Best external ssd hard drive: Best External Hard Drives and SSDs of 2023

28 сентября, 2023

Best Portable Hard Drive & SSD 2023: External Storage Reviews

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Best Picks

Find the right external drive for your needs

By Chris Martin

Reviews Editor, Tech Advisor JAN 18, 2023 4:40 pm GMT

You can do a lot of clever things with cloud storage but in many situations, there’s no match for traditional physical storage. Having massive amounts of storage in a pocketable drive is really handy and for some users might be absolutely necessary.

There are plenty of portable hard disk drives (HDD) as well as much-faster solid-state drives (SSD) to choose from and we’ve reviewed and ranked some of the best ones. We are focussing on SSDs here but hard drives like the WD Black P10 get an honourable mention.

Portable USB drives are powered by the connected computer, so you can use them on the move without the need to plug into the mains or use batteries. Some will even connect your phone or tablet and let you extend storage that way, or allow you to transfer or open files.

Find our full chart below and click through to the full reviews if you want to read more about a particular drive. Looking for an internal SATA or NVMe drive? Check out our best SSD chart for something internal, or that you can add to your own casing.

Best portable hard drives & SSDs 2023

1. Crucial X6 – Best Overall

Pros

  • Enhanced performance
  • Highly affordable
  • Easily transportable

Cons

  • Lacks hardware encryption
  • No activity light
  • 500GB model slower

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 836MB/s

It might not be quite as fast as the Adata SE760 but a recent upgrade to the 1- and 2TB models makes the X6 unbeatable in terms of value for money with the 1TB model costing well under £100/$100.

Furthermore, it comes in an ever more portable form factor than its bigger brother, the X8, which is still drop tested to 2m and comes with the same three-year warranty.

As an all-rounder goes, it’s our top pick, even if it lacks things like hardware encryption and an activity light.

Read our full

Crucial X6 review

2. Adata SE760 – Best Value

Pros

  • Cheap
  • Great performance
  • Type-A & Type-C cables

Cons

  • No encryption
  • Limited to 1TB

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 934MB/s

Adata has come up with an excellent rival to the Crucial X8 and importantly done so at a cheaper price.

Like the X8 there are no features like a rugged design or encryption but there are alternative options if you need those things.

Instead, the SE760 provides a hassle-free way of carrying around a large amount of speedy storage without breaking the bank. It even comes with Type-C and Type-A USB cables included.

A solid choice if you want between 250GB and 1TB of capacity.

Read our full

Adata SE760 review

3. Kingston XS2000 – Affordable Performance

Pros

  • Reasonably priced
  • Headline performance
  • Small and lightweight

Cons

  • Needs USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 for full speed
  • Limited SLC cache size
  • No USB Type-A adapter

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 1986MB/s

If you want the top performance then the XS2000 is aptly named as it offers headline speeds with read peaking at 2092MB/s, though you will need a USB 3. 2 Gen 2×2 port to access this level of performance.

That’s around double many rivals if you do and the price here is surprisingly affordable, plus this is a very portable drive.

On the downside, the limited cache means you won’t get sustained performance for larger files and Kingston doesn’t provide a USB adapter to use the XS2000 with older Type-A ports.

Read our full

Kingston XS2000 review

4. Seagate One Touch (2021) – Best Backup Software

Pros

  • High performance
  • Up to 2TB
  • Free Sync Plus software

Cons

  • Short cables
  • Could be more robust

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 1,007MB/s

As long as you don’t need hardware encryption then the latest version of the One Touch SSD is an excellent choice.

Plug it into the right USB port and you’ll get double the speed of the previous version, matching many rivals. Capacity goes up to 2TB and Seagate provides useful and free, Sync Plus software to make backing up files easy.

It’s also highly portable and although it’s not as rugged as some alternatives, it’s hardly fragile. The main pain point here is the ridiculously short cables, but that’s not uncommon either.

Read our full

Seagate One Touch SSD (2021) review

5. CalDigit Tuff nano – Best Speed and Durability Combo

Pros

  • Super fast
  • Super tough
  • Super small

Cons

  • Not the cheapest

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 891MB/s

The CalDigit Tuff nano blew us away with its super-fast speeds, which are twice as fast as comparable portable SSDs. using NVMe technology, the 512GB drive we tested achieved Read and Write speeds close to 1,000MB/s!

