Toshiba 4TB Canvio USB 3.0 external hard drive

The average price of a 2TB external hard disk drive is dropping rapidly with some models costing under £70 (like the Toshiba 2TB Canvio USB 3.0 external hard drive).

It comes up with an affordable model that combines two 9.5-mm 2.5-inch drives in one single enclosure - Seagate already has one but it costs nearly three times more than a 2TB 2.5-inch model, and (b) 4TB 2.5inch drives appear on the market.

One of the most affordable models is Toshiba's STOR.E CANVIO 3.5 4TB USB 3.0, otherwise known as the HDWC240EK3J1 or the Canvio Desk. It costs only £99.99 (roughly $159, AU$ 183) on Amazon, the same - at the time of writing - as the similar Seagate STBV4000200 Expansion.

The Toshiba 4TB Canvio drive compensates its bulkiness by a relatively high transfer rate and rather good performance. The NTFS-formatted drive has a 7200RPM rotational speed, 32MB buffer cache and offers a stated 14ms access time.


To make things even more interesting, only one hard disk drive on the market, the WD RE WD4001FYYG fits the profile (4TB, 3.5-inch, 32MB, 7200RPM). Two issues though: it is a SAS drive and costs more than twice the STOR.E Canvio.