Compare the Best External Hard DrivesApril 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

In total we found 139 external harddisk ranging from $45 to $850. A new external hard drive costs on average $194 and 80% of external harddisk are priced between $78 and $413. The G-Technology G-DRIVE Thunderbolt 3 - 8Tb is the most expensive external hard drive that we found at $850, and the Seagate Expansion Portable - 1Tb is the cheapest at only $46.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

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

The average price of DataLocker external hard drives is $387 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands. DataLocker external hard drives range in price from $312 to $450.

Glyph external hard disk drive start at $120 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $600. The average price of Glyph external hard disk drive is $340 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 118 expert reviews and 1,883 user reviews for external hard disk and used this information to calculate 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 89%. The second best brand is Seagate with 85% and the third best brand is Silicon Power with 77%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 83 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 60 current offers for external hard drives. The third biggest retailer is Pictureline with 2 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Disk Drive Released?

We couldn't see any prominent trend in the release dates for new external hard drive over the last 3 years. Last year most new external hard drive were released in February, with five new external hard drive released that month. The biggest month in 2019 for new external hard drive releases was September, with 10 new external hard drives released that month. 57 new external hard disk drive were released in June 2018 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

New external hard disk drives drop in price by an average of 0% in the first 6 months after they were first released.

That means a saving of $0 on a typical $193 new external hard drive if you wait 6 months before buying.

Weights

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

Across the range of external harddisk, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of most external hard drive range from 0g to 300g. The ioSafe SoloPRO - 2Tb, which is available at $413.03, has the heaviest weight and is a 6.8kg external hard drive. 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 836 new external harddisks currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard disk. 686 external harddisks (82%) 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).

Across the range of external hard disk drives, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of the majority of external hard disk drives range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The external hard drive with the biggest hard drive capacity is the Glyph BlackBox Pro - 14Tb, which is a 14TB external hard drive and is on sale for $599.95. The Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 2TB, which is priced at $193.28, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 1GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Disks?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard disks. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard disks 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. 53 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 drives 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. 88.3% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.