The Best Portable Hard Drives For Every Need
Your laptop solely has thus much storage on it. Get some extra infinite that perfectly suits your needs alongside these portable hard-drives that you lot tin toss inward your laptop bag.
Best Bargain Drive: Seagate Backup Plus Slim ($69)
If all you lot necessitate is a good, reliable portable difficult create for a depression price, it's difficult to top the Seagate Slim. At $69 for the 2TB model, you're getting a company toll per terabyte. The Slim model is, equally you lot mightiness expect, pretty sparse thus it fits neatly into almost whatever pocket inward your laptop bag. You lose that sparse profile if you lot upgrade to the 4TB model, but if you lot necessitate to a greater extent than infinite inward your handbag than you lot produce for your files, as well as thus the Slim is perfect for you. It doesn't come upward alongside a lot of bells as well as whistles, but at $69, it doesn't own got to.
It's worth pointing out that this model, similar many portable difficult drives, uses the technically-standard-but-still-uncommon USB Micro B port. You'll necessitate to brand certain you lot buy the farm along runway of the cable that comes alongside your difficult drive, as well as maybe purchase a spare cable to buy the farm along inward a rubber house thus you're non left without access to your data.
Best For Durability: Buffalo 2TB MiniStation Extreme $130
If you lot accept a portable difficult create out of the house, there's ever a conduct chances it could larn damaged. For most of us, that's non a problem, but if you lot travel inward a physically demanding field, or simply necessitate to brand absolutely certain your information is safe, the Buffalo 2TB MiniStation Extreme provides you lot all the protection you lot could perhaps need.
To get-go with, the representative itself is H2O as well as dust resistant (IP53), which way it tin grip getting muddied or having H2O splashed on it without breaking. You won't desire to toss it inward a puddle or comprehend it inward mud, but it tin in all likelihood grip beingness exterior inward the pelting or on a dusty site. It's likewise protected on the software side, with 256-bit AES encryption, which you lot tin unlock alongside a password or, inward a unique twist, alongside an included NFC smart card. Finally, the difficult create comes alongside a built-in flexible USB cable thus you lot don't necessitate to bear extra cables roughly inward companionship to plug into a laptop.
At the fourth dimension of writing, the MiniStation Extreme 2TB costs $130 (USD) from England-based online retailer Ebuyer. That's almost twice equally expensive per terabyte compared to the Seagate Backup Plus Slim, thus you're paying for all those extra features. If you'd rather purchase from Amazon, there's a 1TB model for $110, though pricing as well as availability has shifted fifty-fifty equally nosotros wrote this post, thus it mightiness last worth waiting, or ordering elsewhere.
Best for Big Storage: Seagate Backup Plus 5TB($130)
If you lot don't tending most all those fancy features that you'd larn from the Buffalo model, Seagate has some other Backup Plus option. The Seagate Backup Plus 5TB comes alongside to a greater extent than than twice the storage of the Slim model nosotros featured above, for simply $130. That's $26 per terabyte, which is fifty-fifty cheaper per terabyte than the Slim. As cloud storage provider Backblaze noted terminal year, there's oftentimes a price-per-terabyte spike when you lot larn to a higher house 4TB, thus the fact that this 5TB model is to a greater extent than cost-effective is a welcome surprise.
However, the Backup Plus model is considerably thicker as well as to a greater extent than unwieldy compared to the Slim. You'll necessitate to brand certain you've got extra infinite inward your handbag for this difficult create if you lot desire to bear it roughly alongside you. Like the Slim, it likewise uses the USB Micro B connector, thus brand certain you lot buy the farm along upward alongside that cable that you'll solely purpose for your portable difficult create as well as non much else.
Best Wi-Fi Enabled Drive: WD 2TB My Passport Wireless Pro ($141)
In general, nosotros wouldn't recommend a wireless portable difficult create for simply anyone. Wireless transfers are ordinarily slower than simply using a USB cable as well as the convenience of ditching the cable is rarely worth it. The WD My Passport Wireless Pro, however, offers a compelling selection for a specific purpose case: photographers. Particularly photographers on the go. If you lot shoot alongside a DSLR as well as notice yourself filling upward your SD cards often, this difficult create gives you lot a quick as well as piece of cake way to offload your pictures to larn to a greater extent than space.
For starters, the difficult create comes alongside a built-in SD menu reader thus you lot tin plug your cards inward direct to re-create files over. It tin likewise connect over the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, which, spell non equally fast equally a USB 3.0 connection, is soundless pretty speedy. USB 3.0 ports are soundless at that spot when you lot necessitate them, thus you lot tin larn faster transfers when you're dorsum to your workstation, but if you lot necessitate some flexibility from your difficult create when you're out inward the field, this difficult create tin give it to you.