It’s also robust, being IP67 certified – meaning that it can be immersed in water and is dust-tight. It can also withstand drops up to 3M.

It is compatible with most computers (it comes with USB-C and USB-A cables), and, being USB-C, can also work with Apple’s iPad Pro.

While it might be a little pricy for the casual user, professionals such as photographers and filmmakers will appreciate its blistering speed and tough travel credentials.

Read our full

Caldigit Tuff nano SSD Drive review

6. Crucial X8 – Good Value Performance

Pros

  • Top performance
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Short cable
  • Plain design

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 1,015MB/s

The Crucial X8 is a great option for those looking for reliable portable SSD.

It’s well-made, compact and offers excellent speeds via USB 3.2 Gen 2 and offers great value for money, too.

There might not be any encryption but for many users, this won’t be an issue. If it is, then there are plenty of other options such as the Samsung T7 Touch and SanDisk Extreme.

Read our full

Crucial X8 review

7. Samsung T7 Touch – Best Encryption

Pros

  • Excellent speeds
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Compact

Cons

  • No admin backdoor

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 929MB/s

Samsung has improved on the popular T5 with a portable SSD that’s both faster and is more secure.

The fingerprint scanner works well but the drive is lacking in a simple way to reset it should you not have the registered finger so just be careful. You’ll also need to be using the right port to get the most out of the T7’s potential speed.

Those are just caveats for an excellent drive which has a lot to like. If you won’t make use of these new features then you may as well grab the cheaper
T5.

Read our full

Samsung T7 Touch review

8. SanDisk Extreme Portable SDD V2 – Most Portable

Pros

  • Faster than SATA SSDs
  • USB-A + USB-C
  • Lightweight

Cons

  • Costly
  • Confusing naming

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 930MB/s

SanDisk has done a great job of improving its rugged portable SSD with this new model, although the naming is a little too similar with just ‘V2’ at the end which isn’t even on the box.

If you make sure you’re buying this new model, you’ll benefit from double the speed as well as built-in encryption. The Extreme Portable is also one of the lightest drives we’ve ever seen if that’s important and also has an IP55 water and dust rating.

The drive offers both USB-A and USB-C, just note that you’ll need a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port on the device you plug this SSD into to benefit from the fastest speeds.

Read our full

SanDisk Extreme Portable SDD V2 review

9. WD Black D10 – Best Gaming Storage

Pros

  • Lightweight
  • Reasonably fast
  • Military styling

Cons

  • Short USB cable
  • Can’t run all console titles
  • Expensive

HDD, Average Read/Write speed: 625MB/s

If you’re lacking in space for your console or PC games then the WD Black D30 is a decent option to gain a lot of storage in a small and stylish package.

The metal container style shell is really the only gaming element of this drive, but it is highly portable and ready to use out the box. You’ll get decent speeds from the USB 3.2 standard.

As usual, we’d like the cable to be longer. If you need more space than 2TB and can cope with slower speeds, the
Black P10 goes to 5TB.

Read our full

WD Black P10 Game Drive review

10. SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 – Best Performance

Pros

  • Headline performance on Thunderbolt
  • USB connectable
  • Ultra-resilient design

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Limited capacities
  • No USB Type-A adapter included

SSD, Average Read/Write speed: 2682MB/s

Those looking for serious speeds in an ultra-rugged casing that will survive the likes of water, drops and more have just found it.

The PRO-G40 gets close to 3000MB/s in read speeds if you use it over Thunderbolt. With USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds significantly slower, it’s not worth the high cost of this drive compared to rivals.

That’s the main issue here, with seemingly most of the cost going on the casing, while the drive inside only comes in 1- or 2TB sizes at launch. At this price, a longer cable and some kind of carry pouch would be nice. The G40 will be a better buy once it starts getting discounted.

Read our full

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 review

How to choose a portable SSD

Even the smallest portable drives are likely to be 128GB in size, which is enough to space thousands of CD albums in lossless FLAC format, or even more in lower quality MP3 or AAC formats. Off-loading your music collection alone from a computer to a portable drive can be a godsend in freeing valuable space if your laptop has limited storage.

