Durable as a tank: TOP 5 secure external hard drives

Silicon Power was one of the first to catch the trend for protected external drives and launched the Armor line, a distinctive feature of which is an increased level of security (according to the MIL-STD-810 standard). Interestingly, thanks to the suspension shock absorption technology of the inner part of the disk, it successfully passed the tests for falling from a 3-metre height. Usually, to pass the MIL-STD-810 test, it is enough to withstand a fall from a height of up to 1.2 metres. But unfortunately, the Power Armor A30 does not have protection from dust and moisture.

As for appearance, the Armor A30 boasts an eye-pleasing and thoughtful design: curved rounded edges serve as legs for a table stand and play the role of a protective bumper when falling, and the concave side faces of the disk allow you to comfortably hold it in your hand without fear of accidentally dropping it. The protective casing is made of plastic and silicone, which softens possible impacts, as well as neutralizes vibration. In addition, a rubber gasket is placed between the case and the hard drive, which will protect the control board from damage in the event of a fall on a stone.

Inside the casing is hidden a disk from Toshiba with a volume of 1 TB, which works on the USB 3.1 Gen1 interface, and is also backward compatible with USB 2.0. According to synthetic tests, the average operational speed of disk reading and writing reaches 72 Mbps. The indicators are far from the most record-breaking, but they allow you to read / write data without long delays, even when working with large volumes of information.

An additional feature of Silicon Power Armor A30 is a set of proprietary SP Widget utilities that simplify the process of backing up files from a PC, archiving data, encrypting files on disk, installing a "PC-lock" to lock the computer with a password, and many other useful things.

DashDrive Durable HD650 from A-Data HD650 AHD650-1TU31-CBK 1 TB Price from 2 224 up to 4 599 ₴ is one of the few protected HDDs that doesn't look like a bristling, battle-ready knight. Rather, on the contrary: thanks to the design features, it looks like a racing car.

The three-layer protective design of the HD650 consists of a durable, damage-resistant plastic housing that merges with a silicone casing that dampens vibration when falling. And under this armor, a rubber frame is hidden, which holds the disk inside the case and acts as an additional shock absorber. All this will help the disk to survive painlessly falling off the table or a crush in a backpack. We can't say anything about more specific "injuries", because there is no information on the manufacturer's website about passing the inspection according to the military standard MIL-STD-810.

The basis of A-Data DashDrive Durable HD650 is a 2.5 hard drive with a spindle rotation speed of 5400 revolutions per minute and a total volume of 1 TB. Interestingly, this is one of the rare models of external HDD, which offers an option with 4 TB of memory, which in the era of 4K and huge game distributions no longer seem superfluous.

The drive is equipped with a modern USB 3.1 Gen1 interface for high-speed data transfer, which is compatible with earlier USB standards. Synthetic tests have shown that the drive is capable of producing the following figures: 116 Mbps of sequential reading and 112 Mbps of sequential data writing.

One of the features of the DashDrive Durable HD650 is its noiselessness. Even with long-term copying of large archives, it is possible to understand that it works only thanks to the colour indicator.

Transcend StoreJet 25M3 is a veteran of the external hard drive market, which was one of the first to set the fashion for shock—resistant HDDs. Transcend StoreJet 25M3 is a remake of one of the most popular models on the StoreJet 25M market, which was slightly improved and added support for the high-speed USB 3.1 Gen1 interface (backward compatible with USB 2.0).

Inside the rubberized case there is a Seagate hard drive with a volume of 1 TB, a spindle speed of 5400 rpm and 8 MB of cache. In synthetic tests, the disk shows an average speed of 83.8 Mbps for reading and 82.3 Mbps for writing. At the same time, the buffer read speed was 185.7 Mbps, which makes StoreJet 25M3 one of the fastest disks on the market.

The legacy from the ancestor of the Transcend StoreJet 25M3 was a well-proven three-level protective design, which consists of an external silicone cover, a shock-resistant plastic casing and a protective rubber bumper that covers the disk inside the case. As numerous reviews and tests have shown, this design allows the StoreJet 25M to safely withstand falls from the table. But the disk does not have protection from dust and moisture.

The hard drive case is made of high-quality materials that are pleasant to the touch. On the front side there is a small button that puts the disk into power saving mode or starts automatic data backup. Using the proprietary Transcend Elite application for this button, you can create archiving templates for your own needs. For example, copy data from a specific disk partition or from a specific computer folder. In general, the Transcend software suite looks extremely useful and, for example, is able to recover accidentally deleted data or can restore the hard disk in case of irreversible errors.

It is also worth noting that unlike many protected external HDDs, Transcend StoreJet 25M3 has no side mounts to hold the USB cable, so engineers equipped the disk with a full-size cable 80 cm long, which simplifies the connection of the disk to the computer.

The protected Apacer AC631 disk looks like Batman who is going to fight Superman: a combat suit, a layer of armor on top, and some more armor on top. To begin with, the disk is sealed in a sealed protective casing made of plastic and textured rubber, which is not afraid of scratches. It is encircled by a massive bumper frame made of solid rubber, which covers the HDD disk from the inside and goes out of the case, creating an additional belt of protection against shocks and vibrations around the perimeter of the entire disk.

Thanks to this design, the Apacer AC631 has been tested according to the military standard MIL-STD-810. This means that the disc is not afraid of bumps, falls and shaking, and also has a degree of protection against dust and water according to the IP55 standard. The reverse side of the coin is the dimensions of the disk: it is too big even by the standards of protected external hard drives.

The disk is connected to a computer or laptop using a small USB cable, which is hidden in special recesses of the case. On the one hand, this is convenient, because the cable will be difficult to lose, on the other hand, its length is not always enough.

When connected via USB 3.1 Gen1, the Apacer AC631 disk provides a maximum linear read and write speed of up to 135 Mbps. These are very decent speed indicators that will save time when copying large amounts of data. Fortunately, the volume of 1 TB allows you to do this. The disk also supports USB 2.0 connection, but the speed will drop noticeably in this case.

For manufacturers, design is far from the most important thing when creating a protected hard drive. The main thing is that it works reliably. DashDrive Durable HD710 from A-Data stands out favorably from this trend: its bright and aggressive design immediately catches the eye, and numerous body colours will satisfy a wide variety of tastes. There is even a camouflage coloring.

Under the coloured rubber shell of DashDrive Durable is the main protective case made of silicone, which complies with international standards of protection against dust and moisture IEC529 IPX7 and MIL-STD-810. This means that the disk can be drowned at a metre depth for half an hour, dropped from a height of up to 1.2 metres, and also used with a temperature spread from 5 to 50 degrees Celsius.

Inside the protected enclosure, a Toshiba MQ01ABD075 HDD (volume 1 TB) is installed with support for Advanced Format technology, which optimizes disk performance in modern operating systems. In synthetic tests, when connected via USB 3.1 Gen1, the disk shows an average read speed of 76 Mbps and write speed of 74 Mbps. With linear recording of one large file like a Blu Ray rip of a new movie, the maximum speed reaches 96 Mbps. As befits a modern external HDD, DashDrive Durable HD710 is compatible with USB 2.0.

As a bonus, an unusual set of HDDtoGO and OStoGO utilities is supplied with the disk. On the one hand, they make it easier to backup data from the main disk, archive data, or write your contact details to the disk in case of loss. On the other hand, they are able to do strange things like synchronizing bookmarks for Mozilla and Internet Explorer browsers, which in 2019 looks like greetings from the distant past.