GO FOR A DRIVE

External hard drives aren’t just about capacity. Keep these additional factors in mind when shopping…

01 HDD or SSD?

All the products here are based around conventional hard disk drives (HDD). Solid state drives (SSD) are faster, but you’d need to shell out big bucks for a large-capacity model.

02 Make connections

Almost all external hard drives connect using USB 3.0, but are also backward-compatible with older computers using USB 2.0. Drives featuring Thunderbolt or Fire-Wire ports are also available.

03 Formatting

Some drives are pre-configured to work with Mac or Windows machines. This can usually be changed to enable cross-platform compatibility, though you may need additional software.

04 Style matters

Sleek, metal drive cases don’t just look the part, they also help dissipate the heat from the hard drive within.

05 Feel the speed

Don’t expect an external hard drive to always perform at its best. Transferring a large batch of image files will always take longer than shifting a single video file of the same size, for example.