Another popular application of portable storage is for keeping critical backups of your data held on a PC or laptop. You may be able to keep a perfect clone of your entire computer’s internal drive, on standby and ready in the event that the computer is lost or its drive should malfunction.

Alternatively, you may choose just to back up the most important files and documents from your user libraries, such as text documents, photos, films, music and stored email. Some portable drives include software that can help automate this process, keeping your selected directories in sync whenever you plug in the drive or by a daily schedule.

Performance

Now that USB 2.0 has been banished from all self-respecting storage, we find USB 3 as the standard for connection, letting these portable drives perform as quickly as the little disks inside will allow.

USB 3 is confusing, as USB 3.0 was retrospectively renamed to USB 3.1 Gen 1. There’s also a newer version, USB 3.1 Gen 2. This doubles the potential throughput from Gen 1’s 5Gb/s to 10Gb/s. In megabytes per second, these equate to 625 and 1,250 respectively. Pretty fast, then.

In reality, most SSDs top out at around 1000MB/s (although you can get faster), and this speed is highly dependent on the device you’re connecting it to so don’t automatically blame the drive if you experience slower speeds. Note that USB-C Gen 2 won’t go any faster when USB 4.0 arrives.

Check out the average speeds in the summaries above, and go to the full review for more detailed benchmark results.

Protection

A rugged exterior will be handy if you want the freedom of being able to throw around the unplugged drive with less worry that it will damage the unit, and more importantly, lose your data.

Look out for shock-resistance ratings such as the US military MIL-STD-810F 516.5 (Transit Drop Test). This means that it should withstand being dropped 26 times onto a hard floor, once on to each face, edge and corner, from a height of 1.22m.

Flash storage – more commonly known as SSDs – can survive more brutal treatment, and some portable drives are even water-resistant. If you were to accidentally drop a portable SSD drive in water, then as long as the port covers are firmly closed, it will work fine to use it after it has been fully dried.

Some drives have an IP waterproof rating like phones.

Reliability

It’s tough to say definitively which manufacturer makes the most reliable hard drives. While there’s a big difference between the technology used in traditional hard drives and SSDs, both have a limited lifespan, and this is why warranties are relatively short – typically two or three years.

What’s important is that you have a well-thought-out backup process and you don’t rely on any single drive to store precious files. Ideally, you should have three copies: one on a PC, phone or tablet, one on a backup drive and one in the cloud.

Value

For many users, a portable storage drive may be an unavoidable commodity, and price will be the deciding factor. 

Often an older drive will be cheaper thanks to a drop in price so you might get a bargain, but make sure you’re not missing out on new tech you’d benefit from.

Professionals will be willing to pay more for the faster and tougher SSDs out there.

Security

The larger the drive, the more you can store – and the more you stand to lose in the event of losing the drive or having it stolen. This is where it pays to lock down that drive.

There are two ways to ensure the data is unreadable by other users. You can scramble the contents through hardware encryption. Or you can use a software application to encrypt either parts or all of the drive.

Author: Chris Martin, Reviews Editor

Tech Advisor’s Reviews Editor, Chris has been reviewing all kinds of tech for over 10 years and specialises in audio. He also covers a range of topics including home entertainment, phones, laptops, tablets and more.

Best external drives 2023: Reviews and buying advice

Updated

Your PC setup is incomplete without an assist from external storage.

By Gordon Mah Ung and Jon L. Jacobi

PCWorld May 24, 2023 3:30 am PDT

Image: IDG

Chances are that you have important data that you don’t want to use on your PC. To protect and back up your data you’ll want to either store it on the cloud or copy it to an external drive. If you don’t wish to entrust your data to a cloud service, then the best way to make sure your data isn’t lost is to save a copy onto an external drive. It’s an inexpensive and convenient way to back up your important files or store any overflow. It can also be a handy way to transport your data or even transfer files between devices.

