Best hard drives and storage devices of 2016
Hard drives are a key component in modern computers. It is fine to get a new one every few years either to use an additional hard drive or to replace an old one. Storage has never been cheaper. You can add a terabyte to your desktop or laptop via an external drive, for as little as $50. And that is enough to accommodate more than 750,000 Mp3 or photos or more than 230 full length movies.
From budget-price Windows tablets to mega-huge desktop towers, every computer out there can connect to least one hard drive without any complex installation required. And if you are lucky enough to have multiple I/O ports, you are able to hook up even more.
If like many people who have been slowly but surely accumulating media on their computer, you are also the one, may be you have 4,000 digital photos in your folders on the desktop or maybe you are a hard core music collector, either way that media occupies precious space on your computer and needs to be stored properly. In that case, an external hard drive can take care of that.
Because leaving your content on computer without backing up is a no-no for several important reasons. It slows down your computer and you run the risk of losing everything in case of a hard drive crash. Even a relatively small external hard drive will tide you over for quite some time for small storage issues. If you want to save your investment in data it is certainly important to have a backup to keep all your precious information secured and for that matter you will need hard drives.
But the main question is which to choose as there is a lot to consider. We have compiled a list of some of the best hard drives of 2016 which will surely ease out the process of buying one for you.
Glyph Atom SSD:
The Atom solid-state from Glyph features everything you would want in a portable drive. It is superfast. It uses USB 3.1 Gen 2 and the real-world read speed of Atom SSD averages about 420Mbps and 270Mbps for writing and reading respectively, which make it one of the fastest non-RAID portable drives.
The Atom RAID SSD uses RAID-0 and scores 674Mbps and 460Mbps respectively. It has a hard aluminum casing decked out in removable rubber protective case which means it will survive a 6 foot drop on a carpet floor and still work fine.
It is a USB-C drive that includes both a USB-c-to-USB-A cable and a USB-C cable. This means that it will work with a computer having any USB port permutation.
The Atom SSD is available in 1 TB, 525GB and 275GB capacities for $440, $250 and $150 respectively. That is not cheap but actually it is a better deal than the $400 1TB Samsung T3 which is 25 percent slower and also not as durable. The Atom can also be found in silver, gold, black and gray to match the color of your MacBook. The T3 comes in only one color.
It is also to notice that the prices of SSD always fall soon after release, so likely the Atom will be an even better deal in a few months. The Atom SSD on the inside features an M.2 version of Crucial MX300 SSD which is the first drive from Crucial that uses the 3D flash memory to strike a balance between costs, performance and capacity.
The drive is formatted in HFS+, out of the box, so it works right away with a Mac. But for Windows, you will need to reformat it into NTFS first. Or you can also reformat it into exFAT if you want to use it with both platforms. It doesn’t come with any software but fortunately you will not need any. File History (Windows 10) and Time Machine (Mac) both works fine as backup tools. The Atom comes with a standard three-year warranty against hardware defect but not for data recovery.
Pros:
Superfast
Supports USB-C
Compact, light and rugged
Includes cables for both new and old computers
Cons:
Doesn’t include data recovery in warranty
If you need a versatile portable, compact, great-looking and superfast drive, the Atom SSD is the best you can get for now. This is the best portable device to date for power users. For Mac users, it is also one of the few that without requiring a dongle is ready to work right away with your new MacBook Pro. However, for Windows users, there are generally more options. If you are comfortable with bulkier designs and significantly slower performance, a regular drive like the Seagate Backup Plus or the WD My Passport will give you a lot more storage for your money.
Samsung Portable SSD T3:
If you like Samsung’s Portable SSD T1, you will like the company’s new portable SSD T3 even more. The new T3 is actually a bit slower than previous model while costing slightly more. The T3 has a rugged new aluminum case and comes with a USB-C port now, instead of the old Micro-USB 3.0 port. The new drive is also available in a 2TB capacity for $850 which is huge, for how small it is.
