For a six month trip portable storage for photos and entertainment was no doubt going to be very important. A standard portable hard drive is not going to stand up to the knocks, bumps and spills of 6 months on the road. With this in mind I set out to find a rugged portable hard drive.

After reading many reviews and opinions I chose the Silicon Power Armor A80. It has received many positive reviews from the likes of the The Wirecutter and Cnet, but most entertainingly from Slrlounge who also bring together some fun videos putting its ruggedness to the test. It is more expensive than many 1tb portable hard drive, but certainly is a rugged piece of kit. It has a small USB connector included in the little slot in its side as well as a longer one for use where more reach is required. It is IPX7 Waterproof, (submersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 metre) US MIL-STD-810F tested (Dropped onto concrete from 26 angles from a height of 1.22 metres) as well as obviously being dust and crush proof.

It is a little larger than other 1tb portable hard drives, but with this size and added weight comes strength and resilience. (Shown here next to the popular Western Digital Passport Drive for a size comparison).

As a standard portable hard drive it performs well, even seemingly beating the Western Digital Passport drive when using USB 3.0 (Although I’m not sure it is exactly noticeable!). It is plug and play so no software is needed to use it on a computer.

Like a lot of kit everything is all well and good until it goes wrong, so the real test, like most of the gear I post about, will be whether I am still quite so happy with this hardcore hard drive after 6 months in a Land Rover on the roads of Africa.