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Without given the price of both hard disks and there is no PC nearby that you can connect both hard disk to see whether it is a SSD or SATA, so is there any way to differentiate ssd hard disk and a sata hard disk based on just physical appearance?

You may assume that the label on the hard disk was being overlap with stickers and both hard disk have the same storage space size.

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    I would suspect that you can guesstimate based on weight, but I haven't handled any 2.5" non-SSD drives in a long time, so I'm not sure. Feb 21, 2012 at 1:23

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Check the label (naturally). Also, look at the bottom - most 2.5 inch HDDs have the bottom of the drive motor visible though a circular or part circular cut out, and the motor connected through a flexi connector to the controller board. enter image description here. An SSD is likely to have no visible controller board, and no motor.

enter image description here

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  • They are also quite a bit lighter
    – hookenz
    Feb 21, 2012 at 1:55
  • Good illustration. fyi - both hard disk was cover with a case but together with Matt H answer, I think it is completed. Thanks.
    – Jack
    Feb 21, 2012 at 2:06
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In addition to Journeyman's answer, SATA drives have an additional 4 pins to used in specifying options (spinup, etc) that are motor- or drive-related, and are thus not present on SSDs (see this question for more information).

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SSDs are not really hard-drives at all; they are basically just large, fast flash-drives/memory cards with a hard-drive connector, and they look like it too (specifically compact-flash cards).

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