Features To Look Out For When Looking At Portable Hard Drives
As more of us are turning to storing data digitally we find that we need more and more memory on our computers
. Most computers on sale today come with a 500GB hard drive. This should be more than adequate for regular home use; however, if you have an extensive film, music and picture library then you may need more space. This is where owning a portable hard drive can come in useful. In addition, it will be easier for you to regularly back up your data compared to using discs. This is vital in the event that something goes wrong with your computer or it is stolen and you are unable to retrieve it.
There are lots of portable hard drives on the market today and prices can range from as little as 30-40 up to several hundred. Before you rush out and buy the cheapest option there are a few points that are worth considering so you can be sure that your new hard drive will meet your requirements.
The first is size. This may seem obvious but the size of your portable hard drive will generally dictate the price. For example a 500GB portable hard drive will be around half the price of a 1TB hard drive given that it has half the storage capacity. Again the size you need will depend on how often you intend to back up your data and how extensive your media library is. If you are someone that regularly likes to download high definition films then owning a large-capacity portable hard drive will be very useful as high-definition movie files can be anywhere between 20GB and 30GB.
Durability is an important factor if you plan to carry your portable hard drive around with you when you travel. Most portable hard drives contain moving parts that could become damaged in transit, however, if you are prepared to pay a little more then a solid state drive will reduce this risk. Alternatively you can look for a portable hard drive that has a good protective casing.
Speed is important if you are likely to be regularly backing up large files. This is expressed in megabytes per second (MBps) or gigabytes per second (GBps). The majority of portable hard drives use a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port but some models have a FireWire that delivers a faster transfer rate. Apple have also recently released a new Thunderbolt port that offers a transfer rate of 10GBps in both directions making it up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and 12 times faster than FireWire 800.