What Is eMMC?
In fact, when it comes to laptop PC storage, four different storage types come to your minds: SSD, HDD, Hybrid hard drive and eMMC. But how much do you know about them?
Generally speaking, eMMC is one variant of MMC which is a memory card standard used for solid-state storage. MMC has various variants: RS-MMC, DV-MMC, MMCplus and MMCmobile, MMCmicro, MiCard, SecureMMC and eMMC, etc.
eMMC full form refers to embedded MultiMediaCard. It is an internal storage card which is widely used in portable devices because of its relatively low price and small size.
eMMC is used in portable devices such as smartphones, digital cameras, entry-level laptops, tablets, even some removable devices. You can also use eMMC on computers or laptops. There is one thing special about eMMC: you can enlarge the internal storage capacity of a laptop equipped with EMMC by inserting a memory card to its memory card slot.
Although since 2018, companies seldom build MMC slot (SD cards are more common), as the main means of integrated storage in portable devices, eMMC is still widely used in consumer electronics. eMMC offers a flash memory system with low cost. Its built-in controller can stay in Andriod or Windows phones and cost-effective PCs. It can be displayed as a bootable device in the host interface instead of a more expensive solid-state storage, such as a solid-state drive.
eMMC has both flash memory and a flash memory controller integrated on the same silicon die. It is composed of a kind of embedded storage solution with a MultiMediaCard interface, flash memory and master controller.
What’s more, the eMMC price is cheap and it is a kind of cost-effective storage device.
What Is SSD?
SSD stands for Solid State Drive. It is also sometimes called a solid-state device or a solid-state disk. SSD is solid-state storage device which employs integrated circuit as storage to permanently store data. Compared with other storage types, SSD enjoys the best performance and highest price instead. In addition, SSD is more able to withstand physical impacts.
Moreover, SSD enjoys faster read-and-write speed, quieter operating process and relatively lower power consumption. Therefore, users with higher demands for the performance of computer and with sufficient budget are more likely to resort to SSD laptop.
Even though the price for SSD is decreasing as time goes on, the cost of its each unit of storage (up to 2018) still surpasses hard drives. It is predicated that its superiority in cost will keep in 10 years.
eMMC VS SSD
You may read more information about HDD vs SDD or SD card vs SSD, but you only know a little about eMMC vs SSD. This article, however, mainly aims to talk about eMMC vs SSD to enhance your comprehension about them.
In consideration of the dominant importance of storage devices for laptops, it is important to distinguish these devices and choose the most suitable one.
Although both eMMC and SSD operate on the NAND principles, a great number of distinctions lie between the two storage devices.
The most dominant difference is that eMMC is a type of flash storage based on the MMC standard, while SSD is a type of solid-state storage.
Other detailed differences are listed as follows.
- eMMC and SSD enjoy different functions. eMMC is used as a temporary storage medium for a portable device while SSD is used as a permanent storage medium. You can choose one type of storage in accordance with your storage medium.
- eMMC and SSD enjoy different performance. The eMMC runs faster for small file storage and retrieval. However, the SSD delivers better performance in large file storage. The maximum data transfer rate of eMMC is about 400MB/s while the maximum transfer rate of SSD is much higher than that of eMMC.
- eMMC and SSD have a different number of NAND gates. Both eMMC and SSD operated on the NAND principles which allow data to run faster but eMMC typically has only one NAND gate while SSD tends to have more NAND gates. In this way, SSD is faster in reading and writing compared to eMMC.
- eMMC enjoys much less storage capacity than SSD. EMMC usually has storage space of 32 GB and 64 GB although the size of 128GB is available. As for SSD, it boasts much more space. 128GB, 256 GB, 320 GB and 512 GB are available.
- eMMC and SSD differ in connections. eMMC is often directly soldered onto the motherboard while SSD drives are usually connected to the motherboard via the SATA interface. If your laptop has no SATA interface, you are supposed to use eMMC.
- SSD and eMMC are made of different components. SSD is composed of powerful controller chips and fast NAND Flash memory, while eMMC is composed of similar components to an SD card or USB stick.
