- Report claims small drives face the 4x error risk compared to their colleagues with high capacity
- Uncertain broadcasting practice raises the risk of data loss by staggering 75%, according to researchers
- Frequent transfers and careless use leave small drives vulnerable to serious file system damage
New research has revealed a trend in external storage reliability: External of small capacity is reportedly significantly more likely to failure than their high capacity colleagues.
Based on data collected from over three million storage devices in the first quarter of 2025, the EASEUS Data Recovery Lab requirements are below 64 GB about four times more likely to suffer data loss compared to drives exceeding 4 TB.
The reasons behind this difference are in both use patterns and hardware restrictions. Smaller drives are often used for fast file transfers or as temporary backups, making them subject to frequent connection and disconnection.
Use habits increase vulnerability
“Frequent connection and disconnection, high temperature and high humidity and sudden power outage during data transfer can lead to file system failure, partition table damage and data loss,” the report explains.
Users who neglect secure broadcasting practices connect the problem further. The data indicates that logical errors from uncertain removal exceed the average risk by 75%.
From a hardware point of view, cost-saving measures in smaller drives can result in lower quality components.
“Some manufacturers compromise on manufacturing processes and materials to reduce costs, such as using low quality controller chips,” warns Easeus.
Of course, these weaknesses are translated into higher failure of failure, especially during prolonged or intensive use.
The file system is another contributing factor. While high capacity drives often use more robust systems such as GPT, NTFS or EXFAT, which are better suited to control large amounts of data, there is still often a small capacity disk often often dependent on FAT32.
“When storing a large number of small files, the partition table often needs to be updated and the risk of overwriting metadata is great,” notes the report.
Interestingly, SSDs show similar trends, although the failure of failure is less dramatic. External SSDs under 256 GB are about twice as likely that they will fail as those over 4TB.
This is attributed to similar factors: frequent use, fewer flash chips and less advanced controllers.
“SSDs in small capacity have fewer chips. Once damaged, the risk of data loss is higher,” the conclusions say.
Although SSDs are generally more resilient and lack moving components, the report against RU’s use and advises careful control.
Users are encouraged to adhere to safe handling practices and consider buying high capacity storage from reputable brands to lower their risk.
Using a portable SSD or external HDD in high quality reduces the chance of data loss, but no solution is perfect. Therefore, it is a wise caution, especially when dealing with logical errors or unintended deletions.