The new T3 is a bit larger than the T1 but still it is small enough to be mistaken for a block of chocolate, a generous for sure. Samsung claims that the drive can withstand up to 1,500 g’s force and can survive a drop of up to 2 meter. The T3 on the inside has an integrated Thermal Guard feature to prevent overheating in extreme temperatures. Overall, it is safe to say that T3 is a tough little thing.
As opposed to the usual Micro-USB 3.0 port on the side, the T3 has a USB-C port but the drive supports the USB 3.0 standard with an apex speed of 5Gbps. It is also compatible with USB 2.0. Using the USB-C port means that when coupled with a USB-C cable, it can work with new MacBook and also all mobile devices that offer a USB-C port such as most Android tablets and a couple of phones for now. It includes a USB-C to USB-A cable which enables it to work with all existing computers and their regular USB ports.
Similar to the case of the T1, the T3 has a Samsung mSATA 850 Evo for storage. This means it has all the features of 850 Evo product line. The most important feature of T3 is use of 3D-vertical NAND flash memory which is an increasingly popular technology in standard solid-state drive.
2D-planar type NAND flash memory cells which are the storage units on an SSD, traditionally lie flat on the surface of silicon wafer. The internal storage flash memory cells of the T3 are stacked in up to 48-layer vertical NAND or V-NAND, which allows or considerably more cells in the same number of wafer bits. It also supports Samsung’s TurboWrite technology to enable the drive to operate a portion of its flash memory in simulated high-performance mode of single-layer-cell flash memory.
Pros:
Super compact, fast and rugged
Storage space of up to 2TB
Has USB-C port to work with more devices than other portable devices
Cons:
A tad larger
Slighter lower than its predecessor
Short 3 year warranty for a storage device at this price
The portable SSD T3 is an excellent portable device to take on the go as it is compact, rugged, fast and spacious to accompany your mobile devices, be it a USB-C-enabled tablet or a laptop. But if you just want a super compact and fast portable device and don’t care about it being rugged, T1 is a great deal especially given its lower price.
Samsung SSD 850 Evo:
If you have been eyeing the Samsung SSD 850 Pro but can’t afford it,its excellent alternative is the 850 Evo. It may be even better choice actually, since it is the vheaper of the two and still achieves fast performance but not consistently as fast as the 850 Pro.
Though it is officially an upgrade to Samsung SSD 840 Evo, the new drive shares more in common with the higher-end 850 Pro. The 850 Evo, following the 850 Pro, is the second SSD from Samsung that uses a 3D vertical flash memory cell. The 2D planar type NAND flash memory cells traditionally lay flat on the surface of the silicon wafer which is common on most SSDs on the market.
With 850 Evo, the flash memory cells are stacked in up to 32 layers allowing for significantly more cells in the same number of wafer bits which greatly increases the density and more storage space for less cost.
Samsung also claims that similar to 850 Pro, the 3D NAND delivers very high endurance, the rating that computes the total amount of data that can be written to an SSD before drive becomes unreliable. The 850 Evo’s 250GB and 120GB capacities have an endurance rating of 75TB which means that you can write 40GB per day to the drive and it will last for at least 5 years.
Otherwise, the 850 Evo looks identical to 850 Pro or the 840 Evo. It is a standard 2.5 inch internal drive that is 7mm thick. It supports SATA 3 but also works with SATA 2 and the original SATA.
The new 850 Evo also supports TurboWrite technology which enables the drive to maneuver a portion of its flash memory in a virtual high-performance mode of single-layer-cell flash memory, it is often found in expensive enterprise SSDs as a buffer zone. During write operations, data from host system is first written/transferred to the buffer zone at high speeds, and then it is removed from the buffer to primary storage region, during the idle periods, resulting in much faster write performance from user’s perspective.
TurboWrite technology automatically works within the drive, so you don’t need to enable it. To use RAPID which stands for Real-time Accelerated Processing of I/O Data, on the Evo, you will need to install Magician 4.5. This software is included on a CD but you can also download it. It supports the new RAPID version v.2.1 that according to Samsung now enhances error handling and also fixes some compatibility issues.
