Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 Black – HDTB420XK3AA

Pros: 1. In my opinion, the best thing about this USB hard drive, is you can easily tell the USB interface speed to which it is attached. The Status light is Blue (for USB 3.0) and White (for USB 2.0)

2. Performance is good. I measured the following bandwidths (for Sequential Read/Verify):
[a] Outside Diameter (empty): 142 MB/sec
[b] Middle Diameter (half full): 130 MB/sec
[c] (about 3/4 full): 100 MB/sec
[d] Inside Diameter (almost full): 67 MB/sec
As with all hard disk drives, the sequential data rate drops as the disk drive fils (i.e. you store more data on the drive).
For hard disk drives, I focus more on the sequential data rate (for large files), since no hard drive will come close to the transaction rate of an SSD (for small files).

3. The hard drive is quite portable. It weighs just 122 grams (4.3 ounces). It measures 3.0 inches wide, by 4.25 inches long, by just over 0.5 inches deep.
However, since it has a spinning hard drive inside (with spinning disks and sweeping heads) card should be taken when moving the hard drive while it is powered on.

4. Includes a USB 3.0 cable which is about 20 inches in length.

Cons: 1. Only a one year warranty.

2. Capacity is small (by today’s standards) at 1 TB.

Overall Review: 1. The Hard drive inside is a: TOSHIBA MQ04UBF100

2. The hard drive is pre-formatted for PC as: NTFS, 931 GB, and MBR (not GPT).

3. Total disk sectors: 1,953,525,168 (1953525163) 976762581

4. If you need a 1 TB portable USB 3.0 hard drive, I recommend this product.

Pros: Small, matte black design
Easy to use simple drag and drop file storage
USB 3.0 (backward compatible with USB 2.0)
Transfer rate up to 640MBps (see other thoughts)
No external power required
Internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology
Great value

Cons: 1 year warranty
No backup software

Overall Review: Maximum transfer rate of USB 3.0 is up to 640MBps and USB 2.0 is up to 60MBps. Maximum capacity after format is 931Gb.

The drive is small, comfortable to hold and easy to stick in a pocket. It doesn’t mark easily and is simple to use with no external power required (pulls all the power it needs from USB port). No backup software is provided, but to be honest this type of drive is best used with a drag and drop backup technique in any event. I thought the 1 year warranty was a bit on the short side as some competitors come with more, but the price is very reasonable.

Based on my testing it is likely that the HDD used is a slower spindle speed 5400rpm drive and while this may be slower than most 7200rpm drives, it is quieter, draws less power and runs cooler.

I used 2 free benchmark tools to test speed of this drive, ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark. Both tools can be downloaded for free. I tested the drive empty and after I had it filled with approximately 500gb of images and videos. I also tested it in the USB 2 port on my PC as well as the USB 3 port.

As far as results are concerned, this drive maxed out the USB 2 port’s 60MBps, so to get best results always connect it to the USB 3 port (if available). ATTO reported average read and write of 148.88MBps and 144.24MBps respectively with a 5% drop in speed when the drive was filled with data. While way off the theoretical top speed of USB 3.0 (640MBps) this is a respectable speed for this type of backup storage. Crystal Disk Mark results showed an average of 145.6MBps and 145.2MBps for sequential read and writes: another consistent result.

Nothing to see here, solid results and a good price. I would have preferred a longer warranty period but you can’t have everything.

Recommended.

Pros: * Benchmarking this drive using HD Tune Pro showed good results. Not great results but better than I expected for such a low power device. I got maximum transfer speed of 130 MB/s.

* The drive uses a USB 3.0 interface, and I tested on on both my USB 3.0 and 2.0 plugs and did see a transfer rate increase on the 3.0 version. It comes with a 12-inch USB cable. The LED on the front of the drive indicates whether you’ve plugged the drive into a USB 2.0 (white) or USB 3.0 (blue) port, which is kind of a fun feedback.
* It has a very small form factor. I hide it on the side of my Xbox without being seen. It’s also very quiet and doesn’t get hot like my other current external USB drive plugged into it. This is one of my favorite features. Small = good! I can fit this in my pocket!

* It came pre-formatted in NTFS for Windows platforms and Windows 10 picked it right up as soon as I plugged it in.

* The drive is very quiet and you couldn’t tell if its even working by sound alone.

* Price per Gigabyte! The drive is very inexpensive but it doesn’t feel cheap.

* No power cord (power brick) needed! It gets its power from the USB connection.

Cons: * It’s not a solid state hard drive. No platter drive matches the amazing speeds of a decent SSD (especially the most noticeable action, random reads and writes).

* The included USB cord may be too short for some people. I just have it plugged into my xbox so it’s no big deal but this cord wouldn’t be long enough if I were to have it plugged into my PC for any duration of time.

Overall Review: I got the 1TB version of this drive. The capacity out of the box for the HD is approximately 936 GB. I do like that the drive will shut itself off after a period of inactivity, as I’m not constantly using it and I don’t need to have instant access all the time (so spin up time doesn’t bother me for my applications). It’s been a great little drive for me which I’ve been using for about a month now with no hiccups and I do recommend it!

