BobU Loc: Sarasota Florida

I was trying to offer an alternative to a 4TB ssd, in a 2 drive 6TB mirrored Nas for a similar amount of money.

The idea being to lighten the load on the laptop, which carries active data while the near line data sits on the Nas. If you have your working data with you, the need for pulling data from your Nas will be very very low. Should the odd occasion arise, it can be pulled down to the laptop encrypted. You can have secure at a transfers, even on unsecured networks.

If you carry all your data on your laptop, and the laptop is lost or stolen, it is all at risk. If you do not have it backed up, even worse.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If you get an SSD, be sure it is large enough to allow for at least 25% free space. I just learned this last night. SSDs move data around as they save and delete, and all that activity takes its toll on the drive. The more free space that's available, the less the drive will use the same sections over and over again. Some manufacturers add extra space that the user can't access, just to make sure there is some room for the drive to play with. I got this from YouTube, "Explaining Computers."

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ec+computer

Cheese

My thanks to everyone who responded. I should have made more explicit that I was not looking for an external HDD solution primarily because using an external drive attached by USB is just not practical at airports and on commuter trains. I also do not want to have all my data on an external drive, which is far easier to lose than a laptop. The NAS suggestion was interesting, but when I have a reliable internet connection I do connect to the office network, and have no desire to replicate that data on my home network. The connections at airports and such are neither reliable nor secure. (Strangely, I’ve found that internet connections in airplanes are far more reliable than those at airports!!) In the end, I believe a 4TB Internal SSD is the only viable option.

therwol Loc: USA

Just two questions that have been on my mind. Have you ever swapped a hard drive that contains the operating system? Are you capable of doing this on your particular laptop? Some are easier to get into than others. Some older ones even allow you to swap a hard drive by removing a small cover on the bottom. On the other hand, I have to buy a set of star drivers to get into this HP laptop that I'm typing on.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Sign up for Newegg's newsletter. They very often have some VERY good deals on computers and components. I purchased a new desktop on their labor day sale; about 50% below listed. I've also picked up HD's and SSD's for far less than I could find them anywhere else. I don't see any specials on 4TB SSD's at present but there will be (https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100011693%20600545605%20601321642%20601354671).

bwa

Cheese

Yes I did this recently on my home Dell laptop, swapping out a HDD for a larger HDD. I have a Wavlink docking station that cloned the drive. It was fairly straightforward. However, since I use this laptop for business, I plan to buy the SSD at Best Buy, and have them do the cloning and installation. They have the SSD you mentioned earlier at the same price. Thanks.

Cheese

Good tip. Thanks.

JeffR Loc: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

I agree that SSDs can die, too. I've had three: two still functioning and one dead. That's a pretty high failure rate. I've probably purchased a dozen or more USB HDs -- a mix of Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital. Only one has died, the WD.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Beautifully simple - at least if you use a Samsung SSD. They have a free program - Samsung Data Migration. With a $10 cable, you connect the SSD to your computer and run the program. It puts the contents of the C drive onto the SSD. You must be copying to a Samsung, though. When you're finished, swap the HDD for the SSD, and you're good to go. I'm sure other programs will do the same thing.