Technique Posted December 25, 2014 Share Posted December 25, 2014 I'm on the lookout for an external hard drive for backing up. Aside from the size, what is the real difference between portable & external? Is one better than the other? Portable: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/data-storage/hard-drives/portable-external-hard-drives/720_7064_70069_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html External: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/data-storage/hard-drives/desktop-external-hard-drives/720_7065_70070_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html I'll be in town tomorrow hopefully in order to buy one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted December 25, 2014 Share Posted December 25, 2014 desktop requires a power cord (that comes with it) to be plugged into a wall outlet to power portable runs off usb for power I think portable is the best way to go, never know when you might need something and not have an outlet around you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technique Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 That shouldn't be a problem really. The backups will be staying at home. I may move them from PC to laptop but this aside, i have 2 portables now (so could use them if i needed to go away from home) but they will stay at home. Is there any other reason i should go for portable over desktop? Are they just all round better in the above situation (where it'll all be staying at home anyway)? I think i'll be looking at a 2TB one. I have 2x WD ones at the moment. Are these fine enough? Is there a better brand or are they all much the same? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Overlord Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Desktop, trouble with portables is they get their power from the usb port, the port can supply the hard drive with some power, not necessarily all the power the hard drive needs, I've got about 4, now scrap hard drives (2.5 inch) that failed over a few months due to my not knowing this. I also have various sata hard drives (both 2.5 and 3.5 inch) that work just fine, purely as I bought a mains powered usb hdd enclosure from ebay (Depending on exactly what you're backing up, another option could be flash drives) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technique Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 All i'll be using this for is drive backup. Backing up the C drive & another drive which is just a storage drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsupersonic Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Depends if you want portability or speed. Desktop drive - they tend to have the edge in performance over portable drives. The desktop drives typically require AC power, where as portable drives use USB power, and they tend to be slower. For speed, go desktop. It's not as portable as you have more weight and an AC adapter to carry. For portability, go portable. The Wirecutter has some good articles on The Best External Desktop Drive and The Best Portable Hard Drive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max22 Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Thanks everyone for the help! I still can't decide if I should get a 3.5 or 2.5 external hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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