Portable Hard Drives

Portable Hard Drives

While cloud storage is hugely valuable, and definitely has a place in any backup regimen, using a hard drive to create offline copies of your images will give you an extra layer of protection. It’s data that can’t be hacked or deleted by malicious actors, nor wiped out because you can no longer afford a cloud-services subscription.

There are two main types of external hard drives – SSDs (solid-state drives) and HDDs (hard disk drives). The key difference is that hard disk drives have moving internal parts and solid-state drives do not (hence, “solid-state”). A hard disk drive reads and writes data using a rotating disk. As such, they are a bit less robust than solid-state drives, as jolting this mechanism while it’s working can cause damage and even data loss.

Solid-state drives work using microchips instead of disks, and this makes them smaller and tougher than HDDs. They also tend to have faster read/write speeds, as there’s no need to physically rotate a disk in order to access the data. While HDDs are generally more affordable, solid-state drives are largely preferred by working photographers and videographers for storing large volumes of data.

One of the first decisions you’ll need to make when choosing a portable hard drive is how much capacity you’re likely to need. If you’ve got vast numbers of files to store, then you’ll want as much storage as possible – bigger drives will offer multiple terabytes of storage space, though are naturally more expensive than ones with lower capacity.

It’s also worth thinking about transfer speeds. If you’re frequently loading data on and off your hard drive, getting a model with fast read/write speeds is a good idea, if only to reduce the amount of time you spend sitting inside a progress bar. You may want to consider a drive with USB 3.1 or 3.2 connectivity, as this will enable faster wired transfer speeds.

When shopping for portable hard drives, you may also want to consider how tough you need them to be. Are you likely to be transporting them from place to place, perhaps taking them into situations where they might get bashed about, or even get wet? If so, it’s a good idea to get a rugged or even a water-resistant drive to make sure your data stays safe. Some drives also offer advanced levels of encryption, with password protection for added security. If you’re working on sensitive or embargoed content, this is a good way to shield it from prying eyes.

View Our Awards »