In addition to storing large media collections, these drives can also serve as inexpensive repositories for backups of your computer's hard drive that you schedule, using either software that comes with the drive or a third-party backup utility. The 5TB WD My Passport is a product of the manufacturer's added effort to make a simple plastic box look attractive.

Some in the storage industry refer to these (as well as smaller-capacity externals as a whole) as DAS—for "direct attached storage"—to distinguish them from NAS, or network attached storage, many of which are also multi-bay devices that can take two or more drives that you supply.But I'd like it to be of decent quality, if possible, and my budget is limited, so spending a ton more to put my own together in a case is a very poor option (and my luck with bring-your-own-drive external cases is terrible anyway). I currently focus my testing efforts on 3D printers, pro and productivity displays, and drives and SSDs of all sorts. What makes this extra cost worth it is that these drives are tailor-made for network-attached storage (NAS) setups.

Both manufacturers seem to have no way to determine which drive is which without opening and possibly completely shucking it. Anti shock, anti shockHigh-strength aluminum alloy shell, due to the rapid thermal conductivity of aluminum alloy, the surface of the product has higher body temperature during use. The DT2 isn't slim or portable like many external drives—in form, it’s a classic desktop spinning hard drive. As a rule, portable drives get their power from the computer to which you connect them, through the interface cable, so there's no need for a wall outlet or a power cord/brick. To help the connection of your appliance go smoothly, please watch our dishwasher or washing machine connection video.

Since 2004, I have worked on PCMag’s hardware team, covering at various times printers, scanners, projectors, storage, and monitors. The USB standard a drive relies upon to connect to your devices will determine a number of things about its potential performance, including maximum transfer rate. Depending on which RAID level you choose, you can prioritize capacity, speed, or data redundancy, or some combination thereof. Its IP (ingress protection) rating of IP68 for dust resistance and waterproofing (in the last case, submerged up to two meters for up to one hour) matches the best rating of any hard drive or SSD we have reviewed.