Pros:
Delivers great performance
Useful features
Drive is available up to 2TB storage space
Useful features at affordable price
Cons:
5 year warranty
Samsung Magician software works only with Windows
The Samsung 850 Evo has best combination of capacity, cost and performance, making it ideal drive for any home user.
Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim Portable External Hard Drive:
It is a slimmer and faster version of the Backup Plus Slim portable hard drive. The Seagate Dashboard software included not only lets you back up drive data but social media (Flicker, YouTube and Facebook) and your mobile devices info as well. There is a separate version for Mac and Windows. You get 200GB of online storage with Microsoft Onedrive. If you use Windows 10, it is better you use the built-in File History utility for local backups, among other things, you will not need to install any extra software on your computer.
Though the micro-USB 3.0 port is fast for transfers but it is disappointing that there is no USB-C port. So despite being available in silver and gold, it will not work with Macbook because the Macbook has only one USB-C port and currently comes in silver, gold and a few other colors.
The handy portability of drive makes it perfect for all laptops. Because of the included USB 3.0 cable, the drive works out of the box with most computers. However, if you intend to use it with a non-Macbook Mac laptop or desktop, you will need to reformat it first.
The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim is available in two capacities of 1TB and 2TB that currently cost $70 and $93 respectively, on Amazon. For an ultraportable fast drive, these are great prices considering the G-Drive Mobile which has an USB-C port costing $120 for just 1TB.
For frequent travelers with a laptop, the Backup Plus Ultra Slim is a great buy definitely, due to its speed and extra compact design. However, if you don’t mind a bit bulkier and a bit slower drive: the Seagate Backup Plus Slim and the WD My Passport Ultra, both are available in up to 4TB storage space, are also excellent alternatives to the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim.
Pros:
Compact and fast
Includes helpful backup software
Cons:
No USB-B port
No future-proofing for you
The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim is a handy portable device if you need to carry additional data or perform backups on the go.
SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD:
The new SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD is much larger and slightly more expensive version of Samsung Portable SSD T3. It is lighting fast and supports USB 3.1 and also includes a USB-C port. It is also ready to work with existing and future host devices with two included USB cables; one for regular USB port and one for USB-C port.
SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD is a capacious portable drive that is a tad bulkier than other SSDs though, it is worthy of its current asking price of $300, $500 or $800 for 480GB, 960GB or 1.92TB respectively.
The SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD is not exactly huge, positioning around about the size of a standard portable drive like WD My Passport. It is, however, about four times the size of the Samsung T3. Regardless of the surplus in physical size, the SanDisk Extreme has slightly less storage space capping at 1.92TB (Samsung caps at 2TB.)
The SanDisk Extreme 900, similar to the T3, is secured by a shock-resistant aluminum and rubber casing. If you try tossing it around a bit on a carpet floor, it will continue to work fine. But like all storage devices, still it is recommended that you handle with care and also speaking of care, it should be kept in mind that the SanDisk comes with a three year warranty which is really short for a premium device.
The SanDisk works right away with both Mac and Windows computers, as it comes preformatted in the exFAT file system and also preloaded with security software which is once installed, protects data stores on the drive with 128-bit AES encryption. However, it should be kept in mind that if you turn on the protection and forget the password somehow, you will permanently lose access to your data.
The SanDisk Extreme 900 has a USB-C on one side and it supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 having a top speed of 10Gbps (on paper, at least). Two USB cables are also included in the drive; one USB-C to USB-A cable which is compatible with all existing USB ports and another pure USB-C cable (one having USB-C connectors on both ends) for USB-C ready computers like new Macbook.
The 1.92TB version of Extreme 900 is extremely fast but only slightly faster than already speedy Samsung T3. Both the SanDisk Extreme 900 and the Samsung Portable SSD T3 are great portable storage devices and differ mostly in physical size. If you want a device that is substantial enough for you to hold, then the SanDisk is for you. On the other hand, Samsung fits the bit is you would like something tiny and easier to carry around.
