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

Product Information

Also included is the micro-B USB cable which you’ll need to connect the drive to your USB port. Feature Highlights Most of us ‘tech-heads’ already have a setup including Cloud storage and External storage for events and travelling; it goes with the territory. With the advent of more working-from-home opportunities, it stands to reason that many others are looking to extend their local storage too. The Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB is exactly what it says on the tin; a basic 2TB external hard drive. Formatted NTFS for Microsoft® Windows® 11, 10, 8.1 8.1, | Requires reformatting for macOS v12, v11.5, v10.15 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 portable storage drive manufacturers try to differentiate their product through design or features, Toshiba looks to be content just to build the cheapest drive it can with the Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB.

Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3. Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.

Toshiba made your life easy when you’re getting a Canvio Basics portable drive. The drive is ready to use right out of the box. It comes pre-formatted with an NTFS file system, and it is properly aligned. It is also compatible with the HFS+ file system for Mac OS, but that will require a re-format. Included on the drive is the manual in PDF format, should you need that.

The advantage of 2.5-inch drives over their 3.5-inch brothers is that it’s easily BUS-powered. They don’t require an extra external power source to run as they should. The USB port delivers plenty of power for this type drives, even when connected to a USB 2.0 port. The Toshiba Canvio Basics consumes a maximum of 900mA power, even in the largest capacity version.

Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB Review: Ghost of Hard Drives Past Toshiba Canvio Basics 2TB Review: Ghost of Hard Drives Past

The drive series isn’t heavy either with the highest capacity weighing a mere 230 grammes. Sure, that’s not as light as an SSD would be, but it still isn’t a lot. Ready to use out of the box 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. Its corners are slightly rounded with two glossy sides and a white LED on the front that lights up when the drive is on. Getting it to work requires a free USB port (USB 3.0 preferably).

The main difference between the two Toshiba drives – other than the price and the design – boils down to the bundled applications. With over 50 years of experience in hard drive technology and unrivaled quality standards, Toshiba portable hard drives provide a reliable and secure place for your files, wherever you go |Despite costing more to build, external drives sell for cheaper because manufacturers such as Toshiba and Seagate are ready to sacrifice margins for sales volume. While we didn’t look inside, the benchtest numbers suggest that Toshiba may have installed a 2 TB disk based on the Toshiba MQ01ABD100 disk that’s used by iStorage, for example. The drive we’re looking at today is the Toshiba Canvio Basics, which as the name suggests, keeps things basic. You get an excellent portable drive without all the extra bells and whistles which can increase the price. If you don’t need extra drop protection, water resistance, or dust protection, then why should you pay for it? There are many situations where those things are unnecessary.