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If you're looking to carry lots of data on the go but can't afford a portable SSD, Western Digital has some news. Today, the storage maker announces its latest 6TB WD HDD-based portable drives across multiple lineups.
New 6TB WD portable hard drives: Highest capacity to date
Western Digital says the drives to get the new 6TB capacity include the G-DRIVE ArmorATD, the My Passport family, and the WD Black P10 Game Drive.
Among the three, the G-Drive ArmorATD is the only new specimen, first introduced in 2023. It's a rugged drive designed to handle the elements for those needing lots of storage in a compact form for rough environments. It's part of the 2021-debut SanDisk Professional family.
The My Passport family has been on the market for years. It includes different variants, including the My Passport and My Passport for Mac. The drives have a plastic chassis, with the Mac version using a USB-C port instead of a Micro-B SuperSpeed port. Each of the two has an Ultra version with more fancy metal housing, backup bundled software, and a USB-C port.
Finally, the WD Black P10 Game Drive was first introduced in August 2019, and it has up to 5TB of storage space. It's a rugged drive with a metal casing designed for gamers.
Now, all these drives mentioned above are available in up to 6TB. While the number seems a bit modest—we've had a 3.5-inch hard drive with 20TB of capacities for a while now—6TB is currently the highest storage capacity for hard drives of the 2.5-inch form factor.
When it comes to digital storage, more is always better, but it's worth noting that, on the information integrity front, the higher the capacity, the more you could lose if the drive fails or goes missing.
That said, keep in mind that none of these drives has RAID capability. As a result, they should be used only to contain backups or non-essential data. Or you can get a couple of them to increase the redundancy.
Availability and pricing
Western Digital says all of the 6TB WD portable hard drives mentioned above are available now with their latest 6TB capacity. While they are not as expensive as SSD counterparts of the same storage level, they are not exactly cheap.
Specifically, the 6TB SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD has an MSRP of $229.99. The 6TB WD BLACK P10 Game Drive retails at $184.99. The 6TB My Passport family has the lowest pricing, costing $179.99 apiece, with the USB-C and Ultra versions costing another $5 and $20, respectively.
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