One of the main benefits of external hard drives is that they allow you to quickly store information via USB cable without having to shut down and open up the PC. They are also a lot bigger than flash drives as far as capacity goes, which explains why they’re so popular in the first place.
Now, there are a few things to look for when shopping for an external hard drive, beginning with the hard drive’s capacity and transfer speed. You would also be advised to take portability into consideration, because at the end of the day, it’s supposed to be a portable device. To give you a better idea of what the market has to offer in this regard, we put together a list of the ten best desktop hard drives money can buy.
This highly portable drive may only have an 80GB capacity, but what it lacks in storage it makes up in portability. We say this because it employs a driver-free plug & play technology that enables you to connect it to virtually any desktop pc in just a matter of seconds. Interestingly enough, it also comes with a one-touch backup software designed to help you recover sensitive information before copying any files on or off the drive.
Seagate 4TB External Hard Drive. Price: $97.00 Buy it on: Amazon These Seagate HDD options provide a vertical, elegant design to set next to your Xbox One X. The upside here is that the drive doesn't take up as much horizontal space as the oddly shaped, rectangular external HDDs with smaller storage capacities.
The Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe External SSD is a solid state drive that offers one terabyte or two terabytes of external storage for those who like to create on the go.
Best External Hard Drives Windows Central 2021 Having an external hard drive around can come in handy if you need to add a little (or a lot) of extra storage space to your PC setup with little hassle.
9Toshiba Canvio Connect II 1TB Portable Hard Drive
Toshiba’s Canvio Connect II uses a simple and intuitive user interface that makes it very easy to use. At the same time, it comes with a cloud-enabled backup option that allows you to backup data according to any pre-planned backup schedule you may choose. As for its capacity, let us point out that it allows you to store up to 1 TB of data, files you can transfer to it from both a PC or a MAC.
8Seagate Backup Plus 2TB Desktop External Hard Drive
What makes this particular drive stand out from the rest is the fact that it comes with 200 GB of free OneDrive cloud storage that you can use to store any sensible information at any given time. In terms of data transferring, we should point out that this drive uses a USB 3.0 connectivity feature, one that allows you to transfer files at twice the speed you normally would on a regular drive.
7Silicon Power 1TB Rugged Armor A30 External Drive
This military grade portable drive is one of the toughest, most reliable external hard drives the market has to offer. As such, it features a shockproof construction that will help the drive withstand any sudden shocks that would otherwise damage regular drives. It also uses a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity with a high transferring rate of up to 5 GB/sec, which is quite impressive by all standards.
Transcend’s StoreJet M3 hard drive uses an advanced 3-stage shock protection system, which when combined with the drive’s durable anti-shock rubber outer case, makes it one of the toughest external drives out there. Furthermore, it features an advanced internal hard drive suspension system with a quick reconnect button that allows you to quickly and safely reconnect the drive without undergoing any unplugging / reinserting procedure.
This drive will not only allow you to quickly and safely store files on it in a timely fashion, but it will do so while providing you with a multitude of backup settings for you to choose from. Among them, the ability to secure your backups with password-protected data encryption along with the capacity to store and access files from your PC without reformatting. Also worth mentioning is that this drive uses a very simple and intuitive user interface to make things easier when connecting it to your computer.
4Seagate Expansion 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive
Thanks to its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 capabilities, this particular drive is capable of reaching formidable transfer speeds through a fairly standard USB connection. It also doesn’t require any software to be installed on your computer for the file transfer to work due to its plug & play design. This being said, let us point out that Mac compatibility requires reformatting the drive so as to erase all Windows files.
3WD 1TB Black My Passport Ultra Portable External Hard Drive
It is important for any external hard drive to be compatible with a variety of operating systems, which is what makes this drive stand out. You see, the WD 1 TB My Passport Ultra will work just fine on Windows 8, 7, or even Vista if required right out of the box without the use of any additional software. Not only that but it also comes with an automatic local and cloud backup and an optional 256-bit AES hardware encryption feature for good measure.
