If you need the perfect exterior onerous drive, I’ve received the highest picks proper right here. Every of those fashions provides you high-speed file transfers and high-capacity storage for each funds.
My staff and I examined the finest exterior onerous drives for Mac, the finest transportable SSDs, and even the finest USB flash drives. So, we all know what to be careful for when selecting your subsequent exterior HDD.
For my part, the perfect exterior onerous drive is the WD Components transportable HDD. Appropriate for nearly everybody, it boasts nice speeds and nice storage capability at an awesome worth. Nevertheless it’s not the one selection on the town, and we have assessed a variety of exterior onerous drives, measuring speeds, design, and connectivity. We examined each exterior onerous drive with our inner benchmarking suite earlier than recommending them.
One of the best exterior onerous drive: fast record
The WD Components exterior onerous drive is very advisable regardless of not being the quickest, largest, or least expensive, as a result of it ranks persistently within the prime three throughout all classes, making it a flexible selection. Whereas it would not excel in any single side, its balanced efficiency, respectable capability, and portability with out important drawbacks make it the perfect total choice for many customers, providing a well-rounded bundle at an inexpensive worth.
The UnionSine Extremely Slim exterior HDD slim design, glorious learn speeds, and engaging price-to-performance ratio makes it a stellar selection for these on a funds. Nonetheless, its restricted capability choices, with a most of 2TB, and a excessive worth per terabyte are important drawbacks. Regardless of these limitations, its quick learn speeds, three-year guarantee, and portability make it a superb selection for these requiring not more than 2TB.
The WD My Passport Extremely for Mac is a dependable choice for macOS customers, providing a USB-C interface perfect for Time Machine backups and cellular storage. Although not the quickest, its comfort for Mac customers—requiring no further connectors—partially offsets its decrease total efficiency and better value amongst examined drives. With efficiency corresponding to the WD Components, it is a appropriate selection for these prioritizing ease of use with Mac out of the field, regardless of its satisfactory switch speeds.
4. Seagate FireCuda Gaming
The FireCuda exterior sport drive stays related for players with massive libraries, providing as much as 5TB capability, excessive sequential learn speeds, and fast copy-to-drive instances, enhanced by RGB lighting with Razer Chroma assist. Regardless of its increased worth per terabyte, restricted capability choices, and a 1-year guarantee, its efficiency loading and transferring video games make it a compelling selection, significantly the 5TB model which frequently goes on sale, providing an excellent higher worth.
The Seagate Enlargement desktop exterior onerous drive outperforms different HDDs considerably, providing distinctive learn and write speeds near an exterior SSD, making it perfect for in depth system backups and storing massive media information, because of its huge capability choices and low price-per-terabyte. Nonetheless, its lack of portability, as a result of want for an exterior energy supply, and a excessive buy worth are drawbacks. Nonetheless, as a desktop backup answer, it is in a category of its personal.
The LaCie Rugged Mini’s greatest promoting level is its sturdiness, providing drop and crush resistance fitted to the tough dealing with typical in outside artistic work. Whereas its efficiency is stable, surpassing many non-SSD opponents in learn and duplicate speeds, it comes at a excessive value per terabyte. Regardless of this, its three-year guarantee provides worth, making it an interesting selection for these prioritizing robustness and reliability in difficult environments, albeit at a premium worth.
With loads of storage capability at an inexpensive worth, the WD My Passport is our best choice exterior onerous drive for college students. We discovered switch speeds to be comparatively fast, the design to be sturdy, and with storage starting from 1TB to 6TB, it is nice for paperwork, video and picture information, and information back-up.
John Loeffler
John (He/Him) is TechRadar’s Elements Editor and has been reviewing pc {hardware} with TechRadar for a number of years. As our part lead, he’s chargeable for testing any and all parts that hit the market, together with GPUs, CPUs, storage drives, and extra. He has extensively examined all the exterior onerous drives on this record, and selected every based mostly on these take a look at outcomes as the perfect of their class.
One of the best exterior onerous drive of 2024 in full:
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Under you will discover full write-ups for every of the perfect exterior onerous drive picks on our record. We have examined each extensively, so you’ll be able to make sure that our suggestions may be trusted.
One of the best exterior onerous drive total
The WD Components exterior onerous drive is not the quickest or essentially the most spacious in the marketplace. Neither does it have the bottom worth per terabyte, the most important number of capacities accessible, or the perfect guarantee of all of the drives I’ve examined. However that is my prime choose for the perfect exterior onerous drive total as a result of in each class, it’s persistently within the prime three.
Whereas one drive might need the bottom worth per terabyte (Seagate Enlargement) or the perfect guarantee (just like the LaCie Rugged Mini), they typically have steeper shortcomings that offset these benefits, like being costlier, or being a worse total worth.
The WD Components then could be very a lot a jack-of-all-trades sort of drive, doing all issues moderately nicely, whereas not outperforming in a single class or the opposite. For most individuals although, that is precisely the sort of drive you will need: one thing that gives you a very good little bit of every little thing with out having to make too many sacrifices within the course of.
