Seagate Backup Plus Fast Portable 4TB USB Drive
The storage capacity of portable hard drives that can slip into your shirt pocket has gradually been growing over the past few years. Historically powered by a USB 2.0 port, these hard drives deliver portable storage options for laptops where it's no easy matter to add new internal storage if it's possible at all.
The latest portable drive from Seagate doubles the previous 2TB capacity by combining two 2.5" 2TB hard drives stacked one on top of each another in a metal casing that measures 4.6" x 3.2" x 0.88". A RAID 0 array is used in order that the two hard drives act as one and present as a single drive on an operating system and in Windows Explorer.
This portable hard drive is a stand-out because no other manufacturer has been able to release a 4TB portable hard drive that is powered by a single USB port. In this case, the drive requires a USB 3.0 port to supply enough juice to keep the drive humming along.
Seagate provide a detailed specifications sheet and a more detailed data sheet (PDF).
Not Quite Pocket Size
Portable hard drives have gotten slimmer of late. Seagate have a slim version of their 1TB portable hard drive that is at least 30% slimmer than the original 1TB portable drives that came on the market a couple of years ago.
This 4TB monster is too thick to slip into most shirt pockets, but it might fit into a pants pocket at a stretch. In any case, the drive is very easy to carry around in a daypac or in a computer backpack in a side pocket.
Huge Capacity
With 4 terabytes of storage capacity (pre-formatted) this drive can store an enormous number of albums, e-books, TV episodes, movies and other digital media.
With 1080p HD being the current standard in recorded entertainment, file sizes continue to grow. 4K UltraHD is just starting to be seen in LED TVs and Plasma TVs which boasts double the resolution both horizontally and vertically. This increases the file sizes again and consequently the storage needs for the next generation of Ultra HD media.
Fast Transfer Speeds
The USB 3.0 connection means faster transfer speeds. Reading and writing speeds are approximately 220MB/s per second. Transfer speeds do vary considerably depending on whether a collection of small files are being copied or moved, or one large file, the latter being the faster option.
Software
The Dashboard software that the drive comes with supports running backups from mobile devices to protect from mobile data loss, using Seagate Agent which is part of the Dashboard package. These devices in turn can sync via Wi-Fi or through a remote backup service like Dropbox. The drive doesn't have its own wireless network capability though.
Social sharing is also part of the package with the option to either upload images and videos directly to your social media accounts or to download content from social media directly to the Seagate Backup Plus Fast 4TB drive.
Availability
The drive can be found on Amazon.com and other good retailers for prices ranging from $299 to approximately $270 at online discount retailers.