On top of that, Samsung has slightly more storage space (2TB vs. 1.92TB) and Samsung’s 1TB version is currently $100 cheaper than the 960GB version of SanDisk. But in the end, considering all things, both drives are excellent choices and the one you get largely is a matter of personal taste.
Pros:
Super fast
Includes both USB-C cable and a regular USB cable
Works with all USB ports for foreseeable future
Cons:
Drive is large
Slightly more expensive than competing drives
Too short three year warranty
Being fast, spacious and rugged, the SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD is an excellent portable drive.
Plextor S2C:
The Plextor S2S was not made to impress. It is a 6Gbps SATA standard SSD (solid-state drive) that aims to do its job on cheap. And the job it performs is straightforward which is to replace the traditional hard drive on a computer.
While the speed of S2C can’t compare to most SSD drives but it is still so much faster than any regular hard drive that it is worth getting given its relatively bargain-level price. The 512GB version features a MSRP of just under $134 in the USB or about 25 cents per Gigabyte. Like all SSDs you can expect street price to be even lower.
The S2C has one of the fastest real-world read speeds delivering 433 megabytes per second. However, the drive has a terrible write speed topping out at just 148 megabits per second.
Keep in mind however, since the read speed dictates how quickly applications launch and how fast a computer boots up, it generally contributes more to the performance of a computer than the write speed. However, when performing daily tasks like surfing the web, word processing and so on, there is not any difference between S2C and other SSDs. You need heavy tasks such as video editing, gaming and so on to notice the difference between SSDs.
You can measure endurance of an SSD by the amount of data you can write to it before it becomes unreliable. In case of the S2C, you can write up to 75TB data to the 128GB version and up to 150TB to 256GB and 512GB versions. Considering home users write just about 10GB to drive per day on average, even if they do that everyday, it would take about 20 years to wear out 128GB S2C drive or about 40 years for the higher-capacity versions.
Note that there is also an M.2 version of S2C called the S2G. M.2 is a new interface standard available in latest notebook as well as motherboards of high-end desktop and also has a much higher ceiling speed than SATA standard. Since the S2C version has the same type of controller, flash memory and other features as the S2C version. It is also likely that it will deliver exactly the same performance.
The Plextor S2C doesn’t have much going for it other than the affordable price. But cost can be an important factor when migrating from traditional hard drives to an SSD. This is because in terms of performance, SSDs are so much faster than regular hard drives that differences between then and other SSDs are barely noticeable to first-time users.
If you are looking to upgrade hard drive of your aging computer, the S2C will definitely bring about great performance improvements. And if you have experienced SSD performance before and need something even better, slightly more expensive drives like the Samsung 850 Evo, the Crucial MX300 or the Plextor M7V are better alternatives.
Pros:
Significantly faster than any regular hard drive
Low price
Cons:
When performing heavy tasks, the drive is slower as compared to other SSDs
For an aging computer, the Plextor S2C is an inexpensive replacement SSD drive but is slow as compared to top SSDs.
WD My Passport portable drive:
The new My Passport portable drive from WD is for you if you want to store a lot of data and even may be use colors to categorize your data. The drive has up to 4TB of storage space ( also available in 1TB, 2TB and 3TB) and comes in six vivid color options; yellow, black, white, blue and orange, each with a matching USB cable.
As compared to the previous My Passport models, the new drive has a completely new design. It looks no longer anything like a passport book and instead takes a squarish shape with relatively sharp edges while managing to look pretty good still. One thing to note is that it is thick at about the size of a deck of cards and measure 0.85 inch by 3.21 inch by 4.33 inches with the exception of the 1TB version which is thinner at 0.64 inch. This physical size, however, is normal for high-capacity portable drives such as the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Fast also shares the same dimensions.
The new My Passport supports USB 3.0 like most portable drives. However, it doesn’t use a USB-C port instead opting for an old Micro-USB 3.0 port. The drive’s performance is not affected by this but does mean that it will not work with computers having only USB-C, such as 12 inch Macbook.
