whats the difference between External hard drives and HDD based MP3 players

[moshel]

Well as everyone must be aware external hard drives are prone to crashing/corruption/bad sectors etc. atleast i have been through it once.

on the other hand there are mp3 players with hard drives in it.

so i wanna know are these mp3 players prone to HDD problems like those external hdds are (cos i have never heard it)? external hdds are very sensitive and would stop working or get corrupt if dropped (or so i have heard). so is it the same with mp3 players?

If yes, then how do people take care of it, especially those who carry mp3 players with them while travelling/

If no, then why?

thanks,
Moshel

[Sourabh]

Regardless of the product, if it has a spinning platter - it will surely be prone to damage due to mishandling, drops, etc.

When it comes to external hard drives, these generally use 3.5" or 2.5" form factor HDDs which are generally intended for PC use. Even with the 2.5" portable HDDs, you can't be careless. But when it comes to HDD-based MP3 players - they make use of 1.8" HDDs and the products are designed to take some beating of every day commute. This is perhaps the primary reason why you don't hear of them failing like you do for a regular external hard drive. One negative with hard-drive based MP3 players is that transfer speeds are not on the same level as similar external hard drives.

Hope this helped.