By contrast, if you jolt an SSD while you're reading or writing data, there is no risk that your files will become corrupted and unreadable.Īnd, again, hard drives are slower because they have to physically access your data. If you drop the drive, you could damage the interior mechanism and make your data inaccessible. But the same tech that makes hard drives a tantalizing value becomes their biggest liability when used on the go. Since hard drives are mechanical devices that use mature technology, you can get relatively huge amounts of storage capacity for the money. These are similar to the silicon that makes up a computer's RAM, but they retain your data when electrical power is cut off. Unlike a hard drive, which stores data on spinning platters accessed by a moving magnetic head, a solid-state drive uses a collection of 'persistent' flash memory cells to save data. And because of their lack of moving parts, portable SSDs are usually more compact, slimmer, and better suited to frequent travel and accidental drops than even the most thoroughly ruggedized hard drives. They have no metal platters to spin up, nor any read/write heads that need to travel to a specific point on a platter to find the file you need. Once prohibitively expensive, SSDs of all stripes have been falling in price over the past few years, and external SSDs have emerged as alternatives to external hard drives, delivering as much as five times the speed and much greater durability. SanDisk 2TB Extreme V2 USB3.1 External SSD - £376.99 with code AFF10.LaCie 2TB Rugged SSD USB3.1 External SSD - £429.01 with code AFF10.Crucial 1TB X8 USB3.1 External SSD - £87.99.

If you need speedy local storage for lots of files (say, music or movies you carry around, or all those pics and videos you collect on your phone or camera), you may want to consider a portable solid-state drive (SSD) rather than a portable hard drive. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software.

Best solid state hard drives for macs