A Hard Disk Drive stands up to its name of being hard and thus can survive drops and bumps. Not only that it also is water-resistant and thus, whether submerged fully or receives a basic splash. Hence, a better term for it in that regard is that it is known for its “rugged” approach. There is no denying the fact that to ensure data remains protected, no matter what sort of conditions the hard disks encounter. They are designed to ensure everything remains safe and secure, no matter how harsh the environment is. It is also worth noting that not every drive is designed in such a way, particularly those that previously were introduced.
Purpose of a Robust Hard Drive
If you are an on-field professional, then you should take advantage of a robust hard drive. A variety of occupations can benefit from a robust hard disk drive including videographers, scientists, extreme sports pro, or simply a photographer working in tough conditions outside. As compared to a traditional hard disk drive, the rugged ones are the right choice, because they can withstand every kind of environment. If you are looking for the best rugged hard disk drive, then you can get a range of products at Bulk Devices UK. These are known for proofing solutions from dust, water, and drop, therefore, can withstand bumps, spills, dust, and knocks. Hence, this is the reason why they are known as the toughest and can survive all sorts of the harsh environment as mentioned above.
Rugged Drive: Reason to Select
There are many decisions involved while you decide to purchase a rugged drive, similar to those while buying an external hard disk drive.
Price
As far as rugged drives are concerned, the price for them is worth a little more as compared to the regular ones. However, the price tag attached to it is for a reason and well worth it. If you have stored 100s and 1000s of images because equipment cost is also included in it. Despite the fact, the cost for rugged SSDs has significantly drooped over the years, yet still, the storage suits the professionals.
Interface
These days the industry has focused on Thunderbolt (much less common) as well as the other i.e., three flavoured USB drives. It all comes down to your choice depending on what sorts of computers and the ports you make use of. As far as physical connectivity is concerned, the contemporary iterations of these interfaces get overlapped. Again, you can get all the information regarding the hard disk drives in detail at Bulk Devices UK.
SSD vs. HDD
As compared to a solid-state drive (SSD), a hard disk drive has moved mechanical parts and a spinning disk platter that is fragile. On the other hand, SSDs make use of circuit boards and chips and this is the reason behind the fragility of HDD. On the other hand, SSD by no means is superior to HDD, because people face tremendous troubles while using it. Thus, one cannot term all the solid-state drives (SSDs) as “rugged” ones. Nevertheless, there is no denying the fact that both HDDs and SSDs are available in rugged formats.
External HDD VS. EXTERNAL SSDs.
Solid State Drives have penetrated everywhere not just the market of personal computers and notebooks. Today, they have planned to make their presence known in external storage as well. In the future, it seems as if there will be SSDs present throughout the world of storage, while HDDs cease to exist. As compared to spinning hard drives, SSDs have several advantages. Some of these include less heat production, durability, and a lesser amount of noise, as compared to a traditional hard disk drive.
Drive Protection and Ruggedness
Compliance with IP68 or IP67 makes a hard drive rugged to use for outdoor purposes. The term IP is acknowledged for “Ingress Protection” along with “International Protection”. The specifications of IP indicate how much debris or dust resistant a drive is. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a non-profit organisation that governs the related specs.
Speed of Rotation
While choosing the right hard drive that can survive any harsh environment, you have to take into account the factor of disk rotation speed. This is more suited to platter-based hard disk drives, as compared to SSDs. The entire performance for a hard disk drive (HDD) depends upon the rotation speed of the platter or spindle attached within. The drives with a spindle speed of 7,200 RPM are considered the ideal choice, as compared to those with a speed of 5,400 RPM.
The traditional hard disk drives have been termed obsolete, whereas, SSDs (that do not have moving parts) have become out of touch. Even a 7,200 RPM cannot perform the way a slowest external SSD does, depending on the type of material tested or uploaded.
Identifying Rugged Hard Drives
Now the question remains that how to distinguish between an ordinary drive with rugged ones. The answer is very simple, rugged hard disk drives comprise fixed or removable enclosures. Most commonly, the drive includes a rubber or hard plastic exterior, to ensure the external impact is absorbed. Nevertheless, not every drive is designed to resist maximum impact. To make sure the drive remains safe, some of them also have crush protection or metal shell.
Examples for Rugged Drive
WDBGRD0000NBK-EASN
Model | |
Manufacturer | Western Digital |
Manufacturer Part # | WDBGRD0000NBK-EASN |
WZR-1750DHPD – HP
Model | |
Manufacturer | Western Digital |
Manufacturer Part # | WZR-1750DHPD |
LAC9000491
Model | |
Manufacturer | Seagate |
Manufacturer Part # | LAC9000491 |
STFS1000401
Model | |
Manufacturer | Seagate |
Manufacturer Part # | STFS1000401 |
Conclusion
Even though traditional HDDs did prove to be effective, however, with the rise of the SSDs era, people have decided to adapt to them on the contrary. Yet, SSDs also have their shortcomings, and particularly they are not damage-proof. For this purpose, the only thing that serves the purpose perfectly is rugged drives. Even though they are higher in price, yet they get the job done regardless of the harsh surroundings. If you are looking to know more about hardware devices, head on to Bulk Devices UK.