What's the best external hard drive for photos for photographers? An SSD (solid state drive) hard drive, of course. It's an improvement version of the HDD (hard disk drive). Why do photographers should adopt this new SSD hard disk technology? The reason is simple: just like a memory stick, there are no moving parts within an SSD hard drive. So you've got both reliability and high performance for photo and video editing. I'll go through some of the best portable SSD hard drives by looking into two main factors, speed and reliability. Top rated external SSD external hard drives for photographers should be:
- USB-C compatible for fast data transfer
- Shock, dust, and water resistant
- Small and lightweight
- Compatible with major operating systems like Mac, Windows, and Linux
A List of Top 10 Best Portable SSD Hard Drives for Travel Photographers in 2020
Specifications:- In comparison to large external hard drives developed by Seagate and Western Digital, the Samsung 2.5 inch is the world's largest hard drive with 16 TB capacity. This is specially designed for enterprise purposes. It would easily fit in your laptop and its price is. Best Buy customers often prefer the following products when searching for Largest External Hard Drives. Browse the top-ranked list of Largest External Hard Drives below along with associated reviews and opinions. WD - easystore 18TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive - Black Model: WDBAMA0180HBK-NESN. Seagate Portable Hard Drive 2TB HDD - External Expansion for PC Windows PS4 & Xbox - USB 2.0 & 3.0 Black (STEA2000400) Safely store photos, movies, designs, files, games and more with 16TB of storage space Engineered for compatibility with Windows computers and laptops, Playstations, and Xbox.
SanDisk Extreme 900 portable SSD
Top of the notch SSD hard drive from global brand SanDisk, the Extreme 900 portable SSD is unbeatable in term of speed. This is amazing. Photographers with high end DSLR camera love this kind of high-performance portable SSD hard drive. You don't even need drivers when connecting your computer to the hard drive. The other important feature we should not overlook is temperature and impact resistant.
Pros
- Read up to 850 MB/s and write up to 850 MB/s, using USB 3.1 Gen 2
- Compatible with PC & Mac computers
Cons
- Speed not matched as mentioned
- Not for running operating system
Samsung T3 Portable SSD
Second after SanDisk, I'd recommend Samsung T3 Portable SSD. The Samsung SSD T3 works well with PC, Mac, and even Android operating system. It's very compact and lightweight. This sleek SSD hard drive fits well in your pocket, so you can take all your photos with you anywhere you go.
Pros
- Read-write up to 450 MB/s
- Achieve the best performance with USB-C cable (make sure you have a USB-C cable support at least 5Gb/s transfer speed)
Cons
- Not friendly with Apple devices
VectoTech Rapid 2TB External SSD USB 3.0 Portable Solid State Drive
This portable SSD hard drive is a great addition to your storage needs. It's easy to use; it's plug and play. The SSD drive offers fast transfer speeds. Slick and lightweight is usually preferable by travel photographers. In addition, VectoTech Rapid Portable SSD is shock and vibration resistance, so it's a plus when you move around a lot.
Pros
- Super fast Read/Write speeds up to 450Mb/s
- Shock and vibration resistant
- 2-year manufacturer warranty
Cons
- Need driver installation with Mac OS powered devices
PNY Elite Portable SSD
This external Solid State Drive is ideal for photographers, videographers, graphic designers who needs to back-up or transfer large files. It was built with performance and reliability in mind. It's also probably one of the most compact SSD hard drives in portable SSD class. It works on MAC and Windows out of box. Plug and play. The down size is storage capacity available, unlike the above reviewed portable SSD hard drives, which offer more capacity.
- Read up to 430 MB/s and write up to 400 MB/s
- Great look, feel and quality of materials
WD 2TB My Passport SSD Portable Storage – USB 3.1
What I really love about this WD My Passport SSD hard disk is its shock-resistance, compact storage in a durable design. The automatic backup feature is useful for most photographers. Overall, it's the best SSD portable hard drive for Macs.
