Difference between USB powered external drives and mains powered

[Skalaberg]

Looking to buy a 4TB external drive as my ageing (about 8 years old) 1TB internal sounds like its about to fail. The speeds between the usb powered and mains powered drives look about the same... what am I missing here, why would I go for the mains powered ones when the USB appear smaller and dont need mains power?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seag...rnal-desktop-drive-steb4000200-hd-3au-se.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/maxt...ernal-hard-drive-hx-m401tcb-gm-hd-182-md.html

 

[Skalaberg]

Thanks for the advice guys. Managed to pick up a 5TB Seagate USB at a reasonable price.

 

[Skalaberg]

For whats its worth the drive arrived. I have copy and pasted the contents of the old 1TB over and disconnected it. Renamed the external and changed the drive letter to match the old drive and it works like a charm. i have some Steam games on it along with uplay ones and origin which all continue to work as if I'd never changed anything. Speeds on it are around 136mb/s. Very happy.