External hard drive, for frequent carrying. Which to choose?

Question

Iron

Good afternoon!

The idea is the following, I want to have a virtual machine with all the settings, a hard disk, etc. + distribution of Virtualbox itself on a portable hard drive. In principle, there is no need for more than 128GB of space. That is, ideally, it turns out to be ready to work anywhere if you have a computer = 2 minutes (install a virtual machine + configure based on the machine on which we install).

So the question arises, which hard drive to choose? Of course, you can also take a flash drive, but there is no point in less than 64GB, but they cost as hard external entry-level hard drives.

In general, this is what I came across at first glance:
www.citilink.ru/catalog/parts/hdd/hdd_out/721854 - SILICON POWER Diamond D03 (Most interesting for all the price)
market.yandex.ru/model.xml?modelid=8291823&hid=91033&show -uid=819803613629451231- Seagate STBU500200 (Something in between)
market.yandex.ru/model.xml?modelid=6907483&hid=91033&show-uid=819803613629451232 - Transcend TS500GSJ25M2 (The most interesting appearance, rubberized after all)

Answer 1

I join the above - the purchase of "separate box + separate screw."
Firstly, the boxes are often not collapsible. And what's inside - you need to look on the Internet, since there are not as many manufacturers of the disks themselves as there are manufacturers of external devices.
Secondly - when purchased separately - you can choose the most economical hard drive in terms of power consumption.
And if we move on to the need for vibration resistance, shock resistance - here, unfortunately - not a single disk can withstand a solid state drive. No matter how much SSDs lose in terms of reliability to conventional disks on magnetic platters - all this when used on system units that stand and do not touch them.
If you plunge into the statistics of the failure of disks used as flash drives, then the victory will be on the side of the SSD. It is understandable - for any disk, an accidental fall from the table, and even connected to a computer, is almost always equivalent to death. And all sorts of assurances from manufacturers about transferring overloads to 350G within 2ms do not save. A solid-state flight can easily withstand such a flight. Is it possible to tear out the port in the box as a result of a fall - but this is already a matter of chance and has nothing to do with the internal drive itself.
Plus, current SSDs are already really putting ordinary disks on the blades in terms of power consumption. I think many have encountered the inability to connect an external drive on a long wire or poor quality. I had to get a short one or with a double USB connector. When using an SSD, high currents are not required for the promotion of pancakes and the disk is easily connected to the system.
Therefore, if you do not need large capacities, the option with a 60/90/120GB SSD drive will be more advantageous than with a traditional hard drive. It is preferable both in terms of reliability and speed if you take the box with USB3.0 and less picky about power.
I reviewed these points in more detail in my 75Kb review of an external box for discs, but I can’t publish it yet due to lack of karma :).
In addition, the box is easier to upgrade - take out the screw, plug in another and you're done.

Answer 2

It was for such purposes that we took an SSD and a box with usb3 for it.
Four thousand rubles for an ssd instead of two for a hard drive, in exchange for almost absolute resistance to shock / shaking and awesome speed.
Worth the extra money IMHO.

Answer 3

I would advise taking separately an external case and a separate laptop hard drive. It’s easier to choose this way since there are more reviews on internal hard drives. And external drives can be supplied with different internal ones, unless of course it is indicated in the name. The main parameter in this case is the current consumption, you need to choose the minimum one, since USB 2.0 seems to provide only 500mA.
I have a Philips box and a Samsung screw that has been working fine for over 5 years. The only mini usb plug on the cable quickly fails, so it is advisable not to pull it out often.

Answer 4

Transcend die quickly if carried with you all the time

Answer 5

Any disk dies quickly from a good shaking, regardless of manufacturers, besides, only two companies Western Digital and Seagate now make (hdd) screws, they have already bought up all the rest.
In Thailand, copies of terabyte flash drives from kingston are already sold for 1000 rubles, I think it’s not a problem to buy them on ebay, I’ll buy myself soon and start it up.

Answer 6

transcend JetStore do not die (although you also wrote to you above) - you can walk on them with your feet, nothing will happen.
But in your case, an SSD plugged into any Chinese case (or the same jetstore, if you can find) is really better.

Answer 7

Transcend's JetStore series, according to the manufacturer, have been certified for use in military conditions. I use 3 of these screws of different sizes and had no problems with them. The only annoying thing is that the backup of documents does not work if you do not run the utility manually + the utility itself is very stupid, it cannot do diff synchronization, but simply copies.

Answer 8

The idea is the following, I want to have a virtual machine with all the settings, a hard disk, etc. + distribution of Virtualbox itself on a portable hard drive. In principle, there is no need for more than 128GB of space. That is, ideally, it turns out to be ready to work anywhere if you have a computer = 2 minutes (install a virtual machine + configure based on the machine on which we install).

a bit off topic, but technically, I recommend you use the Windows To Go technology in Windows 8 .
But already under it specifically and select a hard drive, etc.

Answer 9

I am also for an SSD for these tasks, although I dragged myself a new WD My Passport Studio in an iron case for a very long time :)

Answer 10

Late reply, but still. Take the Zalman ZM-VE300 box .