A question we often get is this; what is the best portable hard drive? Our clients have already experienced data loss and its hurt. Our clients want to make sure they don’t lose their data again, so they have a choice between a hard disk drive versus solid state drive.

Solid state drives or SSDs are expensive and don’t store as much data as hard disk drives, but are much more reliable. A rugged exterior is important if you are going to be physically transporting data on your drive. One thing hard disk drives (and solid state drives to a lesser extent) do not like is shock, especially whilst powered up.

Hard drives and solid state drives are like cars. Their manufacturing quality differs hugely. Add to this research, development and testing. Some manufacturers like Hitachi really spend a lot of time creating their drives and take pride in low failure rates. In fact HGST drives are 70% less likely to fail than Toshiba - a failure rate of just 1% over the last twelve months, against Toshiba at 3.5%, Seagate at 3.7% and Western Digital at 7%.

Before deciding on which portable drive you are going to purchase, check that there are no issues. For instance Seagate BackUp Plus 3TB Portable HDD uses the ST3000DM001 model, which allegedly has a manufacturing defect causing high failure rates. Make sure you do your research beforehand! Having said that Seagates 2TB BackUp Plus Slim is rated as one of the most inexpensive, reliable and fast hard drives around.

Will we stick our neck out and say which is the best portable hard disk drive or solid state drive? With so many to choose from and users requirements all being different, it is difficult to settle on any single model. For us though, HGST or Hitachi as they were formerly known offer some of the most reliable products around and our clients have reliability in the forefront of their minds.