As files get larger and you accumulate more of them, you’re all but guaranteed to continually need more storage. An external drive is one of the best ways to ensure you have enough storage capacity and to cover yourself in case of an emergency. Here at PCWorld we’ve tested numerous external drives and curated a list of the best external drives below. We’ve provided recommendations for everything from blazing-fast performance to budget options to portability and everything in between. Below our recommendations you’ll find additional helpful information on what you need to know to choose the best external drive for your needs.

Updated 05/21/2023: We’ve added the Teamgroup M200 as our choice for best budget speedster. This portable drive is exceptionally fast and comes with a hard-to-beat price. Read more about our latest pick in the summary below.

Samsung T7 Shield – Best performance USB drive

Pros

  • Fast 1GBps sustained transfers
  • Excellent real world performance
  • Vast 4TB capacity
  • Svelte and handsome

Cons

  • Not cheap
  • Small 4K performance glitch under CrystalDiskMark 8 writing 4K files

We’re fans of the original Samsung T7 Shield, and now we’re ever bigger fans of the follow-up, larger capacity 4TB version of the T7 Shield. Now upgraded to a 4TB capacity from the previous 1TB and 2TB versions, Samsung has continued with their excellent track record of speed and durability with their T7 drives. Whereas the T7’s predecessor, the Samsung Touch, distinguished itself with a fingerprint reader for data security, the Shield models lean in to physical protection, with IP65 ratings against particulate matter and water spray, making them good performance drives for out in the field. (Mind you, the Shield can still be secured with password protection.)

While the 4TB model is capable of handling the largest end-user data sets, it is also a bit pricey. Thankfully, if you don’t need so much storage, you can simply purchase our previous best pick 1TB or 2TB versions for less. Regardless of the size, all T7 Shields boast USB 3.2 10Gbps implementation allowing for 10Gbps transfer speeds which gives it the edge over many other external drives on the market today.

Read our full

Samsung T7 4TB review

SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD – Best performance drive runner-up

Pros

  • Overall fastest USB SSD currently available
  • Relatively affordable
  • IP55 rated against dust and mild streams of water

Cons

  • Slightly slower reading files than Samsung’s T7

While we’ve moved SanDisk’s Extreme Pro Portable SSD (1TB) to runner-up status in light of the Samsung T7’s improved write speeds, make no mistake, it’s still one the fastest USB 3. 1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) external SSD we’ve tested to date. It’s slightly more expensive than the T7 Shield, at $190 for 1GB and $300 for 2GB, and it’s rated at IP55 for slightly less protection from the elements. But both are excellent performers.

Note: There are faster USB 3.2 2×2 (also known as SuperSpeed 20Gbps) SSDs available, such as the WD Black P50 and Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD. However, SuperSpeed 20Gbps and USB4 ports are still so rare, we’re not sure it matters. Those drives are also just not as svelte as the Extreme Pro.

Read our full

SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD review

WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD (1TB) – Best for gaming

Pros

  • Up to 2GBps with SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps
  • Distinctively militaristic styling

Cons

  • Pricey compared to SuperSpeed 10Gbps drives
  • Requires the extremely rare SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps port for full performance

Today’s games can soak up 50GB or 100GB of storage and more. If you’re looking for a drive to quickly load that game from on your gaming laptop, we recommend WD’s Black P50 Game Drive. And no, not just because it’s literally called “Game Drive,” but because we prefer game’s to be launched from an SSD where it can literally be a competitive advantage in some titles. Running an external SSD for your games also means far, far faster level loads, too, compared to a plodding hard drive. While many PCs don’t have the USB SuperSpeed 20Gbps ports needed to make the Black P50 sing, it’s actually becoming fairly standard in newer desktops. The good news is, even running a game at USB 10Gbps speeds means reads and writes up to 1,000MBps, which is still a huge improvement over a hard drive. (Learn more about how we evaluate the best external SSD for gaming.)