Toin order to compensate for its lack of vision, My Passport supports the most secure 256 EAS encryption which is an optional feature that you can turn on using included security software for protecting your data from prying eyes. It also features a backup software application called WD Backup. Though it is fine to use, but not as convenient as other built-in backup tools like File History (Windows) or Time Machine (Mac).
The 4GB version performs somewhat above-average. With a sustained copy speed averaging around 110MB/s via USB 3.0, it is fast enough for almost anything you would want to do with a portable drive.
The WD My Passport is a solid option if you are looking for a portable drive with a lot of storage space and a suggested retail price ranging from $60 to $160 for 1TB to 4TB respectively. If you plan to have multiple drives and use the colors as a way to categorize your data, My Passport is definitely a great choice.
However, for something more portable, go for the Seagate Backup Plus Slim or the WD My Passport Ultra. And if USB-C is a must, the G-Tech G-Drive Mobile USB-C and Glyph Blackbox Plus are better alternatives.
Pros:
Lots of storage space
Good performance
Supports strong encryption
Eye-catching design
Cons:
No USB-C port
The high capacity versions of the drive are bulky
With the new My Passport, you can carry a lot of data and many color options open up new organizational possibilities.
WD My Book (Fall 2016):
The new drive is essentially the larger version of the My Passport measuring 6.7 by 5.5 by 1.9 inches. It is larger both in physical size as well as capacity delivering up to 8TB of storage and is also available in 3TB, 4TB and 6TB. But unlike the portable drive which comes in six colors, the My Book is available only in black which makes it kind of boring.
The new external drive shares some of the same features as its older brother including the preloaded WD Backup software and support for 256-AES encryption. It surely does what it is supposed to do, backup your data, but is only useful if you use an older version of Windows. The native Windows 10 feature, File History for backups is recommended with Windows 10 and since all Macs have built-in Time Machine, there is little need for any additional backup software.
My Book doesn’t support USB-C and instead it uses old Micro-USB 3.0 port and also includes a foot-long connection cable which means it will not work with computers that have only a USB-C port like Macbook. The My Book doesn’t have extra USB ports to work as a USB hub which is a cool feature that was first introduced by the Seagate Backup Plus Hub. The My Book requires an external power adapter to work like all desktop external hard drive.
The 8TB version of the drive has sustained copy speed of some average 170Mbps via USB 3.0, which is more than 50% faster than My Passport. However, it is not the fastest and trails behind the Seagate Backup Plus Hub by more than 10Mbps and what makes matter worse, is the expensive retail price of My Book which starts at $130 for 3TB all the way up to $300 for 8TB. The 8TB and 3TB capacities of the Seagate Backup Plus Hub can currently be had for just $230 and $100 respectively. However it is safe to say that the street price of the My Book will likely be lower.
Though it feels like My Book doesn’t have enough to justify its comparatively high cost as the drive is a tad slower than its competitors and also has no notable features other than encryption, a most important features for a desktop drive since you will not be carrying it around and likely will not lose it, you would not be disappointed getting it. When the street price gets lower, the WD My Book will also make a great desktop external storage solution.
Pros:
Fast
Good looking
Supports high level of encryption
Cons:
Doesn’t support USB-C
A bit slower than its competitors with a higher price tag
Lack additional features
Though good-looking, fast and spacious, the WD My Book has no must-have special features.
Toshiba OCZ VX500 SSD:
The OCZ VX500 is Toshiba’s latest mainstream 2.5 inch standard SSD (solid-state drive), slated to be faster than the company’s budget drives such as the OCZ Trion 100. The new drive is indeed a beast, having a sustained copy speed of 447MB/s for writing and 437MB/s for reading, which brings it among the fastest drives.
But that performance comes with a stiff price. The new VX500 SSD comes in four available capacities of 128GB. 256GB. 512GB and 1TB with the suggested retail price of $63.99, #92.79, $152.52 and $337.06 respectively or you can say somewhere between 30 to 50 cents per gigabyte, making it one of the most expensive among recent SSDs on the market.
