Learn About Portable Storage

What is it?

It is an external non-volatile memory used for Portable Storage, backup, data transfer, or expansion. Non-volatile memory means it will not lose stored data when power is turned off. It allows you to store your applications, photos, videos and any other type of data. Portable Storage come in different shapes and sizes, the following are the main types:

• USB Flash

  They are usually slow and unreliable. They are usually used for data transfer.

• External SSD

  Very fast portable storage. Great for moving large amounts of data quickly.

• External 2.5" HDD

  Good for backups at lower cost.

How does it work?

Portable Storage works by doing the following (over simplified) steps:

1. Receive data from CPU
2. Write data in storage cells
3. Send requested data to CPU

Look for

• Compatibility

  Check if the storage is compatible with your device

  Check the ports on both sides and your cables.

• General Benchmarks

  Check out general benchmarks so that you can get a feeling of how the storage performs

  One example of such benchmarks is ATTO

• Specific Benchmarks

  Check the benchmarks that are specific to the software that you will be using

  Let's say you only play 1 game, and that is the only thing you do on your computer, then only check how the storage performs specifically with the game you intend on playing.

• Sustained Performance

  Make sure the storage performs to the desired level sustainably

  Modern storage are made using many types of NAND. Most storage today use TLC NAND, which means they can store 3 bits per cell. However, this makes writing data to each cell much slower compared to an SLC NAND (1 bit per cell). Therefore, storage manufacturers are putting in their TLC storage SLC cache to cover up the lower performance of TLC. For the most part, storage is not heavily used to the point where the SLC cache is full, however, once SLC is full, the storage will perform much lower than before. This can make some storage perform really well in some easier workloads, but cannot sustain performance on harder workloads. Also, some storage can't sustain performance because of cooling headroom.

• Cloud Storage

  Check if you can put some of your data in cloud storage

  Cloud storage can let you get away with a smaller storage than you need and save you some money. Also, if you have many devices, cloud storage is the best way to make sure all your data is accessible on all your devices.

• Backup

  Make sure you backup your data

  All storage types can break, get lost or stolen. Because of that, it is recommended to backup your data. The easiest way to backup your data is through cloud storage.

Avoid

• RAID 0

  Avoid using RAID 0 without backups

  RAID 0 is the fastest RAID configuration, but it is very dangerous. It can make you lose your data easily. Because of that, whenever you use RAID 0, make sure you have your data backed up somewhere else.

• Connector Adapters

  Avoid adapters that make bottlenecks performance

  SATA interface is much slower than NVMe, so if an NVMe SSD performs good, it will be greatly bottleneck if you use it with on SATA interface. Instead, get a SATA SSD.

• Bottlenecks

  Make sure you are not bottleneck by slow ports or cables

  Don't plug a USB 3.0 SSD into a USB 2.0 port.