Why Is a Flash Drive Safer Than an External Portable Drive?

Flash drives use solid state storage technology for greater reliability.

You have two options when shopping for an external storage solution for your data: a flash drive or an external hard drive. Both devices will keep your data relatively secure. The main difference between the two products is that most flash drives use solid state drive technology, while external hard drives typically rely on more traditional hard disk storage media. Solid state drives have several advantages in keeping data safer.

Operation

Traditional hard disks need larger containers to operate and cannot fit in the small casings used by flash drives. Solid state drives, on the other hand, are much smaller. Another difference is that a hard disk drive hums and clicks while operating; a solid state flash drive has no moving parts and remains silent.

Lifespan

Physical damage can destroy data held on any storage device, but flash drives, being solid state, have a longer expected lifespan than hard drives. The flash drive's longevity is due to the fact that it has no moving parts to wear out. A hard drive has ball bearings and other mechanical parts which will eventually wear out from use.

Magnetism

Hard disk drives have magnetic components and data stored on the drive can be damaged by external magnetic fields. Solid state drives contain no magnetic parts, so data stored on a flash drive is not affected by contact with magnetic fields.

References

• Storage Search: War of the Disks
• Michael Sherlock: SSD VS HDD