Compare the Best External Hard DrivesJuly 2019

External hard drives are portable and used to backup files and data from your computer, so they’re safeguarded in case of accident or for retrieval at a later date. While Cloud-based backups are being used more and more for backups, external hard drives still have several important benefits compared to online backups:

Capacity

The main important consideration when choosing an external hard drive is the capacity. This Is a measure of how much data the drive can hold, and is measured in gigabytes (Gb) or terrabytes (Tb) . A gigabyte is 1000 megabytes, and a terabyte is 1000 gigabytes. Our drives range from relatively small portable 120gig drives to enormous 5Tb drives, which can safely hold all the data from multiple machines at once. Generally speaking the higher the capacity the better, but it does depend on what you’re going to be backing up. If you only use your computer to store documents, low-res photos and the like, a 2-500 gig drive should be enough. On the other hand, large capacity drives are useful for storing RAW photos, video editing or Photoshop files.

Size & Portability

Hand in hand with the capacity of the drive is its size. Generally speaking, the larger the capacity of a drive, the bigger it is. Small-capacity drives are extremely portable, being no larger than a mobile phone, so can be transported very easily. On the other end of the scale, the very large capacity drives are not meant to be portable, and usually sit in or under your desk as a safe deposit for all your data. Portability and weight will only become a real issue when choosing the very high-capacity drives, but it is worth paying attention to if you plan on transporting the drive frequently.

Read/Write Speeds

Read & write speeds measure how quickly data can be written from & to the external hard drive. This is measures in bytes per second - the higher the speed, the faster large files (such as movies) will be transferred onto or from the drive. The read-write speeds are also affected by the USB version supported - USB 3.0 supported drives allow far higher transfer rates than USB 2 drives, so it is worth seeking out the newest drive you can for the fastest data transfer speeds.

Power

On the subject of USBs, external hard drives are powered by 2 main methods: via USB or externally power lead. Smaller drives will be powered via USB - this means that the same lead that transfers the data also powers the device. This means no battery, no extra leads, and they are far more portable. Larger drives may be so big and powerful that USB alone can’t provide enough power - in which case they may need an external power connection to properly function. This means that extra consideration has to be made for a spare power socket and the required leads - making them less use when on the go.

Extras

Finally, there are a wealth of extras that can be found in more advanced models of external hard drives. Some of these may only be useful in specific situations, and you will usually pay more for them, but the utility may well be worth the extra cost. Some examples of extra features include:

External Hard Drive Prices

In total we found 111 external hard disk drives ranging from $49 to $850. The average price of a new external hard drive is $207 and the 80% of external hard drives are priced between $75 and $429. The cheapest external hard drive that we found is the Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive - 1TB at only $50, and the most expensive is the G-Technology G-Raid - 16Tb at $850.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

IoSafe external hard disk drives range in price from $413 to $702, and the highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is ioSafe external hard disk drives with an average price of $558.

The second highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is DataLocker external hard disk drives with an average price of $478. DataLocker external hard disk drives range in price from $394 to $562.

The average price of Glyph external hard disks is $263 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands. Glyph external hard disks range in price from $120 to $450.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 263 expert reviews and 1,674 user reviews for external hard disk drives and used this data to evaluate the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. Western Digital is the top rated external hard drive brand with an average rating of 87%. Seagate is the second best brand with 76% and Buffalo is the third best brand with 75%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 153 current offers for external hard drives from Adorama making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is more than twice as big as the second biggest retailer, Overstock for whom we found 51 current offers for external hard drives. The third biggest retailer is Target with 22 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Drives Released?

The most common period for new external hard disk to be released in is between June and July. That means that most of the latest external hard drive technology was released in within the last 3 months, and now is good time to buy. 59 new external hard disk drive were released in June 2018 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. In July 2017, 36 new external hard disk drives were released making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. The biggest month in 2016 for new external hard drive releases was October, with 42 new external hard disks released that month.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

On average external hard drives drop in price by 1% in the first 6 months after release.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $3 on a typical $206 new external hard drive by waiting 6 months before buying.

Weights

'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).

Comparing all external hard drives, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of the majority of external hard disks range from 0g to 300g. The external hard drive with the heaviest weight is the ioSafe SoloPRO - 3Tb, which is a 6.8kg external hard drive and currently retails for $701.99. The LaCie Rugged Secure - 2Tb, which is priced at $129.99, has the lightest weight and is a 100g external hard drive.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

The vast majority of the 847 new external hard drive currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard disk drive. 677 external hard drive (80%) are USB powered external hard disk drive.

Hard Drive Capacities

'Hard Drive Capacity' denotes how much data the hard drive can hold, measured in gigabytes (GB).

The hard drive capacities of external hard disk drives range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external hard drives range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The external hard drive with the biggest hard drive capacity is the LaCie 2big - 8Tb, which is a 2 x 4GB external hard drive and currently retails for $459.87. The Seagate STEA500400, which is available at $62.49, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 500GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Drives?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard disk drives. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard disk drives where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external harddisks. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was Adorama. 88 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of External Harddisk for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external harddisks by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of external hard drive prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's external hard drive prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Adorama. 57.5% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.