So far as efficiency goes, once more, this is not the quickest drive I examined. Removed from it actually, however its learn speeds have been shut sufficient to many of the drives that this may not be noticeable, and its random write speeds, which is crucial for a often used exterior HDD, are a very good bit increased than its competitors.
Ultimately, it got here in with the third finest total rating and the second finest worth rating, whereas providing increased capacities than the UnionSine DataPocket and a portability that the Seagate Enlargement cannot provide, all whereas coming in at an appropriate worth level for an exterior HDD with the next capability.
One of the best funds exterior onerous drive
There are solely a few issues that maintain again the UnionSine Extremely Slim exterior HDD from being the perfect exterior onerous drive total, and it is a disgrace, as a result of it is a nice drive.
Its total scores are second solely to the top-scoring Seagate Enlargement, and its slim profile makes this an easy drive to hold round, although it is barely greater than the WD Components and WD My Passport Extremely.
Its decrease capability choices in comparison with the opposite exterior HDD picks on this record minimize towards it, however should you do not want greater than 2TB of exterior HDD storage, then that is undoubtedly one of many drives it’s best to get, because of its quick learn speeds, three-year restricted guarantee, and excellent worth.
Regardless of its low worth level, It has a somewhat excessive worth per terabyte owing to its restricted capability choices, with its max capability topping out at simply 2TB. Whereas it does have a number of a lot smaller capacities beginning at 250GB, the utility of such small capacities on an exterior HDD makes them more durable to suggest, particularly when you will get a sooner transportable SSD with the identical or better capability for not an entire lot more cash.
Efficiency-wise, the UnionSine Extremely Slim manages to outperform all the drives on this record when it comes to total learn speeds save for the Seagate Enlargement, although it does have a for much longer copy time in my 25GB file copy take a look at, and its common write speeds are a lot decrease than different drives.
These latter two factors actually harm since file writing and copying speeds are the 2 greatest components on the subject of an exterior HDD’s efficiency since you’re much more prone to be writing information to the drive than studying from it frequently.
Nonetheless, on stability, its efficiency is excellent, and its price-to-performance worth is the perfect on this record, and it is not even shut.
One of the best exterior onerous drive for Mac
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There aren’t plenty of exterior onerous drives on the market with a USB-C interface, so Mac customers have needed to make plenty of compromises over the previous couple of years however with the WD My Passport Extremely for Mac, macOS customers have a stable choice for Time Machine backups and different long-term storage on the go.
Just like the WD Components, this is not the quickest drive on the record, regardless of it is USB-C port, and it is speeds are largely the identical as what you will get with the WD Components, although you will should spend a bit more cash to get the My Passport Extremely for Mac.
This is likely to be a more durable tablet to swallow for some, since this drive’s total rating is the bottom of the drives we examined, and discovering a USB-C to Micro B connector is not all that arduous, so any of the opposite drives on this web page will serve simply as nicely in your Mac, although none will work as nicely along with your Mac out of the field.
By way of efficiency, you are basically getting the identical speeds and scores because the WD Components, with a noteable exception. Copying information internally is extremely quick on this drive, second solely to the Seagate Enlargement, however copying to this drive is considerably slower in my testing.
I might argue that the latter is extra necessary, however your mileage might range. In the end, should you’re a Mac person and also you simply need a drive which you could pull out of the field, plug in, and get going, this drive is an efficient wager, regardless of its shortcomings.
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Learn our full WD My Passport Extremely evaluation
One of the best exterior onerous drive for gaming
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Trendy sport consoles and the perfect gaming PCs have all largely moved on to sooner SSD storage, making gaming onerous drives a lot much less related than they as soon as have been, however they don’t seem to be out of date simply but, particularly should you’re coping with a completely huge sport library that’s an excessive amount of of a problem to obtain and uninstall frequently.
The FireCuda exterior sport drive is strictly the sort of factor you want in a case like this. With as much as a 5TB capability, moderately quick sequential learn pace, and a really quick copy-to-drive pace, the RGB accent lighting with Razer Chroma assist is actually simply an added bonus.
On the draw back, this drive has a reasonably excessive worth per terabyte, just a few capability choices, and only a 1-year guarantee, however it’s not the top of the world for a drive like this.
On the efficiency finish, this drive is close to the highest when it comes to sequential learn speeds, which is crucial for sport loading or copy operations to a sooner SSD, and copy-to-drive operations, which you will want if you wish to transfer video games on and off the drive along with your console or PC’s major storage.
In the end, it is not the perfect worth of all of the drives examined, however it’s higher than most, particularly should you go for the 5TB drive, which you’ll normally discover on sale.
One of the best high-capacity exterior onerous drive
The Seagate Enlargement desktop exterior onerous drive is the best-performing HDD I examined, and it is not shut.
With scores that almost double the closest competitors and browse and write speeds second solely to an exterior SSD, the Enlargement in a critically strong exterior drive, excellent for normal system backups because of its enormous capability choices.
