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How to choose an external hard drive (HDD) - 7 important points

Good day.

For storing and transferring large amounts of information, it is quite convenient to use external HDs... Many, of course, will object - there are "clouds". But not all information can be stored there (there is confidentiality and all cases ...), and the Internet is not always and everywhere fast.

Agree, it is convenient when you have music, photos, films, games on an external medium, and when you come to visit, you can quickly connect your disk to your PC and turn on the playback of a pleasant composition ...

In this article, I want to give a few important points (in my opinion) that you should pay attention to when choosing and buying an external drive. Of course, I have never been to a factory for the manufacture of such devices, and nevertheless, some experience ( ) is: at work you have to deal with three dozen such carriers, and at home - another dozen.

So...

👉 By the way!

Some disc models are available with discounts in Chinese online stores.

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7 points to consider when choosing an external HDD

⑴ Storage capacity

The bigger, the better!

This rule is also true for external hard drives (there is never a lot of space). Today, one of the most popular volumes is 1 ÷ 4 TB (and the cheapest in terms of price / number of GB). Therefore, I recommend looking closely at the discs of this particular size.

Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5TB USB 3.0, Blue External Hard Drive (STDR5000202)

About disks 5-8 TB or more ...

These are also on sale today. But there are a couple of "buts" that I would recommend paying attention to:

  • not "tested" technologies - the reliability of such drives often leaves much to be desired. And in general, I would not recommend immediately grabbing at any new and large-volume disks (while the manufacturers will bring their manufacturing technology to perfection ...);
  • these drives often require additional power. If you buy a disk for a laptop or other portable gadget (which you want to connect only to a USB port), then such disks will create unnecessary "problems" for you ...

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⑵ About the connection interface

The most popular interfaces on sale now are USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. I recommend immediately "aiming" and choosing USB 3.0 (up to 5 Gb / s; you will notice the difference in speed even by eye).

In practice, usually, the speed of copying / reading from an external drive via USB 2.0 reaches 30-40 Mb / s, via USB 3.0 - up to 80-120 Mb / s. Those. there is a difference, especially since a USB 3.0 drive is universal, and it can be connected even to those devices that only support USB 2.0.

By the way, to distinguish USB 2.0 from USB 3.0, pay attention to the color. Most manufacturers now mark their USB 3.0 ports in blue.

How to distinguish a USB 3.0 port from a USB 2.0 port (USB 3.0 port marked in blue)

Another case in point: USB 2.0 and USB3.0

By the way, if you have a new USB Type-C port (up to 10 Gb / s) on your laptop (computer), then now discs with a similar interface are starting to appear on sale, and it makes sense to take a closer look at such models.

I also note that there are all kinds of adapters for connecting drives with USB 3.0 (for example) to the new USB Type-C port.

USB Type-c to USB 3.1 adapter

Addition: there are also other SATA, eSATA, FireWire, Thunderbolt standards. They are much less common than USB and I don't see any point in dwelling on them, tk. the vast majority of users will be satisfied with the USB interface.

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⑶ About a separate power supply

There are drives with or without an additional power supply (powered by the USB port). As a rule, disks that work only from the USB port do not exceed 4-5 TB in volume (this is the maximum that I have seen on sale).

Note that drives with an additional adapter are faster and more stable. But, nevertheless, extra wires create inconvenience, and it is not always possible to connect the drive to a power outlet - for example, when using the drive while working with a laptop.

There is one more problem that you should pay attention to: not always and not all models of disks have enough power from the USB port (for example, in cases where the device is powered by a small netbook or not only a disk is connected to USB - the power for the HDD may not be enough !). In cases of power shortage, the disk may simply become "invisible". I mentioned this in this article: //ocomp.info/pc-ne-vidit-vneshniy-hdd.html

From practice ...

Disks that had enough power from the USB port: Seagate Expansion 1-2 TB (not to be confused with the Portable Slim line), WD Passport Ultra 1-2 TB, Toshiba Canvio 1-2 TB.

Disks with which there were problems (and from time to time they became invisible in Windows): Samsung 1-2 TB, Seagate Portable Slim 1-2 TB, A-DATA 1-2 TB, Transcend StoreJet 1-2 TB.

Basically, if you run into a power shortage, you can try using a USB hub with a power supply. Such a device will allow you to connect several disks to one USB port at once, and all of them will have enough power (even when connected to a "weak" netbook).

USB hub with power supply

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⑷ About form factor // size

Form Factor - Specifies the size of the disk. 10-15 years ago - a special class like "External hard drives" was absent, and many used ordinary HDDs installed in a special box (box). assembled such a portable disk on their own. From there came the two most popular form factors of external HDDs - 2.5 and 3.5 inches.

3,5"

Large, heavy and oversized discs. The most capacious ones today (the capacity of one HDD reaches 8 TB or more!). Most suitable for a stationary PC (or a laptop that is rarely carried). They generally provide a higher data transfer rate (compared to 2.5 ").

These discs are rarely produced in shock-resistant cases, so they are extremely afraid of shock or vibration. Another feature: they cannot work without a power supply (not at all!). Extra wires don't add to their convenience ...