Read our full

WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD (1TB) review

SanDisk Professional G-Drive SSD – Best for photographers

Pros

  • Fastest USB 10Gbps drive to date
  • IP67 rated against dust and water
  • Stylish
  • The same or lower-priced than the competition

Cons

  • None to speak of

We’re a little torn between recommending a Thunderbolt-based drive for external storage versus a USB external drive. While a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD typically provides higher performance, that doesn’t help you if your laptop doesn’t have a Thunderbolt port, and many of those drives don’t have any USB support. That makes SanDisk’s G-Drive SSD the preferred drive. It doesn’t support the more advanced, and also rare, USB SuperSpeed 20Gbps speeds, but it’s in the top tier with USB 10Gbps speeds, which is what you’ll mostly find. Perhaps more importantly for a photographer moving files in the field, is its tough shell. The drive is built with IP67 water-resistance and dust-resistance ratings and can withstand 2,000 pounds of weight, so you won’t lose that precious photo of a ghost cat in the mountains of Afganistan.

Read the full review of the SanDisk G-Drive SSD in Macworld

Crucial X6 Portable SSD (2TB) – Best budget option

Pros

  • Ergonomic design
  • Good everyday performance
  • Very affordable for an external SSD

Cons

  • Performance tanks when cache runs out

The Crucial X6 Portable SSD is square to be hip. Or placed in your hip pocket, at any rate. In a sea of portable SSDs whose shape makes them a literal pain when pocketed, the thin, rounded-edge X6 is a sigh of relief. It’s not state-of-the-art fast, but it’s fast enough for most users and extremely affordable.

Read our full

Crucial X6 Portable SSD (2TB) review

Teamgroup M200 – Best budget speedster

Pros

  • Fast everyday performance
  • Available in up to 8TB (eventually) capacity
  • Attractively styled

Cons

  • No TBW rating
  • Company will change components if shortages demand
  • Writes slow to 200MBps off cache

At 20Gbps and less than $100 for 1TB of storage, the Teamgroup M200 is a very attractive external drive for the budget conscious. It might not be as cheap as the Crucial X6, but for a bit more money you’ll get some outstanding everyday performance—it’s the fastest 20Gbps drive we’ve ever tested. At just 4.13-inches long and 2.18-inches wide and weighing under 3 ounces, it’s extremely portable. The slick styling will likely appeal to gamers as well.

Read our full

Teamgroup T-Force M200 20Gbps USB SSD review

Adata Elite SE880 SSD – Most portable external drive

Pros

  • Very fast, over-20Gbps USB connection
  • Extremely small form factor
  • 5-year warranty

Cons

  • Slows considerably during long contiguous writes
  • Somewhat low TBW rating

No external SSD we’ve seen can match Adata’s Elite SE880 for portability. Indeed, measuring in at only 2. 55 inches long, 1.38 inches wide, and 0.48 inches thick, it reminds you more of a USB thumb drive than a standard external SSD. It weighs a mere 1.1 ounces to boot, virtually disappearing in your pocket.

The Elite SE880 is also very fast at everyday tasks but slows down during long writes. In real-world 48GB transfer tests, the drive displayed outstanding marks, even beating out some other competitors on this list. But it lost significant ground in the longer contiguous write tests, showing that photo and video pros with large files to transfer might want to consider other options.

Read our full

Adata Elite SE880 SSD review

Kingston XS200 USB SSD – Most portable high-capacity drive

Pros

  • Super svelte
  • Good 20Gbps performance
  • Available in up to 4TB in capacity

Cons

  • Slower than much of the competition
  • Not much of a looker

The Kingston XS2000 is an admirable blend of size, capacity, and speed—all for a reasonable price. With up to 4TB in capacity, it is comparable to some of the largest drives on this list but it fits in your pocket.

The Kingston XS2000 also has data transfer rates of up to 20Gbps, which isn’t lightning fast, but it beats the 10Gbps of some competitors. Overall, this small, surprisingly affordable, and decently fast SSD is a solid product, especially if you plan to carry a lot of data around with you.

Read our full

Kingston XS200 USB SSD review

Samsung Portable SSD X5 – Best Thunderbolt 3 drive

Pros

  • Blazingly fast
  • Portable

Cons

  • Lack of AC jack makes it Thunderbolt 3 only
  • Expensive, though not out of whack for NVMe SSDs

If you have Thunderbolt 3 or 4 on your system, you owe it to yourself to check out a portable Thunderbolt 3 drive such as Samsung’s SSD X5. As an NVMe SSD using PCIe over a cable (that’s basically what Thunderbolt 3 is), it’s stupidly fast—over 2.5GBps reading and writing. 