- eMMC and SSD are different in target consumers. eMMC is widely used in consumer-level electronics because its price is more affordable and acceptable. SSD is rarely used in consumer-level electronics because consumers can find another more cost-effective alternative.
As what has been mentioned above, however, bears some deficits as well. For example, it is less cost-effective than other types of storage and possesses less space compared with HDD. But it is certain that SSD has better performance compared with other storage devices.
Thus, you may wonder when you need to replace eMMC with SSD. In order to know more, just go on your reading.
When Need to Replace eMMC with SSD?
Despite the superior performance of SSD, you may still hesitate to buy one. You may ask: Do I really need to spend so much money to buy SSD for my laptop?
Imagine that you go a long way to download your favorite game, but you have to wait for more than several minutes to run it because your laptop uses other types of storage devices instead of SSD. At last, your laptop gets stuck for several times and you lose this game as well. On the contrary, a laptop with SSD can help you enjoy better performance and delivers better read and write speed.
Moreover, if the hard drive capacity is small of your laptop, you need to remove some applications or delete some files because your hard drive is nearly full. But a laptop with SSD enjoys larger storage space and allows you save more loved and significant files.
Although the SSD is smaller than HDD, it is still larger than the eMMC and it is enough for you to install Windows 10, Office-related software and even Photoshop. But you already know that new files and data will generate at the time you run your laptop. It is necessary to know that once your SSD has been used more than 75%, its performance will also be affected.
So if you want to enjoy better performance of your computer, you can choose to try eMMC upgrade. Thus, you can choose to upgrade eMMC with SSD. And in the following part, we will show you how to replace eMMC with SSD without bringing any damage to your original data.
How to Replace eMMC with SSD
According to eMMC vs SSD above, it is obvious that SSD outweighs eMMC in many perspectives. Especially for those whose work has high demands for the performance of computers or laptops, they prefer to SSD.
So if you want to replace eMMC with SSD, you can resort to a piece of third-party software.
Compared with other similar products, it is recommended to adopt a piece of professional backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker. Among its various functions, one feature plays a prominent role in MiniTool ShadowMaker. That is Clone Disk. This feature helps you clone your original disk to the target disk in a short time without data loss.
Apart from cloning disk, this software also allows you to back up everything you want, to perform disaster data recovery and to do file sync, etc.
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Detailed operating steps are listed as follows.
Step 1: Please launch MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial and clcik Keep Trial.
Step 2: Please go to the Tools page and click Clone Disk.
Step 3: Please select the source disk (eMMC) to copy and click Next to continue.
Step 4: After selecting the source disk, please select the target disk(SSD) to save the copy. Then click Start to continue.
Step 5: The pop-up window will inform you that data on the target drive will be destroyed. Please remember to back up the files and data you need in advance. Then click OK to continue.
Step 6: MiniTool ShadowMaker is performing disk cloning. Please wait patiently and click Finish when the process is over.
Step 7: Please read the following information carefully and click OK to complete this disk cloning task.
Warning: After cloning disk, please make sure either the source drive (eMMC) or the target drive (SSD) is connected to the computer when you first boot computer. If both the two disks are connected to the computer, one will be marked as offline.
More ways to upgrade eMMC please read this article: How to Upgrade to Larger Hard Drive without Data Loss?
Conclusion
To sum up, on the one hand, eMMC enjoys a more affordable price and portable size, but its performance is much worse than SSD. On the other hand, SSD is less cost-effective but it boasts much better performance and longer lifespan. If the budget allows, it is recommended to get SSD for your laptop so as to enjoy better user’s experience.
If you have any question for MiniTool ShadowMaker, please contact [email protected].
eMMC vs SSD FAQ
eMMC is a variant of MMC which is a memory card standard used for solid-state storage. MMC also has various variants: RS-MMC, DV-MMC, MMCplus, MMCmobile, eMMC etc. The eMMC consists of NAND flash memory that you can find in the USB thumb drives.
SSD employs integrated circuit as the storage permanently store data. Compared with eMMC, SSD enjoys better performance and larger storage capacity. Hence, it the eMMC is not same as the SSD.