Data Backup Digest

If one were to think of all of the stored media on their computers, they would be devastated if it was lost. Today, almost every household owns a personal computer with media stored on their hard drives. Photos, movies, songs, and text documents are among the important files that are stored on our computer's internal hard drives. One major issue that consumers face is a failing hard drive. Once a drive fails, all data stored on it is lost and cannot be recovered. However, there are safeguards in place to backup and save your data, the most popular option being external drives.

External hard drives are becoming increasingly popular in recent years. The ability to backup and transfer files on the go is appealing to most. While flash drives hold the ability to transfer files on the go, they are limited in size. External hard drives mimic the size of internal hard drives in computers, yet they possess almost the same level of portability that flash drives offer.

Some external hard drives require a power adapter as well as the USB connection cable to function. Portable external hard drives, on the other hand, only require the USB cable to power and transfer files to the computer. The Seagate Expansion 1TB USB 3.0 Portable hard drive, for example, uses a single USB 3.0 connection cable. USB 3.0 offers up to 10x faster speeds than its predecessor, USB 2.0. However, this hard drive only spins at 5400 RPM, which is a lot slower when compared to 7200+ RPM hard drives.

The form factor of the Seagate portable hard drive is 2.5”, making it ultra-portable. This hard drive will easily fit in a pocket or backpack, rivaling the portability of flash drives. The hard drive is an easy way to take all files on the go, and to store large amounts of files in one small device. This device is suited for someone looking to back up their main computer, or a college student keeping a portfolio of their work throughout the years.

As far as storage is concerned, this hard drive can hold an incredible amount of files. At 1TB, or 1000GB, it can hold 17,000 hours of music, or 250 full-length DVD films. For a regular user, the Seagate Expansion drive should offer enough storage for everyday files.

Included in the package are the hard drive and an 18” USB cable, which some found to be too short. Also others have complained about slow transfer speeds with this drive, which is due to the low RPM. Some users had problems with it not being recognized by the operating system after about a month, which is covered in the one-year warranty.

The Seagate Expansion drive sits at about $79.99 on most online retailers. If you are looking for a small hard drive with plenty of storage, this is the drive for you. If you are concerned with speeds, look at some Western Digital drives.

I give this product a 3/5. Based on the qualities of this hard disk drive, it may be a good fit for your personal or business data storage needs.