Stationary external hard drive 3.5 "(pay attention to the dimensions) - connects to the 220V network through the power supply

2,5"

The most popular and demanded type of discs. Their dimensions are comparable to a regular smartphone (slightly larger). Most drives have enough power from the USB port to work properly. They are convenient both on the road and at home, for connecting to both a PC and a laptop (and indeed, to any equipment with a USB port).

Often, when such discs are placed in special. shock-resistant housing, allowing them to extend their "survivability" (important for disks that are often on the road and are subject to vibrations).

WD My Passport 1TB Blue External Hard Drive

Of the minuses: their capacity is slightly lower than in 3.5 "drives (today it reaches 5 TB). Also, some models of drives do not always have enough power from the USB port, and they" fall off "during operation (ie, they become invisible to Windows OS).

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⑸ Disk speed

Your disk speed depends on several factors:

  1. from the interface: by far the best option in terms of price / speed ratio is the USB 3.1 standard (USB Type-C is also gaining popularity);
  2. on the spindle rotation speed: in external drives there are 5400 rpm, 7200 rpm and 4200 rpm. The higher the revolutions, the higher the speed of information reading (and the louder the disk makes noise and the hotter it gets). Typically 2.5 "drives run at 4200 and 5400 rpm, while 3.5" drives run at 7200 rpm;
  3. from cache size (temporary memory that allows you to quickly access the most frequently used information) : currently the most popular drives with 8-64 MB cache. Naturally, the higher the cache, the more expensive the disk ...

Personal opinion: in most cases, external drives are bought for storing various multimedia data - music, movies, photos, etc. And for such tasks, the difference in the speed of the disk from 7200 rpm and 5400 rpm is not significant, and does not play a big role.

The only moment (in terms of speed) when choosing, I would focus on the presence of the USB 3.1 interface (otherwise there are still quite a few disks with the USB 2.0 interface on sale).

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⑹ Protection against moisture and fur. damage. Passwords and hacking protection

Some models of discs have additional protection against shock, dust, moisture, etc. Naturally, such discs are more expensive than ordinary discs, sometimes, the cost is several times higher!

In my opinion, all these bells and whistles - if they help, then only from very minor incidents. If the disk is waiting for a strong blow, then the case will soften it, but it will not help much.

Based on my practice of "sad" cases, I will say that the shock-resistant case of the models, the cost of which does not exceed $ 350, did not prevent damage to the disc. I have not used more expensive disks, and I cannot criticize in absentia 👀.

In my opinion, if you buy such disks, then for a price no higher than 10-20% of the cost of other disks (and certainly such protection does not cost as much as 2-3 ordinary disks).

I will add that often the disks fail without any shock or shock. I would recommend paying more attention to the reliability of the line (HDD lineup) and reviews about it.

Transcend's StoreJet 25M3 portable device combines the benefits of the award-winning StoreJet M series of shockproof external hard drives

As for all kinds of password protection of the drive, the drive can also be protected using free utilities (moreover, it is not known which will be more reliable ).

👉 To help!

You can find out how to protect a USB flash drive (disk) with a password in this article.

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⑺ About manufacturers, which is more reliable

It is clear that everything that is written below is conditional and not very representative data. Because to make real statistics of the most reliable disks, it is necessary to test thousands of disks (not several dozen, as I did). And nevertheless, I will express my point of view ...

  1. WD My Passport is one of the most reliable, not a single drive from this line has failed. And there are no special complaints about the work: they do not make noise, they do not get warm, they are always "visible". The price tag is 10-15% higher on them than on other similar discs, but they are worth it. I will add that their dimensions are also somewhat larger than those of the same Seagate Portable Slim (but in my opinion this is not essential) ...
  2. WD My Cloud - in principle, everything that is said above is also relevant for this line;
  3. Toshiba Canvio - despite the fact that the discs appeared on the market not so long ago, there are no particular complaints about them. So far, there have been no problems with any of the 4 disks;
  4. Seagate Expansion - average in quality (5 out of 7 disks are working, 2 were delivered under warranty, did not work for a year ...). There are no problems with "visibility", but I would note that many disks from this line are "noisy" during operation;
  5. Seagate Portable Slim is the worst line in my opinion (wherever you see "Seagate Slim" - better watch out!). It is possible that I was just not so lucky, but 5 out of 5 discs fell into disrepair within 1.5 years after purchase;
  6. A-DATA - in general they work (4 out of 5 drives have worked for more than a year), but drives from this manufacturer do not always have enough power from USB when used on laptops;
  7. The Transcend StoreJet is an interesting option as their drives are protected by specials. body from light concussions. There were no questions about reliability (though I have only 2 of them), there is a problem with "noise" during operation and "visibility" without additional. food;
  8. Silicon Power (Armor) - negative review, because 3 out of 3 drives did not meet even the initial expectations: the data transfer speed is low (even when connected to USB 3.0), often "falls off" and becomes invisible. Not work - but a nightmare ...

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What do you use?

Additions on the topic are welcome ...

Good luck and good choice to everyone!

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First publication: 16.02.2018

Correction: 02/10/2020

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