The only reason we don’t universally recommend the Portable SSD X5 is the relative rarity of Thunderbolt 3/4 ports on PCs. The advent of USB4 should alleviate this, but only if vendors decide to combine it with the superset technology that is Thunderbolt 4. Or you may simply soon see USB4 drives with the same 40Gbps transfer rates. It gets complicated. 

Read the full review of the Samsung Portable SSD X5 in Macworld

WD My Passport 5TB – Best for backups

Pros

  • Excellent cost per gigabyte
  • Nice styling
  • Comprehensive software suite

Cons

  • Slower than average with large files

You want to know why we chose WD’s My Passport 5TB for backups? It’s right there in the name—that extra 1TB can be invaluable in the age of 4K.

Read our full

WD My Passport 5TB review

Seagate Backup Plus Portable – Best for backups runner-up

Pros

  • Up to 5TB in a 2.5-inch package
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Slow writing small files and folders

Like the WD above, Seagate’s Backup Plus Portable is a USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps) drive—plenty enough bandwidth for the hard drive inside. Capacity tops out at 5TB, but the drive is also available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB sizes. 

In our tests of the 4TB version, we found the Seagate to be slightly faster than the WD with large file transfers (think movies), but slower with small file transfers (think Office documents). All in all, a worthy runner-up.

Read our full

Seagate Backup Plus Portable review

What you need to know before you buy

Yes, USB4 will provide the same massive throughput as Thunderbolt 3 at lower prices eventually, and likely far more products too.

Capacity and price

For most consumers, the main shopping concerns for external storage are capacity and price. However, while you might think that the lowest-cost drive provides the most value, it often doesn’t. In fact, dollar for dollar, cheaper low-capacity drives are most often the worst deal historically. We’ve been doing this comparison for years and it’s always been the worst value.

You can see that below where we compare the popular WD Elements desktop hard drive’s available capacities and prices. You’re paying more than twice as much for the lowest-capacity drive versus the next step up. It’s almost equally as bad on the WD Elements Portable drive.

How much capacity do you need?

The best “value” are typically for the largest hard drives as you can see, but it brings considerably higher prices and not everyone needs that much capacity. So how much do you need? We recommend a backup drive at least twice as large as the total capacity of your PC. If you have 1TB of storage in your PC, 2TB will allow you to make a full backup while keeping historical backups on the same drive. Having more storage allows you to keep more historical files should you need them or use the same drive to backup additional PCs.

While the desktop drive provides a far higher capacity, they also require more cables, weigh more, and generally may not be quite as shock resistant as a portable hard drive that’s designed to take a few more bumps, even when on.

The worst value for an external hard drive is typically the lowest-capacity drive.

IDG

Interface

The vast majority of external drives today are USB drives. Beyond that simple statement, the story gets confusing—largely because of the plethora of variations: USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps, which is basically USB 3.0), USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps), and now the up-and-coming USB4. In an attempt to simplify things, the USB Forum has recently changed the nomenclature to indicate throughput speed—SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps, SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps, and SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps—because performance is a priority for most uses. For the sake of brevity (and sanity), we generally shorten those names to USB 10Gbps, or 10Gbps USB, for instance.

No hard drive, unless combined in RAID with others, can outstrip the 5Gbps (roughly 500MBps real-world after overhead) throughput of USB 3.1 Gen 1. Don’t worry about Gen 2, 10Gbps, or Thunderbolt with single hard drive enclosures because it doesn’t really matter.

Where SuperSpeed 10Gbps/20Gbps, USB4, or Thunderbolt will definitely help is with the aforementioned RAID hard drive setups, or more likely—an SSD. The good news is that while USB 3.1 Gen 2, which is more than fast enough for most users at 10Gbps, used to be expensive, it’s basically the standard today. A SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD, our runner-up for portable storage, can be had for $90 in a 500GB capacity.

The faster USB 3.2 SuperSpeed 20Gbps (Gen 2×2) moves you into a higher-price bracket, with the Seagate Firecuda Gaming SSD costing $200 for the same 500GB of storage. Although faster than the typical USB 3. 2 SuperSpeed 10Gbps, there aren’t a lot of USB 20Gbps gen 2×2 ports out there, but these drives should work with the upcoming USB4 at the same 20Gbps pace.

