2014-2017 I worked for HGST, just as it was being assimilated by WD. There were definite hardware differences between drive categories back then, and as well a

2014-2017 I worked for HGST, just as it was being assimilated by WD. There were definite hardware differences between drive categories back then, and as well as the firmware adjustments, there would be things such as additional accelerometers to detect and help protect against shock (eg: portable drives), higher quality bearings and head/head mechanism differences. But, or course, that was then and I can't speak for now.