external hard drive Archives - Argyll Free Press

Doesn’t matter if you make a living working from home, or at a big corp, having your data backed up is a must. I have countless stories to tell you about how I lost my precious work which I slaved for countless days without end, but let’s not recall my stupidity – I was young, and foolish, didn’t quite cared about this whole backing your data up thing.

Now I consider myself a grown-up, and grown-ups take care of themselves, right? Well, I’m not going to tell you that you need to learn how to properly cook chicken, or how to pack your bags, I’m here to tell you that you need an external hard drive if you don’t want to have a mental breakdown at some point in your life.

As the title suggests, this is going to be an external hard drive round-up – with a few solid state drives worth mentioning. For about $150 you can get one of the best external hard drives on the market, and if you choose to cough up more cash you can even get an external solid state drive – which is unmeasurably superior to the traditional hard drives.

Without further ado, I present you the best external hard drives for any budget. Whether you’re using it for gaming, or just backing up your data, it’s going to do its job exceptionally well.

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2 TB

When it comes down to hard drives you can always consider looking at Seagate products. Their Seagate Backup Plus Slim costs $150, and it has a capacity of 2 TB.

It’s pocket-size, and can fit in your back-pack without problems, it also sports a pretty coolio design if you care for that stuff – I for one think that design in hard drives is a waste of resources, but that’s a discussion we’ll have some other time.

Now, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim isn’t the best external hard drive that you can buy, but it’s one of the cheapest ones that features a 2 TB capacity.

As soon as you get the external backup drive in your hands you’ll notice how the painted aluminium top panel shines a little bit – you can get it in red, black, blue, and even silver. Measuring 0.5 by 4.5 by 3 inches (HWD) and weighing 6 ounces it will absolutely fit your front pocket – even though, I really don’t see why you would keep it there.

The drive supports USB 3.0 via a detachable 18-inch cable, which I consider a little bit short. All the new laptops have 3.0 ports, so you don’t need to worry about compatibility issues.

One of the most awesome things about this external hard drive is that Seagate packs it with an installer for its Dashboard program, which makes syncing your data from your PC, or Mac feel like a warm Summer breeze. It doesn’t back up automatically program and operating system files, so you need to do so manually.

Another great functionality that Seagate added is the possibility of syncing your data from your Android, or iOS device using WiFi or the cloud. Just download the free app from the store, and set it up. It’s no rocket science, actually, it’s highly intuitive.

You should know that the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2 TB external hard drive has a rotation speed of only 5400 RPM, which can be a deal breaker to some. It copied a 1.5 GB folder in about 15 seconds. It’s not the fastest external hard drive, but it does its job rather well.

As a fair warning, some users have encountered problems with their device. As far as I know Seagate has recalled a couple of batches, and it has announced that it was due to some factory incidents. Some users have encountered loose wires inside of their hard drive.

It comes with a two year warranty.

Pros

– Super small, and super portable

– Affordable external hard drive

Cons

– It only has a rotation speed of 5400 RPM

– Users have encountered loose wires

Monster Digital 1 TB Overdrive

The Monster Digital 1 TB Overdrive is one of the most reliable external solid state drives on the market. It does cost about $760, and I’ve seen it in some retail shops for about $1000 too.

Even at $760, this external solid state drive is quite expensive for my taste, and it only has 1 TB. But it has a Thunderbolt cable which is physically impossible to lose – and a Thunderbolt flash drive is always welcome in my book.

It measures 0.59 by 3.5 by 5.25 inches (HWD), and it weighs about 7 ounces which makes it pocket-size, and portable. No worries here that it will cramp up your back while carrying it.

It has an aluminium body, and it’s a perfect pair to any Apple MacBook that you might be using – more so considering the fact that some MacBook’s come with a meager 65 GB flash drive. It doesn’t come in a variety of colours, so you have to get accustomed to the silver external solid state drive. It’s considered the best ssd drive for Mac.

There’s no USB 3.0 port or cable which might be a huge problem if you your device doesn’t have a Thunderbolt port. Also, the Thunderbolt permanently attached cable is really short – I seriously don’t know what manufacturers are thinking. It’s like they don’t even own a PC.

