Windows Help & Advice - UK (2020-03)

6 Rugged

From£65,www.lacie.com

If you’relookingforanexternalhard

drivetocopewiththestressesand

strainsof modern-daylifethenyoucan’t

domuchbetterthanthebright,padded

RuggedmodelfromLacie,shockand

dropresistanttoa heightof 1.2metres

whennotrunning.

It’salsopressure-resistant,andcomes

withautomaticbackupsoftwareand

encryptiontokeepyourdataassafeas

possible.Connectionoptionsinclude

USB3.0Type-C,Thunderboltand

Firewire,andit’savailablein capacities

upto5TB.

4 My Book Duo

From £250, http://www.westerndigital.com

This Western Digital drive is for those

who really need a lot of capacity and

are happy to pay for it – as the name

suggests, the My Book Duo has two

drive bays, so you can slot in two hard

disks for a total capacity of anywhere

between 4TB and a huge 16TB.

Even with the two bays, the drive isn’t

difficult to configure, and with the

standard WD backup software supplied

you can be up and running in minutes. If

you prefer, you can have the two drives

mirror each other, so you’ve always got

two copies of your data.

ickuponeofthebest

externalharddrives

availabletodayand

youcansolveallyour

storageheadaches.

Thegoodnewsis thatchoosingan

externalharddriveneedn’tbea

P

time-consuming task – it’s mainly a

question of capacity, which boils

down to how much room you need

for all your stuff.

Consider if you want a portable

drive (powered via USB), or a fixed

desktop drive (with its own power

plug).Portabledrivesareconvenient

butcostmore,whereasdesktop

drivesarecheaperandoftenhave

highercapacities.Welikeallofthe

drivesbelow,soit reallydependson

howmuchspaceyouneedandhow

muchyou’rewillingtospend.

March 2020 | |^87

Upgrade

External hard drives

5

4

6

5 Backup Plus

From £65, http://www.seagate.com

You can pick up Seagate’s portable

drives in a host of capacities, colours,

and dimensions, so head to the

Seagate site for a comprehensive

breakdown, but across the board

you’re looking at USB 3.0, and 120 MB/s

or higher transfer rates.

There are some differences: opt for

the chunkier, 4TB ‘Fast’ model and you

get 220MB/s transfer rates in return for a

little extra bulk on the drive itself. If you

just want simple, affordable, reliable

backups (software is included), then

these are great portable options.