What is the difference between portable and desktop hard drives

Looking at the proportion of reviews, rather than the totals, helped us account for that. But all the drives shared the same basic complaints no matter which one we looked at: All had reports of failure spanning anywhere from day one to a few years in. Still, we used the information in owner reviews to the best of our ability to weed out drives that seemed especially unreliable. In our real-world transfer tests, the Toshiba Canvio Flex consistently performed faster than the other portable drives we tested.

All the drives in our test group were rated for the latest, USB 3. But each of the portable drives other than the Canvio Flex had at least one major shortcoming in our testing: The Toshiba Canvio Gaming 4 TB failed to perform three of our initial benchmark tests in a row, the LaCie Mobile Drive 5 TB took nearly 10 times as long on both the large- and small-file read tests, and the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2 TB took roughly five times as long as the others on the small-file write test.

In addition to consistently being the fastest drive we tested, the Canvio Flex is at this writing the cheapest per terabyte. Note that the Canvio Flex maxes out at 4 TB, which should be enough to back up most laptops a few times over or to hold large media libraries.

Most other drives have a two-year warranty. When we looked at Amazon customer reviews regarding reliability, the Canvio Flex had a lower proportion of one-star drive-failure complaints than the competition did. But there are always outliers, which is why we recommend that you use a cloud backup service in conjunction with your external drive to protect your most important data. The only other drive we tested that came with both kinds of cables was the LaCie Mobile Drive, which we dismissed for other reasons.

Like other portable drives, however, the Canvio Flex is small enough that you can more easily tuck it away in tighter spaces than a bulky desktop drive. The Toshiba Canvio Flex came out on top in our portable hard drive tests, but compared with the desktop hard drives, it was still a bit slower.

An external desktop hard drive is great for those working more regularly from their external drives or transferring large files frequently. Although it requires a free outlet for its power supply and is bulkier than our portable pick, the Toshiba Canvio Flex, this desktop model is noticeably faster at transferring all kinds of data.

Seagate gives you a two-year warranty for the Backup Plus Hub; most drives we looked at had two or three years of coverage. This model also has a relatively low percentage of one-star Amazon complaints related to drive failure.

Some external hard drives lie flat, but the Backup Plus Hub can stand upright like a book on a shelf, taking up a little less space on a desk. And people who want the smallest, most discreet option would be better off with our portable pick, anyway. Get it if you want a hard drive for your desktop and the Seagate Backup Plus Hub is out of stock, or if you need a capacity larger than 10 TB.

The Seagate Expansion drive performed fine in our large-file transfer tests but had the slowest speeds of any desktop drive we tested in our small-file transfer tests. It also disconnected itself from our PC without warning in the midst of testing and failed to connect again afterward. Accessible capacity may vary depending on operating environment and formatting.

Quantitative usage examples for various applications are for illustrative purposes. Actual quantities will vary based on various factors, including file size, file format, features, and application software. The actual number of images per hard drive will vary and depends on the camera model.

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Portable hard drives, though, are built to withstand the occasional drop. They also feature a smaller, more streamlined design for easy stashing in a backpack or purse. Portable hard drive cases are also available to add another layer of protection. Like most tech-related decisions, your choice of an external hard drive will come down to performance requirements and personal preference. If you spend more time in a static office setting where processing speed is more important than convenient size and durability, then a non-portable external hard drive is the clear winner.

Or if you want to make sure all your data archiving bases are covered, simply buy one of each. Choose the right device for external hard drive storage. Non-Portable Hard Drives If you spend the majority of your time working from a desktop computer, then you will need a non-portable external hard drive. Portable Hard Drives Portable hard drives, on the other hand, are designed to emulate the drives found in laptop computers.

Pin 2. Product Information. I have found that type A and B seem to last a 3 year period generally, the miniature versions last years and the miniature USB 3 can fail after just 10 insertions. A desktop external hard drive and portable external hard drive would be pretty much the same in terms of fallibility - assuming the cases are equal.

This is because external hard drives actually use internal hard drives in an enclosure During the Thailand Flood hard drive shortage it was not uncommon to break open external drives to extract the drives for internal use.

Thus it is worth looking at the materials with respect of cooling, cushioning of falls of the enclosure. The primary difference between 2. Unfortunately, larger platters take more power to spin, and have greater inertia.

They also have larger seek times as the head needs to move further - which is one of the reasons why historically servers often deploy 2. Smaller drives have less inertia, and are thinner disks, so another advantage in terms of reduced vibration etc.

Small drives are less prone to overheat because they use a fraction of the power of large drives smaller motors for a start. They also often have fewer platters. I put to you that you should not be looking to a 3.

I'm not making recommendations here, but these drives do exist. For example here , here , here or here. Sign up to join this community.

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Alice Alice 1 1 gold badge 2 2 silver badges 6 6 bronze badges. Performance may be different too - a 2. A full sized, powered drive is usually a 3. A self powered portable hd is typically 2.

At base, 3. Both types of drives get placed into external enclosures, but more pre-packaged external drives are 2.