- Read speeds up to 540 MB/s
- USB Type-C and USB 3.1
U32 Shadow External 2TB USB-C (3.1 Gen 2) Portable Solid State Drive SSD
The Thunderbolt 3 compatibility makes the U32 Shadow External SSD drive outstanding for its speed and performance. On the other hand, this SSD hard disk is quite portable, which makes it easy to pack and travel.
- Compatible with USB 3.1/3.0 and Thunderbolt 3
- Durable build and design with aluminum housing
LaCie Rugged 1TB Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 SSD Portable Hard Drive
If you travel a lot for photography purpose, LaCie Rugged Portable Hard Drive will survive extreme data security in most circumstances.
- Shock, dust, and water resistant for all-terrain use
- Speeds of up to 387 MB/s
Seagate Portable 4TB External Hard Drive USB 3.0
Seagate has been popular for years as a hard drive maker. This external SSD hard drive is quite affordable for most photographers. What's more? You won't sacrifice the reliability with this Seagate brand. Overall, it's the best cheap external SSD hard drive everyone can buy.
- Lightweight and compact design
- Plastic top cover
- Mac compatibility
Samsung T5 Portable SSD
With read and write speeds up to 540 MB/s, it's a great travel hard drive for photographers. It's compact and lightweight.
- Compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Android devices
- Metal design
- Read-Write speeds of up to 540 MB/s
- Comes with USB Type C to C and USB Type C to A cables
SanDisk Extreme 500GB Portable SSD: The Best Waterproof
If your ultimate choice is the best water-resistant external SSD hard disk, you should not look further. The SanDisk Extreme 500GB is my favorite.
- Up to 550MB/s read speeds
- IP55 for water and dust resistance
- Shock-resistant (Shock-resistant (up to 1500G)
- Vibration-resistant (5g RMS, 10-2000 HZ)
- Non-operating temperature
- For PC and Mac users
Toshiba Canvio Advance 2TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0
Compatible with Mac and Windows, the Toshiba Canvio is a USB 3 portable hard disk made for storing photographs. It's quite easy to use with a MacBook laptop to backup photos. Overall, it's very reliable.
For those photographers with a massive collection of photographs, I'd recommend that you should either buy a few of the Toshiba Canvio external hard drives or get the 4TB capacity.
- Slim design
- Toshiba Storage Backup Software (downloadable)
- Automatic backup and password protection
Good to Know
Of all the digital storage, the SSD technology is a good investment. For most travel photographers, what we need most is digital storage to keep all their photographs. Having the best SSD hard drive is essential for most of us. I chose the to best portable SSD hard drives over normal external hard drives because of these two factors: reliability and speed.
These features are what we need to pay attention to before buying an external hard drive to store and backup our photos. The top rated external hard drives will make photographers and videographers easier for use in the home studio or travel, especially for backup large photo files. There are times we our normal external hard disks are having issues due to its old technology. With the best portable SSD hard drives you'll feel more comfortable storing your valuable photos.
What's else? If you're looking for a gift idea for your friend who's a passion photographer, giving the best external SSD hard disk is a great choice. The list above gives you a variety of options for either Windows or Mac users.
In 1956 when IBM introduced the first iteration technology, it could only hold 5MB worth of data, and a hard drive as then was as large a two household refrigerators. However, with advancement in technology and innovativeness, hard drives with greater storage capacity, smaller sizes, performance, and flexibility are available to us.
Nevertheless, having a copy of your personal or business data backed up safely in a hard drive is a good thing to do, but knowing the right hard drive that can give you the needed storage space, flexibility, and performance is a hard nut to crack. Therefore, we'll outline and discussed the top 5 largest external hard drives to help you make the right choice.
Top 5 Largest External Hard Drives That You Don't Want to Miss Out
#1. Samsung 16TB SSD
Company Name: Samsung
Specifications: Samsung is an outstanding hard drive when compared to other big names like Seagate, Western Digital, Transcend and Synology. Samsung 16TB SSD is the world largest hard drive that's specifically designed for business enterprises. It has 48 layers of 3-bit per cell and can hold lifetime pictures.
Reviews: The performance of Samsung 16TB SSD is rated at 2,000,000 IOPS.