Similar to the ‘Ultra Portable’ version, the WB My Passport drive is perhaps one of the very best money can buy. The reason we say this is because it not only features a sleek compact design that vastly improves its portability, but it also stores up to 1 TB of data at a truly remarkable speed. Speaking of which, this drive has a data transfer rate via USB 3.0 that can reach 5 Gbps.
1Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive
It should be said that you aren’t likely to find a better external hard drive in this price range than Seagate’s Backup Plus Slim 1TB drive. One of the reasons why this particular hard drive is so impressive is that it comes with 200GB of free OneDrive cloud storage on top of the 1TB of data it can physically store. Not only that but it is also a very high-tech drive in its own right, seeing how it doesn’t require any power supply or any additional software to run properly.
After evaluating and analyzing in detail more than 108,278 customer satisfaction about 2017 Best External Hard Drive, we have come up with the top 10 products you may be interested in 2017 Best External Hard Drive. We have ranked the best brands from Artificial Intelligent and Big Data, as you see below: Seagate, Toshiba, Silicon Power, Western Digital, Sengert, G-Technology, ADATA, Fantom Drives. Read more How we Score
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Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, PS4, & Xbox - 1-year Rescue Service (STGX2000400)
Seagate
9.4
AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
External Hard Drive For Mac
Easily store and access 2TB to content on the go with the Seagate Portable Drive, a USB external hard drive
Enjoy long-term peace of mind with the included one-year limited warranty and one-year Rescue Data Recovery Servicesmore
Toshiba Canvio Flex 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB-C USB 3.0, Silver for PC, Mac, & Tablet - HDTX140XSCCA
Toshiba
9.4AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
3-year manufacturer's limited warranty(3).
Formatted exFAT for cross-device compatibility(2).more
Silicon Power 2TB Rugged Portable External Hard Drive Armor A80, Waterproof USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, Xbox and PS4, Blue
Silicon Power
9.2AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
Military-grade shockproof and IPX7 waterproof protection. Sturdy aluminum casing enables high pressure-resistant function to withstand up to 300 kg of force.
Cable storage design for simple cable carrying.more
WD 1TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive, USB-C/USB-A - WDBFKF0010BBK-WESE,Black
Western Digital
9.2AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
Trusted drive built with WD reliability
USB 3.0 port; USB 2.0 compatiblemore
2.5' 500GB Ultra Slim Portable External Hard Drive Sengert USB3.0 Mobile HDD Storage Compatible for PC, Desktop, Laptop, Xbox One, Xbox 360(Black)
Sengert
9.2AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
✔System Compatibility - Windows / Mac / Linux / Android OS. Plug and Play - Without software to install, just plug it in and go.Simply attach the USB cable to your computer and you're ready to start sending files.
✔Ultra-fast Data Transfers Works with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 to deliver ultra-fast transfer speeds. In theory, USB3.0 that can transfer data at up to 5.0 Gbit/s (625 MB/s), which is about 10 times as fast as USB 2.0.more
G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE Mobile USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 1) Portable External Hard Drive, Silver - 0G10264
G-Technology
9.2AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
Mac ready; easily reformatted for Windows
3-Year Limited manufacturer's warrantymore
G-Technology 4TB G-DRIVE with Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C Desktop External Hard Drive, Silver - 0G05363-1
G-Technology
8.8AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
Daisy chaining for up to 5 additional devices
5-year limited manufacturer's warrantymore
ADATA HD830 2TB Ruggedized IP68 Extra Strength USB3.1 Waterproof Dustproof Drop-Proof External Hard Drive Blue (AHD830-2TU31-CBL)
ADATA
8.6AI Score
The scores from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our AI Consumer Report tool based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Read more How we Score
AHD830-2TU31-CBL
G-Technology 10TB G-DRIVE with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive, Silver - 0G05024
G-Technology
8.4AI Score
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Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 ports for ultimate high speed data transfer
Integrated heat sink for quiet operation and coolingmore
Fantom Drives 5TB External Hard Drive - USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1 Aluminum Case - Mac, Windows, PS4, and Xbox (GF3B5000U)
Fantom Drives
6.4AI Score
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Easy Installation
5TB external hard Drivemore
Last update on 2021-03-11 / Affiliate links / Images, Product Titles, and Product Highlights from Amazon Product Advertising API