You can overlook its port variety – which is non-existent; because the Monster Digital 1 TB OverDrive can copy a 1.5 GB folder in about 3 seconds. Yup, 3 seconds! It’s one of the fastest solid state drives on the market – for about $1000, it’s a good thing it is, because nobody would buy it otherwise.

It comes with a three year warranty, and also with a three year free data recovery service. The latter is quite an awesome deal considering the fact that a professional recovery service costs about $100.

Pros

– Pocket-sized, it can be carried anywhere without posing a problem

– Super-fast

Cons

– Only a Thunderbolt port, which is really short

– Super expensive

– No USB 3.0 port

Western Digital My Passport Pro

Another company that has its positions cemented as one of the best external hard drive manufacturers on the market. The Western Digital My Passport Pro device isn’t known for being the best portable external hard drive, because it’s seriously bulky. You can carry it in your backpack, and it won’t be a strain to your back, but you’ll definitely feel it.

It’s on the cheap side – it costs about $350, but I’ve seen it at $450 too, so be careful when you choose your retailer.

It offers a huge capacity of 4 TB – something which I consider more than enough for the average Joe. If you’re rendering high-quality video you should be looking for a solid state drive, or at least an external hard drive that offers more than 10 TB – there’s one from G-Technology that offers 18 TB, but it costs about $3000. Also, NewEgg has a 48 TB Rack consisting of 8x 6 TB pieces that might satisfy your needs if you’re looking for overkill, but it costs $6000.

Now let’s get back to My Passport Pro – it’s super spacious, and I definitely recommend it because it features a Thunderbolt port, and it also has a rotation speed of 7200 RPM.

It’s much thicker than your average external hard drive – it’s about two inches tall, and it weighs about 1.56 pounds. Yeah, it’s portable, and if you put it on your coffee table it won’t crumble under its weight, but it’s worth noting that there are other smaller, and thinner external hard drives on the market.

As I said before, I love it because it has a Thunderbolt cable – I don’t love the fact that it’s permanently attached to the external hard drive, but I guess I’m sort of weird in that way. I have to warn you that the Thunderbolt cable is super short.

When you buy a Thunderbolt external hard drive, you buy it with speed in mind, and in this department the Western Digital device doesn’t disappoint. It took it 6 seconds to copy a 1.5 GB folder.

I consider it one of the best external hard drives, it’s super reliable, and in my experience I haven’t encountered any issues with it – also, forums aren’t riddled with complaints that their Western Digital external hard drive just failed on them. It’s always recommended to do a quick Google search about issues, and why not, go to their official support forum, and see what complaints there are.

The Western Digital My Passport Pro external hard drive is primary aimed at those who need a budget drive for stocking HD video, and clips. If you wish to buy it for gaming take notice that you would better do with a SSD.

It has a three year warranty.

Pros

– Huge capacity that consists of 4 TB

– Speedy

– Thunderbolt port

Cons

– Bulky

Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive

I love me some Seagate products. This external hard drive comes with a 5 TB capacity, and it only costs about $220 – although I’ve seen it at the low price of $150.

This isn’t the best hard drive for gaming because it only has a rotation speed of 5400 RPM, but if you’re to use it to stock your pictures, mp3s, and vacation videos it’s going to this its job more than fine.

It’s made out of a black polycarbonate, and it has three perforated holes to satisfy its cooling needs. It has the Seagate logo moulded at the front, and at the back you can find the USB 3.0 port, and the jack for the AC adapter – which is included with your purchase. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a Thunderbolt port, but I’ll let this slide because it features a 5 TB capacity for only $150!

It measures about 1.75 by 4.75 by 7 inches (HWD) – not the smallest portable external hard drive on the market.

It comes as a already formatted NTFS hard drive which makes it super easy to drag and drop whatever you want to back-up – or you can reformat it by yourself so you can use Time Machine.

