Toshiba 2TB Canvio Basics Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.2. Gen 1, Black (HDTB420EK3AA)

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Spinning platter hard drives are impacted quite dramatically when transferring lots of smaller files, though. It takes 271 seconds to copy over the 23GB, 5376-file Steam install of Alien: Isolation, for example. This gives it an average of around 85MB/s.

The cable ends in a standard USB port —bear this in mind if you have a new laptop that only has USB-C connectors. Software and compatibility That compares poorly with the Samsung SpinPoint M9T drive, released this year that has a higher platter density (three 667GB platters), four times the cache size (32MB) and is way thinner (9.5mm versus 15mm). As a side note, not surprisingly, Toshiba's bare drive costs about 25% more than its external version. Verdict We also ran a test by copying a 2.3GB folder filled with photos, videos and documents to the drive and measuring the time it took to copy. The Canvio Basics drive we tested hovered around 140 megabytes per second throughout the transfer, resulting in a time of only 16.61 seconds, which is impressive.One Gigabyte (1GB) means 10 9 = 1,000,000,000 bytes and One Terabyte (1TB) means 10 12 = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes using powers of 10. A computer operating system, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1GB = 2 30 = 1,073,741,824 bytes and 1TB = 2 40 = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes, and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and operating system and other factors. Actual formatted capacity may vary. Even that has a few issues. We tested the Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB drive, which features a 5,400 rpm spinning disk. Though the plastic shroud can protect it from a few falls, anything beyond that will likely render the drive useless. A Canvio Basics drive is meant to be on the go, but be sure to treat it with care. One (1) year standard limited warranty applies. The warranty brochure is preloaded on the hard drive or can be viewed online at: http://storage.toshiba.com/consumer-hdd/support/warranty-info. The drive supports Windows and macOS, but only Windows out of the box. The drive is formatted in that way, so using it with macOS will require you to reformat the drive, which, unfortunately, Toshiba doesn’t tell you how to do. Toshiba Canvio Basics Setup Read and write speed may vary depending on the host device, read and write conditions, and file size.

Additionally, there are several SSD-based external devices that can provide faster speeds, and the advent of cheaper NVME enclosures means that achievable speeds from these devices outstrip that of the Canvio Basics. As they are Solid State Disks too, they come with less risk when being transported than the spinning disk.

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However, it does offer decent performance for a 5400rpm 2.5in spinning platter hard drive. When transferring large files it writes at 122MB/s. Transferring 10GB of data will take around a minute and a half.

As with a lot of portable drives, the Toshiba Canvio Advance’s cable isn’t that long either. It measures around 45cm from the end of one terminal to another. There’s limited scope to hide this drive. And as it uses an old-style microUSB 3.0 port on the drive itself, it’s unlikely many will have a suitable spare lying around.Does it work with game consoles? We tried the Toshiba Canvio Advance with both an Xbox One and PS4. It was successfully recognised by both. However, to use it with a PS4 you’ll need to format it to the FAT32 or exFAT file formats. The Xbox One does the job for you. Compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system. Reformatting required for use with Mac® or other operating systems.

Product prices, specifications, configurations, colors, components, features, and availability are subject to change without notice. Write speeds level out at 141MB/s, which again is the norm for a 5400rpm drive. You’ll see slightly better results from a larger 7200rpm desktop drive, but we do mean slight. We’re talking about read/write speeds around 150MB/s. Hard drives may be relatively slow, but they still have their place. And unlike old hard drives, the Toshiba Canvio Advance’s read/write noise is barely noticeable, particularly if there’s a laptop/desktop/console fan whirring away nearby.Because it’s a limited warranty, there are many stipulations contained within. In short, if Toshiba can justify any misuse on your part that caused the drive to fail, your warranty request won’t be honored. Plus, missing items, such as the included USB cable, won’t be replaced under the warranty.