Compare the Best External Hard DrivesMarch 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

External hard drive range in price from $49 to $4,400 and in total we found prices for 143 external hard drive. A new external hard drive costs on average $270 and 80% of external hard disk drives are priced between $75 and $479. The G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 48Tb is the most expensive external hard drive that we found at $4,400, and the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Slim - 1TB is the cheapest at only $50.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

G-Technology external hard drives start at $58 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $4,400. The average price of G-Technology external hard drives is $570 which is the highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

The average price of ioSafe external hard disk is $558 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands. ioSafe external hard disk start at $413 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $702.

DataLocker external hard drive range in price from $394 to $562, and the average price of DataLocker external hard drive is $478 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 740 expert reviews and 2,938 user reviews for external harddisk and used this data to determine the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. The top rated external hard drive brand is G-Technology with an average rating of 88%. The second best brand is Western Digital with 88% and the third best brand is Silicon Power with 88%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 155 current offers for external hard disk drive from Adorama making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is over 3 times bigger than the second biggest retailer, Overstock for whom we found 51 current offers for external hard disk drive. The third biggest retailer is Target with 22 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Disk Drives Released?

June to July is the most common period for new external harddisk to be released in. For the latest external hard drive technology you may want to consider waiting until June 2019. It's also worth keeping in mind that the price of the current external hard disk tend to drop off when the next models are released. In 2018 most new external hard drives were released in June, with 59 new external hard drives released that month. The biggest month in 2017 for new external hard drive releases was July, with 36 new external hard drive released that month. October was the biggest month in 2016 for new external hard disk, with 42 new external hard disk released that month.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

On average external harddisks 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 $4 on a typical $269 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 disk drives, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of most external hard disk drives range from 0g to 300g. The G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 24Tb, which currently retails for $2,199.95, has the heaviest weight and is an 11.4kg external hard drive. The external hard drive with the lightest weight is the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, which is a 100g external hard drive and currently retails for $89.99.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

The vast majority of the 840 new external hard drive currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard disk. 672 out of 840 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).

The hard drive capacities of external harddisk range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external hard disk drives range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The external hard drive with the biggest hard drive capacity is the G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 48Tb, which is a 48TB external hard drive and is priced at $4,399.95. The Seagate STEA500400, which sells for $58.49, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 500GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Disk?

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 harddisk. 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. 93 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of External Hard Drive for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard disk 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. 60% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.