Which factor would lead a technician to select a hard drive over an SSD as a primary storage medium?

When selecting a primary storage medium, cost is often a significant factor that drives decision-making. Traditional hard drives (HDDs) are generally much less expensive than solid-state drives (SSDs) when comparing storage capacities. This affordability makes HDDs attractive for large storage requirements, particularly when budget constraints are a priority.

Moreover, while SSDs offer superior speed and better performance, the price per gigabyte for HDDs makes them a practical choice for situations where high capacity is required without a hunger for extreme speed. For instance, in environments like data centers or server farms, if high capacity is more critical than speed, choosing HDDs can result in significant cost savings.

The other factors — speed, power consumption, and form factor — tend to favor SSDs, as SSDs are faster, consume less power, and offer versatile form factors that can fit into various configurations. However, when budget is the leading criterion, cost becomes the deciding factor for selecting HDDs as the primary storage medium.