Compare the Best External Hard DrivesJanuary 2021

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:

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

We currently list 140 external hard disk ranging from $45 to $702. On average, a new external hard drive costs $188 and 80% of external hard disk are priced between $78 and $394. The Seagate Expansion Portable - 1Tb is the cheapest external hard drive at only $46, and ioSafe SoloPRO - 3Tb is the most expensive at $702.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

IoSafe external hard disk drive start at $413 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $702. The highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is ioSafe external hard disk drive with an average price of $503.

DataLocker external hard drives start at $312 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $450. The average price of DataLocker external hard drives is $387 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

Glyph external hard disks range in price from $100 to $500, and the average price of Glyph external hard disks is $300 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 123 expert reviews and 1,487 user reviews for external hard drives and used this data to determine the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. The top rated external hard drive brand is Western Digital with an average rating of 90%. The second best brand is Seagate with 86% and the third best brand is Silicon Power with 75%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

The biggest external hard drive retailer by number of products currently for sale is Adorama. We found 93 current external hard drive offers from Adorama. The second biggest retailer is Overstock with 62 offers. That means Adorama is significantly bigger than Overstock when it comes to external hard drives. Target is the third biggest retailer with 6 current offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Disk Released?

Over the last 3 years we couldn't see any prominent pattern in the release month for new external hard drive. The biggest month in 2020 for new external hard drive releases was February, with six new external hard disk released that month. Nine new external hard disk were released in July 2019 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. June was the biggest month in 2018 for new external hard disk drives, with 58 new external hard disk drives released that month.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, external hard disks drop in price by 0%.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $1 on a typical $187 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 disk, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of the majority of external hard disk drive range from 0g to 300g. The external hard drive with the heaviest weight is the ioSafe SoloPRO - 2Tb, which is a 6.8kg external hard drive and is priced at $413.03. The Seagate One Touch - 500Gb, which is on sale for $69.99, has the lightest weight and is a 65g external hard drive.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

The vast majority of the 834 new external hard drive currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard disk. 688 external hard drive out of 834 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 drives, the hard drive capacities 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-Raid - 12Tb, which is a 12TB external hard drive and is priced at $659.95. The external hard drive with the smallest hard drive capacity is the Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 1TB, which is a 1GB external hard drive and is available at $164.27.

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 drive. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard disk drive 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. 54 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

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

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard disk 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 Adorama. 58.1% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.