By now it's clear that SSDs, despite their relatively low storage capacity, far surpass mechanical hard drives in speed . This makes them ideal for storing important programs and the operating system as a boot device from the motherboard's BIOS. This data read speed is what Microsoft seems to be aiming to establish with Windows 11, and it would prevent the use of a hard drive as a boot device in a few years.
This statement comes from an internal message that would have been sent to OEM manufacturers. The notice would claim that Windows would be discouraging putting Windows 11 on a mechanical hard drive rather than an SSD as an operating system boot option.
A few years from now, Windows 11 had better be on an SSD
While the original Windows 11 requirements didn't specify an SSD, they did require certain CPU and motherboard security options that many may not be aware of. However, it seems that in a few years, Windows 11 will be required to run on an SSD . According to a Trendfocus report, Microsoft is asking original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to stop using hard drives as boot drives in favor of SSDs for pre-built PCs. Manufacturers were initially given a deadline of 2023 to implement this, but a delay to 2024 is being discussed.
The reason they still use hard drives for booting is that, although SSD prices have decreased, they are still more expensive than HDDs in terms of storage capacity. For example, you can get a 1 TB hard drive for 35 euros, but an SSD for the same price would only give you 500 GB of storage. That's half the space, and the difference makes it very important for storing large applications or those that generate a lot of temporary files during use, such as Photoshop.
For all practical purposes, Microsoft hasn't officially changed the Windows 11 system requirements. It still specifies a " 64 GB or larger storage device " for installing Windows 11. Assuming the deadline for OEMs to use SSDs as boot drives is correct, we might see the storage requirements change then. If Windows 11 is installed on a hard drive, we wouldn't be able to install a newer version, which would leave us vulnerable to security vulnerabilities.
Source: Kitguru
