Compare the Best External Hard DrivesMay 2020

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

The price range of external hard drives is from $47 to $780 and in total we found prices for 97 external hard drives. The average price of a new external hard drive is $200 and the 80% of external harddisks are priced between $75 and $394. The Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive - 1TB is the cheapest external hard drive at only $47, and G-Technology G-Raid - 12Tb is the most expensive at $780.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

IoSafe external hard disks start at $413 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $702. The average price of ioSafe external hard disks is $519 which is the highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

The average price of DataLocker external hard drives is $478 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands. DataLocker external hard drives range in price from $394 to $562.

The average price of OWC external hard disks is $395 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands. OWC external hard disks start at $370 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $420.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 259 expert reviews and 1,585 user reviews for external hard drives and used this information to determine 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 59 current offers for external hard drives from Adorama making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, Overstock for whom we found 41 current offers for external hard drives.

When Are Most New External Harddisk Released?

We looked at the release dates for new external hard disk over the last 3 years, but couldn't see any obvious pattern. The biggest month in 2019 for new external hard drive releases was February, with eight new external hard disks released that month. 59 new external hard drive were released in June 2018 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. In 2017 most new external harddisks were released in July, with 35 new external harddisks released that month.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, external harddisks drop in price by 1% on average.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $2 on a typical $197 new external hard drive by waiting 6 months before buying.

Weights

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

Across the range of external hard drives, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of most external hard drives range from 0g to 300g. The external hard drive with the heaviest weight is the ioSafe Solo G3 - 4Tb, which is a 6.8kg external hard drive and can be purchased for $441.99. The LaCie Rugged USB-C - 2Tb, which is available at $102.49, 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 856 new external hard disk currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard disk. 686 external hard disk (80%) are USB powered external hard disk.

Hard Drive Capacities

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

Comparing all external hard disks, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of the majority of external hard drives range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The G-Technology G-Raid - 12Tb, which is on sale for $779.95, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 12TB external hard drive. The Seagate 500GB 2.5" USB 3.0, which is available at $59.49, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 500GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Disk Drives?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard drives. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard drives where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard drives. 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 Overstock. 39 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 hard drive 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 Overstock. 95.1% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.