Price: The current price for this hard drive is expected to vary with regards to stores, but it will cost $5000 to $7000 to purchase.
Media websites that recommend it: CNET
#2. Transcend 1TB Military-Grade Shock Resistance
Company Name: Transcend
Specifications: The Transcend 1TB Military-Grade Shock Resistance is the most portable and large external hard drive that was designed to equal the US Military drop test standard. It's specially designed for those who travel regularly with their hard drive, and those who are susceptible to shocks while using their hard drives. You can drag and drop files on it, and it supports macOS, Linux, and Windows operating systems.
Reviews: The Transcend 1TB is durable, portable, shock resistant, and has a one-touch auto-backup button.
Price: It's sold at the price of $69.97 on Amazon.
Media websites that recommend it: TechRadar
#3. Synology 2 Bay NAS DiskStation DS218+
Company Name: Synology
Specifications: The Synology Disk Station DS214+ is designed for new startups and established businesses, and to support Windows, Mac, and computers running other operating systems. This hard drive is a 2-bay NAS server with the capacity of 10TB. The storage space is expandable by downloading Synology's cloud station software.
Reviews: It's versatile, and has a world-class interface with different complementary mobile apps.
Price: $298.00 as listed on Amazon.
Media websites that recommend it: GeekDaily
#4. Western Digital My Passport for Mac
Company Name: Western Digital Company
Specifications: This versatile and cheap external hard drive is the best way to keep your data safe without breaking your piggy bank. Although it's cheap, it still supports Windows and Mac computers, and is available in single, maximum capacity of 4TB, dual drives with high-speed performance, cloud backup with Dropbox, and have other essential features.
Reviews: Fast data transfer rate, multiple data management options, and universal connectivity.
Price: $99.99 for 4TB as listed on Amazon.
Media websites that recommend it: TechRadar
#5. Seagate Backup Plus Slim for Mac
Company Name: Seagate
Specifications: The Seagate Backup Plus is an external hard drive that provides you with a data transfer rate of 4.8GB/sec via USB 3.0. This means you can back up your entire 1TB Mac hard drive in less than 4 minutes. Yes, it's as fast as that!
Reviews: The performance of Seagate Backup Plus is exceptional especially with USB 3.0. It's highly affordable, portable and compatible with Time Machine.
Price: $63.99 for 2TB as listed on Amazon.
Media websites that recommend it: PCMag
Nevertheless, it's important to have a good backup of your data in a strong external hard drive, but what if some of the data backed up in your hard drive get missing? If you are in this case, no worries! You can easily get back the missing files using an external hard drive recovery tool.
How to Recover Lost or Deleted Files from External Hard Drive
Portable Hard Drive 2tb
AnyRecover is the way to go when the data stored on your external hard drive is missing. You can recover every lost data and deleted files as easy as recounting the alphabets. With a 98% recovery rate and in-depth/unique data recovery algorithm, AnyRecover can fetch out every lost or deleted file within minutes.
Let AnyRecover Get Back Deleted Files Easily
Effectively and completely recover all lost or deleted photos, videos, audio, documents, archives, emails, etc.
Support all-inclusive data recovery from external hard drive, memory card, camera, flash drive, recycle bin, etc.
Provide recovery for all sorts of data loss, like virus attack, PC crash, lost partition, formatted drive, etc.
Provide deep recovery to get back as many as deleted or lost files without hassle.
Advantages compared to other recovery tool: easy to use, fast to run, high recovery rate, recover unlimited data, etc.
Steps to Recover Deleted Files from External Hard Drive
Step 1. Download, install and launch AnyRecover on your PC. Connect your external hard drive to your computer. Choose your external hard drive you want to recover data from.
Step 2. After the location is selected, hit 'Start' button to start the scanning process.
Best Portable External Hard Drive
Step 3. After scanning, you are allowed to preview the files. Select the files you want to recover and click 'Recover' to retrieve the selected files.
Why not have AnyRecover to try? It's totally free right now! Don't be hesitate, download AnyRecover on your computer and click here to get the license for free.
