If you are someone who does their work on the go, you will find it necessary to have a portable storage device that can handle rough conditions like random drops, high temperatures, and minor water spills.
External drives (mainly HDDs) are so vulnerable if not handled with care. This is because they are mechanical, and a small distortion in the orientation of the plates and the head can lead to failure.
As a traveler, you may have to consider a couple of factors before deciding which external storage device to buy.
In this article, we shall share with you the features you need to consider while buying an external drive. We shall also share some of the best rugged external drives that we recommend for travelers and professionals who work on the go.
Key features you need to look at
Shock resistance: One of the major causes of hard disk failure are damages due to random drops. To mitigate this, you need to get an external hard disk with an enclosure that can absorb the impact brought by these random drops. Such enclosures are made of rubber – which is a good absorber of shock.
Water resistance: If you work on the go, you will need an external that won’t get damaged due to minor spills. So always consider an external disk that is IP rated to avoid getting issues especially during rainy days.
You will incur some extra cost to buy an external disk that is IP rated – but it will be worth investing if you are the type that works on the go
Storage size and speed: The amount of data that the disk can store and how fast you can access this data is very key. The size of the disk should largely depend on the size of the files you intend to move with.
But remember the amount you pay per GB reduces the higher you go in size. When it comes to speed, consider a drive that uses the USB 3.0 interface or higher if you want to get fast data transfer speeds
Here are some of the rugger external drives we recommend
Mini LaCie (LAC9000633) Rugged (from $77.49)
This external hard drive is water and dust-resistant. It is available in capacities from 1TB to 8TB. The disk also uses USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt + USB type C based on the options you choose. It has data transfer speeds of up to 130MB/s.
Lacie rugged are fairly good when it comes to data protection but if you still run into problems you can always consider top Lacie rugged data recovery companies.
SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable External SSD (from $72.99)
This is a rugged external SSD with data transfer speeds of up to 550MB/s. This drive is ideal for people who need very fast data transfer speeds. It uses USB 3.1 – Type c for transferring data. It is also water and dust resistant (IP55 rated)
ADATA HD710 Pro (from $56.98)
This is a less expensive rugged external drive that will get the job done for you if you don’t have a big budget. It is shockproof thanks to the rubber casing. It is also IP68 rated water-resistant and has storage capacity options ranging from 1TB to 5TB. The interface used to connect with other devices is USB 3.1.
