Looking to get a portable USB3 hard drive, suggestions?


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I am looking to get a portable hard drive for travelling later this year. Only requirements are USB3, USB powered and not a desktop (3.5") drive. I am looking for at least 500GB so an SSD based external drive isn't really viable due to cost. It will be for storing media on so access speed isn't a huge deal, USB3 will be fast enough with a spinning drive.

 

Any recommendations or drives to avoid?

 

Also I am in the UK so if you post any links to products could you use the UK sites, thanks :D

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Sorry should have stated I am looking for capacity over SSD speeds.

 

Sorry to say but if you travel there is a hell alot more chances to something going wrong with spinning disk than with SSD. 500GB SSD for $216 is a steal if you ask me.

 

WD My Passport is not bad too, but not excellent either

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Sorry to say but if you travel there is a hell alot more chances to something going wrong with spinning disk than with SSD. 500GB SSD for $216 is a steal if you ask me.

 

WD My Passport is not bad too, but not excellent either

 

Not a bad price considering the price of the same SSD but internal 

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If you're travelling a lot and insist on a mechanical HDD, DO NOT buy WD drives. They have electronic level encryption pairing the drive and enclosure board together which will make data recovery much harder should the enclosure board, or the HDD board go bad. You'd be better off buying a HDD and enclosure separately.

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I think one thing to think about when buying an external drive is checking its internal connectivity (especially for data recovery should the USB connection break/fail). What I mean by this, is would it be possible to easily get the data from the hard drive if you remove it from the casing?

I've found that some Samsung and Western Digital drives are not normal SATA interfaces inside the casing, but rather have a USB port soldered onto them. This means if the USB port breaks/fails (and the actual HDD is still functional), it may be very difficult to get the data off. Whereas one with a SATA connection can simply be plugged into another computer/laptop/caddy.

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Cheers all. I have ordered a USB3 2.5" HDD enclosure. I have a couple of spare laptop drives so if the enclosure is decent enough quality I will pick up another. That way I can have an SSD for all important things and HDD for bulk media so if the drive does fail from being moved too often it is no big deal :)

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