remains a practical storage strategy for gamers in 2026. Key reasons include: most backlog and older games... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-store-my-games-on-hdds-instead-of-ssds-in-2026-emlzb0xnc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/eMlZb0XNc.png og:image:alt: Why I store my games on HDDs instead of SSDs in 2026 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Why I store my games on HDDs instead of SSDs in 2026 **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 82 upvotes · 31 comments ## Summary A personal take on why using HDDs alongside SSDs remains a practical storage strategy for gamers in 2026. Key reasons include: most backlog and older games don't benefit meaningfully from SSD speeds, HDDs still offer significantly better cost-per-GB especially at higher capacities, and keeping different data types on separate drives helps maintain SSD performance for daily-use programs. The author runs a 4TB HDD alongside a 2TB NVMe SSD, only keeping currently-played games on the SSD. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@arsnl** · 71 upvotes > Because it's less expensive. > > - Thanks for coming to my TED Talk! **@hemna** · 10 upvotes > so many ads and popups on that site. avoid. **@petermrozek** · 2 upvotes > HDDs are simply more durable. I have drives that are 20 years old - still work to this day without glitches, bad sectors, etc. I had to replace cases, cables, but the drives just work. For backup purposes a physical media drive will always be more reliable. > > I have SSDs with 60-70% reliability score after 3 years of use (thanks Windows - seriously, that OS doesn't know how to idle). I don't how good of a metric this SMART param is, but it's kind of concerning. Anyone knows how to interpret that correctly? **@rahulsamal** · 2 upvotes >  **@micahnorwoodjordan** · 2 upvotes > i was expecting a technical breakdown of read-write speeds, but nah, hdd's are just cheaper 😂 ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [6 reasons I'm buying HDDs, not SSDs](https://daily.dev/posts/6-reasons-i-m-buying-hdds-not-ssds-xu3uvz8if) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why I bought a 16TB HDD instead of an 8TB SSD](https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-bought-a-16tb-hdd-instead-of-an-8tb-ssd-ki5vmixwy) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming), [#storage](https://daily.dev/tags/storage) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-store-my-games-on-hdds-instead-of-ssds-in-2026-emlzb0xnc) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Why I store my games on HDDs instead of SSDs in 2026","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-store-my-games-on-hdds-instead-of-ssds-in-2026-emlzb0xnc","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-store-my-games-on-hdds-instead-of-ssds-in-2026-emlzb0xnc"},"datePublished":"2026-06-09T13:33:12.223Z","dateModified":"2026-06-09T16:20:11.466Z","description":"A personal take on why using HDDs alongside SSDs remains a practical storage strategy for gamers in 2026. Key reasons include: most backlog and older games...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fedc04e79071647ec931b85cc266877d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fedc04e79071647ec931b85cc266877d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":31,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-store-my-games-on-hdds-instead-of-ssds-in-2026-emlzb0xnc","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":82},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":31}],"keywords":"gaming,storage","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why I store my games on HDDs instead of SSDs in 2026"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-store-my-games-on-hdds-instead-of-ssds-in-2026-emlzb0xnc","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Because it’s less expensive.\n\nThanks for coming to my TED Talk!","datePublished":"2026-06-09T14:25:37.661Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/eMlZb0XNc#c-Bw4RJSeUt","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Arseneault","url":"https://daily.dev/arsnl","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocIQdm6JuU6-cJvYR9fvkadGbBRVvQa_J2yjBI2A3MT51nY0C4HV=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":71}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"so many ads and popups on that site. avoid.","datePublished":"2026-06-09T15:05:49.086Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/eMlZb0XNc#c-OiPMp0OJO","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Chewbacca","url":"https://daily.dev/hemna","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/672207?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"HDDs are simply more durable. I have drives that are 20 years old - still work to this day without glitches, bad sectors, etc. I had to replace cases, cables, but the drives just work. For backup purposes a physical media drive will always be more reliable.\nI have SSDs with 60-70% reliability score after 3 years of use (thanks Windows - seriously, that OS doesn’t know how to idle). I don’t how good of a metric this SMART param is, but it’s kind of concerning. Anyone knows how to interpret that correctly?","datePublished":"2026-06-10T05:23:43.829Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/eMlZb0XNc#c-q3D10Opch","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Mrożek","url":"https://daily.dev/petermrozek","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--pBfYX68K--/f_auto/v1769247960/avatars/avatar_Qz65P1nVw3Bu6C5YwaZgA?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"","datePublished":"2026-06-12T03:40:36.124Z","dateModified":"2026-06-12T03:41:17.460Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/eMlZb0XNc#c-9begXb5U2","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rahul Samal","url":"https://daily.dev/rahulsamal","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--339GSdno--/f_auto/v1779599048/avatars/avatar_WTy96iNSRwMs3MLzrBGlX?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"i was expecting a technical breakdown of read-write speeds, but nah, hdd’s are just cheaper 😂","datePublished":"2026-06-11T16:29:02.821Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/eMlZb0XNc#c-a3pfdJGn0","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Micah Norwood","url":"https://daily.dev/micahnorwoodjordan","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--F7AsERgm--/f_auto/v1744468090/avatars/avatar_RkUh6L39HXCnFFgzyIq88"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}]} ```