In our previous article, we explored the Top 4 1TB External Hard Drives available out there today. While 1TB is not enough for most of us on the go, many users require more than that, especially if you work with media files a lot; Like Video Editing, VFX, Animations, etc. These types of work can actually take up huge volumes of space in the drive, and it’s an outright absurd option to lug around four or five 1TB hard drives; Why bother when you can pick any 4TB drive, and at a lower cost than that of four individual 1 TB drives combined? Keeping 4TB of storage on your person is a big deal, and makes you undeniable king of the backups. This means you’re not just capable of taking your workaround, it’s backup from several systems, thousands of hours in music, video, movies, tens of thousands of photographs, images, whatever. That might seem a little bit overkill for average use, but hey, the heart wants what the heart wants; So today, we’re taking a look at the Top Four 4TB external drives, and let’s jump right in and get into it without further ado and all that.
So, Let’s See How Many Best 4 TB External Hard Disk Drives Are Available In The Market;
Top 4th – Seagate Expansion ‘STEA4000400’
RPM: 5,400 RPM Interface: USB 3.0 Warranty: 3 Years Price Tag: Around 99$ (4TB) Cost Per GB: 99/4096 GB = Around 2¢/GB
About it: Seagate again. Color me shocked not at all. Seagate’s Expansion drive is something which pretty much does exactly that – it expands your storage, end of the story. A straight-to-the-point, no-nonsense, no-fluff product that does exactly what it is supposed to do; nothing more and nothing less. Its design reflects this: a simple rectangular box with a checkered pyramid pattern on top – no shiny posturing, no grandiose showing off. It’s like Seagate’s saying “Hey, you wanted 4TB portable storage, so here it is, and that’s that.” USB 3.0 powered, it doesn’t require a power cable, which is a BIG plus for something which has that level of capacity. It is backward compatible with USB 2.0 but using it that way is not recommended since the drive needs to draw power through the bus cable and using it via 2.0 can slow down its performance. As with all external drives; Plug and Play is given, and it doesn’t need anything to be configured or installed. The built-in power management automatically ensures energy-efficiency and drivers installation. As with most Seagate products, the Expansion drive focuses on delivering customer needs at an affordable rate and doesn’t weigh itself down with features that may be unnecessary for the average user. A go-to solution for most people.
Top 3rd – WD My Passport ‘WDBYFT0040BBK-WESN’
RPM: 5,400 RPM Interface: USB 3.0 Warranty: 3 Years Price Tag: Around 99.99$ (4TB) Cost Per GB: 99.99/4096 GB = Around 3¢/GB
About it: Ah, WD. Again. As with our previous list, they’ve made this one twice, and their first entry is the My Passport Drive, available in capacities from 1TB to 4TB. The first thing you notice about it is the slightly weird and unusual design – it looks like two square boxes, one with a flat surface and one with a diagonal pattern, welded together side by side. I haven’t seen anything like it; Regardless of why how this design came to be, it is unique, and it is available in a rainbow of colors if you got for that kind of thing. Black, white, red, blue, orange, yellow, whatever. And you know, recently my sister bought this drive in a blue color, it actually looks pretty amazing!! When you see the drive out of the picture. With USB 3.0 and no power cable, the drive comes with an auto-backup feature, which means you can schedule regular backups to happen automatically and copy your files, music, photos, videos and documents into the passport however frequently you want. This is a great option for those who use the drive on a single system as a backup and don’t carry it around a lot. Auto backups will keep your drive up-to-date so you never have to deal with data loss. There is also a built-in 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption with WD Security software that will help in keeping your content private and safe. You can even add a “return-if-found” message with contact info as the password prompt in case your My Passport drive ever gets lost, which is cool. The product is also backed up (pun intended) with WD’s legendary reliability and is built to demanding requirements with shock-tolerance, durability, and longevity. And that’s not just idle talk – WD put their money where their mouth is, and provide their usual 30-day money-back guarantee and a three-year warranty for the drive. Now that’s how it’s done.
