Hybrid hard drives eliminate the need for the disk to spin continuously, which would contribute to a longer usable life as well as less risk of data loss from dropping or jarring. This is due to the NAND flash memory acting as a cache.

Samsung said Wednesday that it plans to demonstrate a prototype of the first commercially available hybrid hard drive (HHD) at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle next week. The drive integrates NAND flash memory with the standard magnetic storage in today's hard drives.