Nowadays, you can easily find many SSDs for less than 30 cents per gigabyte. Though, Toshiba does say that the street price will very likely be lower. The OCZ VX500 doesn’t use the new and trendy 3D flash memory that is found in Samsung 850 Evo or Crucial MX300. It uses, instead, the traditional planar MLC flash memory which makes it the direct competitor of the Samsung 750 Evo.
And while the OCZ is clearly faster in copy speed and a computer’s other general activities such as game performance, application launch time and so on, it is not faster. In fact, it is at times a bit slower than the Samsung which currently costs slightly less.
But the OCZ VX500 makes up more for that in its generous warranty. The drive comes with a five year warranty as opposed to three year warranty offered on the 750 Evo, and also offers advance replacement. And in case of defect, the Toshiba will ship you a new, not refurbished, replacement SSD right away and then pay for you to ship the old one back.
The VX500 also has high endurance rating which means you can use it for quite a long time before it becomes unreliable. The high endurance rating is measured in TBW which is the number of terabytes of data that can be written to a drive. Toshiba claims that the 1TB, 512GB, 256GB and 128GB capacities of the VX500 have endurance rating of 592TBW, 296TBW, 148TBW and 74TBW respectively. Putting this in perspective, if you write 50GB, which is two Blu-ray discs worth of data, per day to the drive everyday, it will take you 4 years to use up the endurance of the 128GB version or 32 years for the 1TB version.
Overall, the Toshiba OCZ VX500 is a terrific standard SSD. However it is a little too expensive. Before buying one, you should wait for the street price to come down but you will not be disappointed either if you can’t wait. It is an excellent SSD for people who want performance. On the other hand, if you just want an SSD to upgrade your old computer that still runs on a regular hard drive, a budget friendly SSD like the Crucial MX300 or the Plextor M7V will get th job done considerably less.
Pros:
Great performance
High endurance rating
Advance shipping replacement
Five years warranty
Cons:
The new drive is rather expensive
For those with a deep pocket, the Toshiba OCZ VX500 SSD is an excellent performance SSD.
Crucial MX300 SSD:
The MX300 is the second solid-state drive that uses 3D flash memory as opposed to the traditional, planar 2D flash memory. If you assume each memory cell as a person, then 3D is to 3D flash memory as high rises are to single-family homes. You can accommodate a lot more people with the former on the same patch of land.
The Crucial MX300 is quite different from Samsung’s drive; however. For one thing, the MX300 is available in few capacities, 2TB, 1TB, 750GB, 525GN, 275GB whereas the 850 Evo can be had from 120GB all the way up to 4TB. When first released, originally the MX300 was available in a single capacity of 750GB.
The Crucial drive is ironically also missing a few crucial features, most notably of which is the ability to customize over-provisioning (which is a predetermined amount of storage space that is put aside to better the drive’s efficiency) and also to enhance speed by using a host computer’s system memory as a cache. Both perks are available on the Samsung. For this reason, though the MX300 is faster than many budget SSDs and considerably faster than any hard drive, is clearly slower than the SSD 850 Evo.
And to make up for that, the MX300 is cheaper working out at about 25 cents per gigabyte. The Samsung SSD 850 which was released two and a half years ago, costs on average 31 cents per gigabyte.
The MX300 supports the highest AES 256-bit hardware encryption which makes it ideal for business users who look to keep their data private. It also has a very high endurance rating. Crucial claims that you can write up to 220TB data to the 750GB version of drive or you can say 120GB every day for five years before it would become unreliable. That is a lot of writing since most of us don’t more than 10GB on a busy day. The Crucial MX300 comes with just three-year warranty, which is shorter than five years the Samsung SSD 850 Evo gets.
Pros:
Delivers fast performance
Uses efficient 3D flash memory
Provides strong security with hardware encryption
Cons:
Short three year warranty
The Crucial MX300 is a great deal for those needing a plenty fast SSD without spending too much. Making it easier for consumers, Crucial features a web-based tool to quickly determine which SSD will be compatible with your system.
