Portable Hard Drive Performance

Is there a performance difference between a portable hard drive (e.g., Western Digital Passport) and a regular external hard drive (e.g., Western Digital Pro). Does a portable hard drive sacrifice performance (i.e. speed) for size and portability?


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a_fletch
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Size always comes on the expense of performance. The Western Digital My Book Pro for example has firewire 800 connection, which lets you transfer data on an incredible speed, that is not achievable on a portable HD that has only USB 2.0 connection. Assuming that you intend to use it mainly for storage and backup, I think that it's a major pro for the External.
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serenitynow
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In general as a_fletch said the bottle neck is the connection to the computer and not the hard drive itself. That is why it's wise to invest in fast connections (Firewire ad opposed to USB).

The question of size is different. Smaller could mean less size but not necessarily. Today some devices are amazingly compact with tremendous amounts of space. You simply have to check the specs before you purchase. The rule of thumb though is that smaller size with more space will cost more money so that may be a consideration.
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