Top 2nd – Silicon Power Armor A85 ‘SP040TBPHDA85S3S’
RPM: 5,400 RPM Interface: USB 3.0 Warranty: 3 Years Price Tag: Around 151$ (4TB) Cost Per GB: 151/4096 GB = Around 4¢/GB
About it: As with our list of Top 4 4TB external drives, we’re giving the 2nd top spot to one that can indisputably own the word “rugged”. “Memory is personal”, say Silicon Power – they understand that the data in your drive can be as precious as the data that is in your head, and they take the job of safeguarding this data with peerless seriousness. As the Armor A85’s name suggests, it is, well… armored. The drive itself is hidden from the eye and covered with no less than three layers of protection which gives it the unique look similar to that of a whiskey flask (we approve). Built to military-grade shockproof, waterproof and dustproof specs, it is the ultimate traveler’s data carrier; Meticulously designed with an internal suspension system that acts as the first layer of protection against external shock, it is then reinforced by a rubber tubing which provides a buffer effect and finally by the heavy-duty aluminum case which makes up the exterior. There is a cap for the USB which completes the armor around it. All this nigh-indestructible protection is built to the IP68 standard, and it’s not a joke. Some serious work has gone into both the internal and external design to make it what it is. A matte sandblasting surface treatment further provides higher resistance to scratches, fingerprints, and dirt. Like the HD720 that we reviewed earlier, it comes with a groove that holds the USB cord in place while you are moving around and it doesn’t need to be kept separate. There’s also no need for a power chord. Weighing in at 381g, that’s one of the heaviest portable external drives we’ve seen so far. Throw in the usual set of industry-standard features like USB 3.0/2.0 compatibility, plug-and-play, Windows, Mac and Linux compatibility, and HDD Lock password-protection, and we’re looking at a veritable fortress in the palm of your hand.
Top 1st – WD MY PASSPORT WIRELESS PRO ‘WDBSMT0040BBK-NESN’
RPM: 5,400 RPM Interface: SD Card Slot, USB 3.0, Wi-Fi Warranty: 2 Years Price Tag: Around 188$ (4TB) Cost Per GB: 188/4096 GB = Around 5¢/GB
About it: You may remember the 1 TB version of the My Passport Wireless Pro Portable external Hard Drive we talked about it in the last article. Well, what’s better than a 1TB version of that drive? A 4TB version, of course! The Wireless Pro 4TB has everything that its 1TB counterpart boasted of – money back guarantee, wired and wireless storage options, built-in power bank that can power all your mobile devices; My Cloud mobile app which lets you access the files from any smartphone or other compatible device, integration with Plex (which can wirelessly stream media directly to your TV) and Adobe Creative Cloud (which can directly share pics and video between your camera, your computer, and your Adobe Cloud for instant editing) not to streaming HD video directly to up to 8 mobile devices. There’s also an SD 3.0 card reader to copy your camera’s media directly to the drive; Throw all these devices in and you might think it’s a drain on power, and yet the drive can work for ten hours straight on its battery, which is quite a feat. As with the 1TB version, it can also connect to other USB storage devices and make their content available wirelessly too; And it can turn into a Wi-Fi hotspot to share your internet connection with up to eight devices. All of this is protected by a Wi-Fi password and Drive Lock feature which will keep your content safe even if the drive is lost or stolen. There’s also a button in the back that when pressed, turns the drive into a tap-dancing frog with a funny hat which will also do the cha-cha, the tango and the hip-hop for you while doing magic tricks with its wand. Okay, we made that one up, but admit it – we had you going there for a second. Plus we’re quite certain that’s the kind of thing we can expect by the time the 20TB version of this thing comes out. And that’s our top picks among the 4TB drives available in the market – will you pick the Armor A85 for its adamantium-level strength, or the WD Wireless Passport Pro for the features?
Happy Shopping!!!
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