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

Product Information

Some professional portable HDDs and SSDs also support Intel’s Thunderbolt technology, with maximum speeds of 40Gbits/sec (4.8GB/sec) for Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4. USB 4 ports and drives are also starting to appear with speeds to match, though you may have to wait a while before the SSDs themselves can max them out. Gbit/s is the interface transfer rate per the specifications of the Universal Serial Bus 3.0. Actual transfer rate will vary depending on your system configuration and other factors. Reconnect your Toshiba HDD with a new cable or a healthy computer. Updating the drivers will also help.

The Canvio Flex Portable External Hard Drive is the smart storage solution for your growing needs. With up to 4TB of storage capacity that can be accessed on any compatible USB device4, this smart, versatile hard drive offers a simple solution to help save, share, and protect your files. Over the Type-C connection you get sequential read speeds of 1090MB/sec and write speeds of 1050MB/sec, although these drop to 469MB/sec and 461MB/sec over the slower Type-A. Random read/write speeds are speedy either way, peaking at 262MB/sec and 241MB/sec. While it’s not in the same league for speed as the fastest USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 SSDs, it’s an effective all rounder at a price more of us can afford.SSDs are small and extremely robust, which makes them great for moving media libraries or big projects between PCs or transferring Steam games from your PC to your laptop. And with read speeds anywhere between 500MB/sec and a staggering 3.2GB/sec (with the right connectivity – see below), you’ll be amazed how fast these things can go. Transfers that used to take ten or 20 minutes suddenly happen in a minute or less. What kind of connectivity should I look for? As with a lot of portable drives, the Toshiba Canvio Advance’s cable isn’t that long either. It measures around 45cm from the end of one terminal to another. There’s limited scope to hide this drive. And as it uses an old-style microUSB 3.0 port on the drive itself, it’s unlikely many will have a suitable spare lying around.

With twice as much capacity as a similarly-priced SSD, the 2TB and 4TB versions will give you enough room to hold a sizable game library too. Unless every second counts, this drive is a great addition to your PS5 setup. Models that will compete with the Toshiba Canvio Flex will have a longer-than-average warranty as well as a Type-C connector at one end. Note that you could always buy a Micro-B to Type-C cable. Toshiba Portable External Hard Drivesare ideal for a variety of environments. If you're looking for a way to bring your gaming with you, you can easily do so with a portable gaming hard drive. Simply plug it into your console and enjoy your favorite games wherever and whenever you want. If you're looking for an easy way to transfer files, make it a breeze with Toshiba's Compact Hard Drive. It's designed specifically to make transferring files simpler and faster than ever before. If you need much faster speeds, you’ll haver to stump up for a 2.5in SSD. But for the price of a 2TB Toshiba Canvio Advance you’ll only get a ~250GB SSD.The Toshiba Canvio Advance is a middle-ranking model in the Toshiba line-up. It doesn’t look as dull as its Basics drives, but is not as flashy as its aluminium Premium ones either. We run two sets of tests when we’re looking at external hard drives for the PS5. First, we connect them to a PC and run the CrystalDiskMark benchmark to test their raw sequential and random read/write speeds. Sequential speeds are an indication of how fast the drive can read or write large quantities of data in one sustained burst, which makes a big difference when you’re first running a game, loading a saved game, streaming in all the models and textures in a level or transferring a game from one drive to another. Random read/write speeds cover smaller data transfers, and make an impact when you’re running a game directly from the hard drive. READ NEXT: Best SSD: Give your computer a speed boost The best external hard drives you can buy in 2023 1. Seagate One Touch: The best cheap USB hard drive READ NEXT: The best external hard drives for PS4 | The best external hard drives for Xbox One Should I buy an SSD? This looks nice enough, but may not be wanted if the Toshiba Canvio Advance will spend its life under a TV with the rest of your home entertainment gear, rather than living plugged into a desktop or laptop.