As I mentioned before, Seagate packs almost all of its products with a Dashboard installer which makes syncing super easy – although it won’t synch up your program or operating system files. It also features a free Android, and iOS app that you can download from your desire OS store. By using the app you can sync files from your social network, or basically just from your phone, with just one push of a button.

Also, you can set up your Dashboard to check Flickr, or Facebook accounts, and sync up photos, and videos – it automatically downloads all the new stuff if you set it up to do so.

It took about 19 seconds to copy our 1.5 GB test folder. I, for one, don’t consider this a major issue, but if you’re looking for a high-speed external hard-drive, I’m sorry to tell you, but this isn’t the droid you’re looking for. It does its job well, and I can honestly name it the most reliable external hard drive on the market, but that’s about it.

It comes with a two year warranty – all of the cheapest external hard drives come with only a meager two year warranty.

This 5 terabyte external hard-drive is what I’m currently using at the moment, and I’m more than happy with what it outputs.

Pros

– Huge capacity that consists of 5 TB

– Affordable

– Dashboard Software

Cons

– Bulky

– Slow

LaCie Fuel

Another budget external hard drive – this one costs $200, but I’ve seen it at $180 as well.

Because it has a built-in WiFi, it can significantly increase your smartphone storage. Its capacity consists of 1 TB – although it may seem low, all of the features compensate for the lack of space.

Measuring 4.5 by 4.5 by 0.9 inches (HWD), the LaCie Fuel external hard drive features quite the design, which makes me think of some gadget out of a Bond movie.

Its chassis is built out of black-grey polycarbonate, sporting a bright orange corner – for the hipster inside you.

Even if you are a FLAC fan, it will take some time to fill up your LaCie Fuel external hard drive – it can hold up to 100,000 320kbps songs, or a few hundred movies.

You can easily drag and drop files to the external hard drive to copy them, and because LaCie Fuel is such a good guy it uses the same apps as the Seagate Wireless Plus thus making it compatible with Android, iOS and the Kindle format. It can be easily paired to the Seagate Media Sync app that searches your tablet, or smartphone for files that it can back-up.

It has a USB 3.0 port, and a detachable cable. But, because it has a rotation speed of 5400 I seriously don’t recommend it for gaming.

The best thing about the Fuel external hard drive is that you can basically make it a WiFi router. A friend of mine is a proud owner of the LaCiel Fuel external hard drive – and when I say proud, I really mean it, he can’t stop talking about how awesome it is. Mark, if you read this, please shut up, you’re becoming really annoying.

You can also password protect it while it’s serving you as a WiFi router, and you can turn the option off without problems.

The device claims to last up to 10 hours, and it’s super easy to recharge using its included AC adapter. On the other hand, my buddy claims that it can last up to 8 hour and 40 minutes – it’s not bad, but it’s worth mentioning.

It comes with a two year warranty.

Pros

– Affordable

– You can use it as a Wi-Fi router

– Can last up to almost hours

– It has an AC adapter included

Cons

– Not that reliable

– It only has a USB 3.0 port

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The International CES 2015 trade show hasn’t even officially started and companies have begun releasing information about new lines. The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 is going to commence tomorrow, 5 January, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. This year’s CES will be showcasing more than 3,500 exhibitors (suppliers, developers and manufacturers of consumer tech hardware and content) and around 160,000 people from more than 140 countries are expected to attend.

Lenovo couldn’t wait any longer and unveiled eight new ThinkPad laptops and a ThinkPad Stack System that is going to generate quite a commotion, we believe. Let’s take a look at those ThinkPads and the ThinkPad Stack System!

Before we begin, we would like to announce one of the most important changes that Lenovo made to their ThinkPad 2015 laptop line: the physical function keys are back! Last year, Lenovo replaced the physical buttons with an adaptive panel with touch-sensitive buttons and the users weren’t at all happy with that. Also, the touchpad sees the return of two right and left clickers.

Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops

The new Lenovo ThinkPad line has two Ultrabooks that are the company’s flagship products and they are both getting updated for the New Year. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a portable 14-inch laptop that has a high-resolution touch screen (optional feature, naturally) with a light but rigged case that weighs just 2.9 pounds. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon starts at $1,249 and will be available for purchase later this month.

