If you back up regularly and use your external drive as part of your daily or weekly workflow, you’ll probably want the size and read and write speeds of an SSD. The mechanical parts are vulnerable to wear and damage over time, but if it’s simply for storing your archive of images, the wear should be minimal. If all you’re doing is storing an archive of images for posterity, an HDD is probably the best solution for you. SSDs are typically a lot more expensive per gigabyte than HDDs.Īlso, those flash cells wear out over time, meaning it’s good to have a backup of your backup. This makes them faster, but that speed comes at a cost. This is because SSDs use flash chips to read and write your data simultaneously across their many cells. Specifically, it employs a number of mechanical parts in the form of spinning wheels and arms and magnetic tape to record your data.Īn SSD is smaller, lighter and much faster than an HDD.

In short, an HDD is older technology and uses moving parts to record your data. An HDD is typically much cheaper than an SSD, but the SSD is a lot faster. HDD vs SSD: what is the difference?Ī Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Solid State Drive (SSD)? This is the question many photographers ask themselves. Even SSDs with storage at capacities up to 1TB are now accessible for most consumers. As the technology has developed, price tags have down quite a bit. However, the cost of a good portable SSD is no longer as expensive as it once was. More photographers are willing to pay the extra price for their speed and endurance. Where once portable hard drives were the norm, solid-state storage drives like those on our list of the best portable SSDs are becoming more common. So you can just connect your drive to your Mac or PC and start using it without reformatting. It’s also worth noting that most portable SSDs require no drivers. But for your money you are getting much faster data transfer speeds, a smaller, lighter body design and a more durable construction inside the drive. The best portable SSDs are more expensive than traditional portable hard drives. However, this new technology comes at a price. Portable SSDs lack the moving parts that would sometimes break in older hard drive technology. Solid State Drives have become the new norm for photographers who need to back up their files quickly and safely. The best portable SSD is one that gives a photographer peace of mind that your files are safe, and quickly to hand when you need them.

Best external ssd for mac 2021