I have a 320GB WD Passport drive that I carry around in my messenger bag when I travel. It gives me some extra space if the 128GB SSD in my MacBook Air runs out of space, and it provides me with a simple way of transferring very large files from one PC to another.

The Passport serves a specific role, and it functions well in that role. For users who are looking to with an external drive while sitting at a desk safely in an office, a drive like the WD My Passport Edge will suffice. An extra 500GB or more of storage will work nicely--especially if used with a feature like .

Road warriors looking for a safe, secure method of transporting mobile data may want to consider other options, though. It costs more, but the drive can survive a fire or flood--or for those in riskier lines of work--and keep on ticking. Crucial data deserves to be properly protected, and a drive like the ioSafe Rugged Portable is built to endure through just about anything.

Of course, you could still lose your data. If you simply lose the ioSafe Rugged Portable, or it gets stolen, your data will be gone. Hopefully you've employed some type of encryption on the data itself to prevent unauthorized access, but that won't help you get the data back.

As an insurance policy in case your portable drive is lost or stolen, crucial data should be stored in the cloud using a service like Box.com. If your data is stored in the cloud, it is safe from fires, floods, and shotgun blasts, as well as loss or theft. Wherever your travels may take you, your data is only an Internet connection away.