The other flagship Lenovo laptop that the company unveiled at the CES 2015 is the Lenovo ThinkPad X250, a 12.5-inch laptop that weighs just 2.8 pounds and is only 0.8 inches thick. This laptop works with Lenovo’s Power Bridge technology which is a dual battery system that allows the user to configure the laptop for traveling for maximum battery life but also lowest weight. The Lenovo ThinkPad X250 starts at $1,149 and will be available for purchase starting February 2015.

The Lenovo ThinkPad 450 series has three new laptops: the Lenovo T450s, the Lenovo T450 and the Lenovo L450. The Lenovo ThinkPad T450s has a 14-inch display, weighs only 3.5 pounds and is 0.83 inches thick. It is compatible with Lenovo’s Power Bridge that can extend battery life when one needs it. The price starts at $1,099.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T450 also has a 14-inch display, but it is a bit heavier than the T450s model: it weighs 4 pounds and is 0.88 inches thick. The price stars at $849.

The Lenovo ThinkPad L 450 laptop has a 14-inch display that does not have a touch screen option, like all the other in the 450 line do. It’s also the heaviest and thickest: 4.25 pounds and 0.96 inches thick. The price starts at $699. All three Lenovo ThinkPad 450 series laptops will be available starting February 2015.

Lenovo also thought of those folks who prefer larger displays on their laptops when it created the new Lenovo T550. You can choose from two sizes: you can either get a 15.6-inch display or a 15.5-inch display with the high resolution of 2880×1620. The T550 comes with a RAM memory of up to 16GB, up to 1TB of HDD or 512GB of SSD and features all the ports and jack one needs to turn it into a desktop replacement. It weighs 5 pounds and is 0.88 inches thick. The Lenovo T550 will be available in February 2015 and the price starts at $999.

The Lenovo E ThinkPad line has two brand-new laptops: the Lenovo ThinkPad E550 and the Lenovo ThinkPad E450. The E550 has a 15.6-inch display, weighs 5.2 pounds, is 0.94 inches thick and starts at $599. The E450 has a 14-inch display, weighs 4 pounds, is 0.87 inches thick and starts at $599. Neither of the E laptops are available with a touch screen, but they do have optional optical drives. The internal storage for both laptops can be configured up to 1TB of HDD or 128GB of SSD. Both laptops will be available for purchase in February 2015.

Lenovo ThinkPad Stack System

Lenovo also launched a new and exciting ThinkPad Stack System, an accessory system line compatible with their ThinkPad laptop line. This system is designed to help you be more organized and get rid of any desk clutter. But there is a trick to them! What separates these accessories from the classic docks and external drives is the fact that the new Lenovo ThinkPad Stack accessories are stackable! That’s right, you can stack them on top of each other to achieve the neatest desk on the block.

This new innovative, albeit weird-looking system isn’t just a pretty way to stack things, because the devices connect to each other, while stacked, eliminating cabling. Get all four devices, stack them on top of each other and only use one single cable or just get one or two, they work perfectly as a team, as well as individual devices.

Here are the four ThinkPad Stack modules that Lenovo unveiled at CES 2015, available starting April 2015:

Bluetooth Speaker. It costs $89.99 and it is meant for audio and conference call handling. 3.5 mm micro USB.
Power Bank. This device costs $49.99, has dual USB, microUSB and 10,000 mAH.
HDD. This HDD costs $199.99 and features 1TB of internal memory, USB 3.0 and password security.
Access Point. This one also costs $199.99 and it is a LTE data hotspot.

Lenovo is taking a big chance with these four devices, mainly because they’re quite strange-looking and secondly, because their stackability is something that the users need to grow accustomed to. Whether this whole system will take off, we don’t know, but we’re betting a lot of people are going to try it!

Are any of these ThinkPad Laptops or devices from the ThinkPad Stack System seem appealing to you? Drop us a line in the comment section below and share your thoughts with us.

The Best External Hard Drive On The Market – A Quick List!