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Portable and rugged, large external drive

WinstonSnith

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Posted November 15, 2012 at 5:06PM

Hello, I am not looking for just an external / backup drive, this baby will go travelling with me. I want to have a whacking movie library on it and have the confidence to chuck it in my bag, go on the road and know it'll be OK.

Looks like a portable SSD is the safest way forward but 128gb is about the limit of my finances and would say that 500gb would be a minimum. Best I have seen so far is this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/813172-REG/LaCie301556RuggedMiniPortable_Hard.html

What do you reckon? Or is there a good value SSD out there I have missed (and are they that much safer anyway? or just faster?)

Thanks!

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woodchip

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Posted November 16, 2012 at 11:32AM

Normal drive is no good as they do not like knocks, they are not meant to be thrown about

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Forum Editor

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Posted November 16, 2012 at 11:52AM

I travel with one of these. It passes the US military 'drop' test, which means it will withstand a drop of 1.2 metres onto a hard surface and still work.

I have accidentally knocked it off a table onto a patio, and it once slid from my jacket pocket as I took it off and landed on a wooden floor and it survived both incidents without any problem.

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WinstonSnith

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Posted November 19, 2012 at 1:13PM

Hi both, thanks for the response:

@ Woodchip, what would you recommend then? I was thinking SSD but further research is showing that the major advantage is speed and not security (so not worth the extra premium.

@ The Editor, thanks for that. All the "decent" named drives (WD, Lacie, Buffalo) seem to have the same reviews: 4.5 out of 5 with the vast majority being 5/5 and everyone else saying 1/5 and the drive failed within a short space of time. This said, the buffalo one has over 380 reviews and Lacie only 17. Given it's half the price of the Lacie, I guess it's the winner so far.

But still... is there something that scores 5/5 anywhere?! Must be! :]

This is the USB stick I use fyi:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flash-Survivor-CMFSV3-32GB-843591020367-CORSAIR/dp/B0039K178W/ref=sr112?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1353330653&sr=1-12 <---- that's TOUGH!

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WinstonSnith

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Posted November 28, 2012 at 4:55AM

I got the Lacie - seems well built and trustworthy. Will report back in 6 months!

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