However, on the other hand, if you want a smaller capacity, by going with the Crucial MX200, you can save money. Or if you want even faster speed, the top-notch capacity of 4TB and better feature set, the Samsung SSD 850 Evo is an excellent alternative, albeit at higher cost.
The Crucial MX300 is a good recommendation as it is a speedy and affordable choice if you are looking to upgrade your computer’s hard drive.
Buying Guide for Hard Drives and Storage Device:
The good news is that the hard drives’ shopping is not all that difficult. There is a lot of leeway for error here, in fact, as long as you follow these guidelines; you will not have to worry about buying the wrong hard drive or anything like that.
The first decision to make is whether you want a solid state drive SSD. SSD has its own pros and cons though it fulfills the same function as a traditional hard disk drive HDD. If you are unaware, the SSD is a type of drive that uses flash memory for storing data instead of spinning metal disks you would find in a traditional HDD.
SSDs are faster at writing and reading data and require less power draw conserving energy and extending laptop’s battery life. SSDs have no moving parts so they make no noise and have longer lifespan. However, the downside is that SSDs are more expensive and have smaller data capacities than HDDs.
If price is a big concern or you are buying the drive mainly as a backup drive then go with a traditional HDD. As far as HDDs are concerned, you can’t go wrong with WD Blue 1TB HDD costing only $50.
But if drive is going to run an operating system or handle a lot of frequently-accessed files and programs, then go with an SSD instead. And similarly as far as SSDs are concerned, you can’t go wrong with Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB SSD costing about $160 but performing well also lasting long.
Physical Size and Interface:
Once you have decided between an SSD and HDD, you have to pick a form factor. There are only two choices, thankfully, and the right choice will mostly be dictated by your current setup. Data drives come in two form factors: 2.5 inch drive and 3.5 inch drive.
The data, in a traditional HDD, is stored on spinning metal disks, which means more disks are needed for expanded data capacity. Desktop HDDs for this reason tend to be 3.5 inches with a maximum capacity of 4TB and laptop HDDs tend to be 2.5 inches with 2TB maximum capacity.
On the other hand, the SSDs can be made smaller because they don’t need movable parts. The most SSDs fit 2.5 inch form factor. However, if you want to fit an SSD into a 3.5 inch connector, then the adapters are available.
As far as connections are concerned, most modern consumer drives, both SSD and HDD, use SATA connections.
Specifications and Performance:
When you know what kind of drive to purchase, then it is time to find the best one that fits your needs. What you should consider is given below:
Storage capacity- how much size is enough? Well, this depends on how much you have. If most of your files are spreadsheets and word-processing documents, you will not need the biggest box on the block as 250GB or 320GB will last you quite some time.
If you have an extensive movie or music collection and you don’t intend on quitting you downloading habit soon, then bigger is better. On external storage, prices have dropped so much that there is no harm in getting a 1TB or 2TB drive.
Speed- when talking about speed meaning how quickly it takes for drive to read and write files, most drives are either eSATA or USB 2.0 devices (and, rapidly coming, USB 3.0). You might be interested in drives with a FireWire connector if you have a Mac.
eSATA is faster than USB 2.0 and it typically requires an external power source so you will be plugging the external drive into the outlet as well as into your computer. And this might be worth your while if you are going to be transferring large files.
Security-some drives act just as storage boxes that they only hold your data and do nothing more. Whereas other provide some measure of extra security whether it is file retrieval or automatic backup. These features typically cost extra, therefore it’s up to you whether you want to spend money for the peace of mind they will bring.
Networkability- if you are only computer user, you can get away with a simple external hard drive. But if you are a small business owner or have multiple computers in your house, you should look for a network-attached storage device or a NAS. Simply speaking, there are external hard drives with very large capacities that automatically backup several computers and also allow various computers to access same files.
They cost more than bare-bones external hard drives and sometimes much more, which depends on the size and number of computers you plan to back up but if you are running on multiple computers, they are invaluable devices.
Remember, it costs much less to back up your data now than it will when you pay a company to retrieve it later and also paying a retrieval service is no guarantee that you will get what you have lost.