Pros: + Compact storage on the go
+ Durable shell
+ no need for external power, other than USB
+ Pretty cheap price
+ A good BACK-UP device
+ Would work for Music, videos, and file storage

Firstly, good job Toshiba for correctly advertising what this drive should be used for. I have been playing around with this drive for a week now and because my system is so fast, including all my drives. I really was wondering why this drive even exists in the world today. Then, I have to step back into reality and realize that most people are not the tech junky that I am.
I am unsure if this drive is just the drive linked below (if it will let me link it) inside a plastic enclosure, but for this review we will assume so.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822179107&ignorebbr=1

This drive should be used for a backup drive, of your music, documents and smaller files. You could store movies on it and play them as well. Just understand it is not a fast drive and you would not want to put a computer backup on it, because it would take forever to do a restore. I had a 1TB version of this drive in my new ASUS laptop and it really was unbearable for loading speeds of programs. I think at some point Seagate has realized this and made this unit. Which is exactly what this drive should be used for. I think for traveling with a laptop you could put a movie collection on here (recorded at a lower bitrate though) and it would be perfectly suited for that job and backing up your important on the go files. I did this with the hard drive I removed from my laptop and put it in its own enclosure and it worked great.
The finish does not attack fingerprints!

Cons: – 1-year warranty
– 5400 RPM drive
– Not fast enough for anything sizable or primary use.

My biggest worry with having a hard drive as a portable device is possible damage to the drives if dropped. I cannot safely assume that it has any sort of fall protection gyroscope embedded, as there is nothing stated about it.
As I stated before a 5400 rpm drive is really only suitable for a backup drive. They tried and failed using them in laptops for lower power usage and heat because they were just too slow for primary program accessing.

I believe my worry about longevity is warranted if you are going to be “rough” on a drive, as I have broken a portable hard drive by dropping it onto a desk. Since there is only a one year warranty, on the product, you will have to weigh the cheap cost per TB for if this is the way you want to go. If you are rough on things, you would be better off using an SSD in an enclosure, but it will be far more expensive.

Here are the performance numbers in crystal mark
Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 132.814 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 149.576 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 0.562 MB/s [ 137.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 6.612 MB/s [ 1614.3 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 136.957 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 151.203 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.417 MB/s [ 101.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 4.934 MB/s [ 1204.6 IOPS]

Overall Review: @Toshiba
Honestly, I would like to see a you license Enmotus Fuzedrive software (but make it a firmware) and add in a 128tb M.2 Sata SSD Then make this a Fuzedrive, then it would have incredible performance. I would also like to see at least a 2 port USB 3.0 hub added on this thing at a minimum, give it some better functionality.

In conclusion it is a backup drive that looks nice, is very portable and should last a long time if treated well. If you have a large library of something that you do not want taking space on you Laptop drive, then this would be a great and cheap solution.

Pros: -Great packaging.
-Surprising speed.
-Easy installation.
-Perfect size.
-Very portable.

Cons: -Rubber pads would keep it from sliding all over.
-The cord is way to short.
-The standard warranty is on the short side.

Overall Review: I would recommend this drive to anyone looking for good capacity, great speed, and portability. For the price you just can’t beat this product.

Pros: This external hard drive delivers consistent performance. I plugged the drive into my machine via a USB 3.0 connection. Win 10 discovered the drive and I was able to start copying files. There were no issues or problems. This is a USB powered drive so it needs no external power cord. This is a plus because you do not need to worry about losing a wall wort or separate proprietary cord. The Canvio Basics has a small foot print and is perfect to pack along with you to backup your devices.

Cons: Average speeds compared to other brands in this price range. The Toshiba Canvio Basics portable external hard drive comes with a one year warranty. Many drives in this price range come with two year warranty. This is not an SSD.

Overall Review: There are many options at this price point. Nothing stands out about this drive. This is an external hard drive. If you find a deal on this drive, then purchase it. For this price range you can get similar performance for the same amount of money.

Pros: Compact of course.
No read or write errors, no bad sectors.
Fast, with USB 3.0 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0).
Good size for portable drive or for file transferring if you don’t have a NAS.
Decent write speeds. No deterioration after weeks and still pretty good speed when 3/4 full.

Cons: Nothing to complain about from me.
Portables are naturally prone to handling issues if you take them places, so either get a Square Trade Warranty, or use your Amex (or other CC) with extra warranty protection. Try to avoid handling while spinning up or down or of course while in usereading and/or writing files!

Overall Review: This peppy little dude is great for portable PC files I like to take around to work on PC’s and Laptops software, for installation files handy without needing access to the web for setting up new systems, or lugging discs around like I used to in the old days. Thumb drives are okay, but not as fast by far compared to these. I also like taking video files when on vacation to hook into a laptop with a smaller hard drive or to hook into a smart TV directly. Keeps my originals minty fresh.

Pros: USB 3.0 speeds up to 110 MB/s on my desktop computer

Packaged well. It is shipped inside a box with air cushions

Small footprint and portable – great for making backups of personal files or storing camera footage

The 1TB is reasonably priced, but for $40 more you can triple your capacity. This 1TB drive is enough for some people, but the extra money will be worthwhile for power users

I like that they did not finish the outside plastics with a glossy finish. Hides finger prints more. Manufacturers are listening to customers and you can see that they are making changes to their products to appeal to the criticism of past portable hard drives

Cons: If I had to knock one feature, I’d like to see a longer warranty, some competing drive manufactures offer 3 years

Overall Review: Cable is short this can be both a good thing to keep it out of the way, or a bad thing if you are trying to plug it into a hard to reach place

Comes ready to use for Windows. May require formatting for Mac

Uses the USB Micro B Super Speed connection to type A if you need to replace the cable

Drives this large in capacity used to require AC power – this is a compact, reasonably durable, and fast drive. I say reasonably durable since this is a spinning drive (not an SSD). You absolutely do not want it to be dropped or hit while powered on and you can kiss your data goodbye if it is in the middle of writing to the disk when it gets hit.