Thunderbolt 3 and the newer Thunderbolt 4 typically are the highest-performing interfaces for external storage, with the key limitation being a premium price and a general lack of compatibility with the far more popular USB 3.2 ports in the world. Still, if you want the most performance, you can get it in drives such as our recommended portable, the Samsung Portable SSD X5, which is $200 for 500GB of capacity. For comparison, a slower 1TB Samsung T5 on USB is only $125.

The top drive uses the older, slower Mini-USB interface. The second drive features the connector that replaced it: Micro B SuperSpeed. The Orange drive features both a SuperSpeed Micro B and Thunderbolt 2 (mini DisplayPort connector). The bottom drive features USB-C or USB Type C.

Ports

External drives come with a variety of ports, though they’re gradually consolidating on the Type-C connector. Here’s what you need to care about:

USB 3 Micro-B Superspeed. This is still a very common port on many lower-cost portable and desktop external hard drives today. It’s actually the same Micro USB port used on your phone, but beefed up with more data lines to hit USB 3.0 speeds. It’ll do 5Gbps and is fine for hard drives and SATA (internally) SSDs. 

USB 3 Type-B is the larger, blocky version of USB 3.0 Micro B. Type B ports are becoming rare, though you might find one on enclosures supporting 5.25-inch hard drives or optical drives. It supports speeds up to 5Gbps. 

USB-C is the latest of the USB connectors the world is coalescing around. You see it in everything from phones to laptops. Keep in mind, USB-C refers only to the connector itself. What is carried over the wires varies greatly. For example, for data transfers from an external drive, a USB-C port could mean everything from USB 2.0 High Speed (480Mbps) to USB 3. 2 SuperSpeed 20Gbps as well as USB4 and Thunderbolt 3. Any higher performance port today should be USB-C—just remember that just because it’s USB-C doesn’t mean the actual electronics inside the PC or drive can hit the highest speeds of what a USB-C port can do.

USB Type-A You won’t find this port on any drive, but you will find this familiar rectangular port on PCs and laptops. The reason we mention it is that any drive with a Type-C port should come with a Type-C to Type-A cable or adapter, hopefully, since most PCs have those.

Thunderbolt 2 is at this point, a dead port. Using the mini-DisplayPort connector, it only really gained popularity on Macs, and even Apple put it out to pasture in 2017. There’s no need to invest in a Thunderbolt 2 drive unless it’s for legacy support issues.

Note that Apple makes a bi-directional Thunderbolt 1/2 to 3 adapter if you need to connect the one to the other. It does not transfer power, however, so you can’t use it on its own with bus-powered external drives. You’ll need a powered dock for that.

eSATA is another legacy port that’s basically disappeared. Created for attaching external storage to your computer’s SATA bus, eSATA was a cheap way in its day to get beyond the 60MBps performance of USB 2.0. USB 3.0 put the last nail in its coffin. As with Thunderbolt 2, the only reason to invest in an eSATA drive is for use with older computers.

A second drive as backup?

In backup, there’s a fundamental maxim appropriately named the Rule of Three. It states that you should always maintain three copies of your irreplaceable data: the original data, a backup, and a backup of the backup. Preferably, the two backups are kept in separate locations, one being offsite. Keeping a copy online is great for smaller amounts of data and certainly meets the offsite criteria. However, for vast photo, audio, and/or video collections, external drives in pairs (or more), are a faster, more practical solution.  

Create complete backups alternately to the two drives every few months. True patrons of wisdom might even take the second drive to work, so there’s no chance of losing both drives to the same local disaster.

For more guidance on building out the best backup plan possible, see our roundups of the best cloud backup services and best Windows backup software.

Our storage testbed is a Core i7-5820K with 64GB of RAM on an Asus X99 Deluxe board. Older Asus Thunderbolt EX 3 and ATI graphics cards is shown. Currently a Gigabyte Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt card and x2 Nvidia 710 GPU card are employed. 

How we tested

We use our standard storage test bed to evaluate the performance of every external drive we review. It’s a six-core (twelve-thread) Intel Core i7-5820K on an Asus X99 Deluxe motherboard with 64GB of Kingston DDR4 memory running Windows 10. 