These capacities additionally come at a really low price-per-terabyte, making this perfect for housing huge video and different media information along with system picture information. The draw back is that this is not a really transportable drive, owing to it needing to be plugged into an exterior energy supply like a wall outlet or a transportable battery.
If you happen to’re trying strictly for a desktop backup answer although, you will not discover higher except you improve to an SSD. Learn, write, and duplicate speeds are dozens of MB/s forward of the opposite HDDs on this record, and understandably, this drive finally ends up scoring the perfect total. Sadly, its excessive worth does tank its worth rating, regardless of its low worth per terabyte.
One of the best rugged exterior onerous drive
The LaCie Rugged Mini exterior HDD is a stable sufficient performer for a non-SSD, however what you are right here for is the added safety that comes with its brilliant orange shock absorber.
In accordance with LaCie, the Rugged Mini contains a drop resistance of 4 toes (1.2m) and a crush resistance that may survive being run over by a 1-ton automobile, so it should nearly actually survive the sort of beating that photographers and creatives out within the subject may topic it to, together with cramming it into luggage, dropping it on trails, and different real-world eventualities.
That stated, the Rugged Mini does are available fairly costly in comparison with many different 5TB drives, and its worth per terabyte could be very excessive total. It does include a three-year guarantee to assist soften that blow, nonetheless.
Total, the drive’s efficiency is on the upper finish, beating out the WD Components and UnionSine Extremely Slim when it comes to learn speeds, and falling simply behind the UnionSine Extremely Slim when it comes to common write speeds. Its copy information price can be second solely to the Seagate Enlargement, so shifting information onto and across the drive shall be pretty fast, on stability.
Greatest exterior onerous drive for college students
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One of the best exterior onerous drive for college students wants to mix loads of storage – particularly should you’re creating content material – at a very good worth. For us, the WD My Passport delivers.
The machine is out there in a variety of storage capacities, from 1TB to 6TB, which must be sufficient for many college students. We reviewed the 6TB mannequin and located switch speeds have been quick sufficient for an exterior HDD, though not as fast as an SSD. Set-up was easy sufficient, simply plug and play on Home windows – nonetheless, Mac customers might want to correctly arrange the additional Acronis True Picture software program with new drivers and reformatting. That is easy sufficient, however is probably not perfect for everybody. In any case, as soon as we tried this ourselves, the onerous drive labored seamlessly.
The WD My Passport is right for backing up or sending massive quantities of knowledge. Picture and video information are tailored for this machine. Easy to make use of, bundled with additional software program, and loads of options that set this aside from different exterior onerous drives – all at a really cheap worth.
Learn our full WD My Passport 6TB evaluation
One of the best exterior onerous drive: FAQs
Which exterior onerous drive is finest for backup?
By way of exterior HDDs, the Seagate Enlargement is my prime choose because of its enormous capability choices and extremely quick learn, write, and duplicate speeds for a tough disk drive. Solely an SSD will get you quicker speeds, and you will not discover any that provide the Enlargement’s capability for an inexpensive worth.
Are exterior onerous drives nonetheless price it?
If you happen to’re on the lookout for long-term storage and again up drives, than exterior onerous drives are undoubtedly price it, since you will get plenty of additional cupboard space for giant backup information at an inexpensive worth. They don’t seem to be the perfect for day-to-day file storage, particularly if you might want to entry these information often, since a HDD cannot match the speeds of an SSD.
How to decide on the perfect exterior onerous drive
When deciding on the perfect exterior onerous drive, prioritizing a mannequin that gives safe and dependable storage in your essential information is crucial. Pace is one other key consideration, with the perfect fashions that includes superior connectivity choices like USB-C for fast information transfers.
The drive’s connection kind, together with its expertise—both a conventional onerous drive or a solid-state drive (SSD)—considerably influences switch speeds. Search for drives with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 USB Sort-C or Thunderbolt 3 or 4 for the quickest transfers, guaranteeing your pc helps these connections.
Moreover, in case your work includes massive information like high-definition media, go for a drive providing ample storage, with a number of terabytes accessible at an inexpensive value.
How we take a look at the perfect exterior onerous drives
I examined all the drives on this record utilizing a number of industry-standard benchmarking instruments like CrystalDiskMark, PCMark 10, and BlackMagic Pace Check.
I additionally used a customized script that repeatedly copies a 25GB folder with hundreds of information and a deep listing construction to the drive from a PCIe 4.0 SSD to the drive, recording the instances it took to finish the copy operations and utilizing the typical of these instances as its remaining consequence. The script then repeatedly copies the identical folder from one location on the drive being examined to a different inner location and measures that point, taking the typical time to finish as its consequence.
I then use the geometric imply of the assorted scores and switch charges because the drive’s remaining rating, which I then divide by the worth of the drive to provide you with its worth rating.
Learn extra on how we take a look at, price, and evaluation merchandise on TechRadar.
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