Is it a platter drive ?

[Magnum]

I have a Toshiba 500 Gb external drive.

I am trying to determine if it is a platter drive.

When I hold my ear against it, I can hear humming.

Would a solid state drive do that ?

[dedndave]

it might if it has a fan in it - lol

while the drive is running, hold it in your hand and rotate it a little
you can feel the gyroscopic effect if the platters are turning
my guess - it's a platter

[sinsi]

If it's a 3.5" (has its own power supply) it's a mechanical HDD.
If it's a 2.5" (only has a USB cable) and it cost you more than a few hundred then it's an SSD - they are still relatively expensive, around a dollar per GB

[Magnum]

If it's a 3.5" (has its own power supply) it's a mechanical HDD.
If it's a 2.5" (only has a USB cable) and it cost you more than a few hundred then it's an SSD - they are still relatively expensive, around a dollar per GB

How can I tell if it's a 2.5 or 3.5 drive ?

Mine has only a USB cable.

I paid less than $100.

I ask because my daughter had an external drive fail in less than 5 years and lost a lot of pictures of my grand daughter.

I store backups and disk images on them, so I would like something fairly reliable.

[sinsi]

If it gets its power from the USB port it will be a 2.5" - just a standard notebook drive in an enclosure.

Tips for keeping an external drive healthy (also applies to flash drives, SD cards et. al.)

Try not to plug them in when the computer is powered on.
Because a USB port supplies electricity, a worn port or plug could arc. Hard drives may be OK (just the SATA-USB  adapter blows) but it's usually fatal for a flash drive.

Always use safely remove.
Especially if it uses NTFS, windows will have lots of files open, even if you don't use the drive (e.g. $MFT).
It also helps because windows cuts the power to it, less chance of arcing.

Don't move the drive when it's spinning.
Hard drives only, since the heads just skim the platter, any movement could cause a head crash, usually fatal.

[Magnum]

Thanks sinsi.

[Magnum]

This is showing that my Toshiba drive is not a SSD.

Can someone else check this especially if you do have a SSD ?