A discrete Gigabyte Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 card and Ableconn USB 3.2 2×2 20Gbps card (Asmedia 2142 controller) are used for connecting the external drives. An Asus USB 3.1/10Gbps (Asmedia 1142 controller) card was employed for some of the older drives on the chart. 

We run various synthetic benchmarks including Crystal Disk Mark 6/7/8, AS SSD 2, and Iometer. We also perform real-world transfer tests using a 48GB batch of small files and folders, as well as a single 48GB and 450GB files. The testbed boots from a NVMe drive, but the real-world (Windows) file transfers are performed to and from a 58GB RAM disk.

External drive FAQ

1.

What is the difference between an SSD and an HDD?

HDDs (hard disk drives) have been around for more than 50 years and rely on spinning disks to read and write data. They are essentially composed of spinning metal platters with magnetic coatings where the data is stored and a read/write arm that moves across the platters to access the data. 

SSDs (solid state drives), on the other hand, use flash memory and have no moving parts inside the drive. Data is instead stored on flash memory microchips which are interconnected with one another. This interconnectedness allows for data to be pulled from many different places at once and significantly increases memory read speeds.

Generally speaking, SSDs will be a better bet for an external drive due to their smaller size, faster speeds, and overall durability. The main drawback to SSDs is that you will pay more money for the same storage capacity as HDDs. As technology improves however, the price of SSDs will continue to drop.

2.

How often should you back up your data?

Ideally, you should back up your data as often as possible. This is especially true if you are working on an important project or have data that you absolutely cannot afford to lose. 

If you have your external hard drive connected to your computer at all times, it is a good idea to automate the backup process and have the drive back up your data every hour or so. If you disconnect or travel with your external hard drive, you should try to remember to back up your data onto it every time you change your data or at least every day.

3.

Why is my actual hard drive storage smaller than specified?

This comes down to the perceived size of storage (KB, MB, GB, TB)  versus the actual size of that storage. Most consumers are led to believe that a Kilobyte (KB) is 1,000 bytes when it is actually 1,024 bytes. Most consumers then are led to believe that a Megabyte (MB) is 1,000 KB when it is actually 1,024 KB. So a manufacturer’s hard drive that claims to have 1TB of storage actually has only 931.31 GB of storage. It is essentially a rounding error that manufacturers neglect to advertise because round numbers are easier to understand. 

Another reason that actual storage may appear less than advertised is that hard drives have to be formatted to read and write data properly. When formatting, a portion of the storage space on the drive is allocated in order to catalog the data.

4.

How long does an external hard drive last?

The average lifespan of an external hard drive is about three to five years. However, this is highly dependent upon the make and model and the conditions of usage and storage. The more you use an external hard-drive, the less reliable it becomes. 

One way to guesstimate the lifespan of your hard-drive is to look at the manufacturer’s warranty and the TBW (total terabytes written) number. You can determine the estimated daily amount of storage you write and then extrapolate from there to see how long you can continue to use it everyday until you reach the TBW. These numbers are not entirely reliable, and drives can last much longer than these two values, but they give an idea as to when you could begin to encounter issues.

5.

How do external hard drives fail?

There are a number of ways that an external hard drive may fail. They are especially susceptible to failure due to frequent mishandling, outdated drivers, connecting and disconnecting, and unsafe or forced ejections. To ensure that you keep your hard-drive working properly, keep it stored in a safe place, try not to drop it, update your drivers, and make sure that you connect and disconnect from devices properly.

6.

Can I leave my external hard drive plugged in all the time?

For the most part it’s fine to leave your external drive plugged in all of the time. However, there can be some minor drawbacks to this if you aren’t careful. Hard drives will continue to emit heat while they are working and if they are left plugged in continuously there is a chance this heat can build up and damage your data. A good way to mitigate this is to purchase a drive that has an enclosure with good heat dissipation such as those that are metal.

Keeping your drive plugged in all of the time can also have some benefits. If you have your data set to automatically update then keeping it plugged in will allow more frequent backups. Additionally, keeping the external drive plugged in will allow for more convenient access to all of your data.

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