Compare the Best External Hard DrivesSeptember 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:

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 136 external hard disks ranging from $49 to $702. The average price of a new external hard drive is $179 and the 80% of external hard drives are priced between $79 and $330. The cheapest external hard drive that we found is the Seagate Expansion Portable - 1Tb at only $50, and the most expensive is the ioSafe SoloPRO - 3Tb 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.

The second highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is DataLocker external hard drives with an average price of $469. DataLocker external hard drives range in price from $394 to $562.

The average price of OWC external hard disk drives is $301 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands. OWC external hard disk drives range in price from $155 to $500.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 138 expert reviews and 1,546 user reviews for external hard disk drives and used these reviews to calculate 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 90%. Seagate is the second best brand with 82% and Buffalo is the third best brand with 75%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 70 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 57 current offers for external hard drives. The third biggest retailer is Target with 1 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Harddisks Released?

The most common period for new external hard drives to be released in is between June and July. In 2019 most new external hard drive were released in July, with seven new external hard drive released that month. In June 2018, 59 new external hard disk drives were released making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. 28 new external hard disk drives were released in April 2017 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

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

A typical new external hard drive costs on average $179. By waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average $2.

Weights

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

The weights of external harddisk 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 - 3Tb, which is a 6.8kg external hard drive and sells for $701.99. The LaCie Rugged - 1Tb, which is on sale for $82.49, has the lightest weight and is a 100g external hard drive.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

Of the 810 new external hard drives currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are USB powered external hard drives. 672 external hard drives out of 810 are USB powered external hard drives.

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 drives, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external hard drives range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The Western Digital My Book Duo - 16Tb, which is priced at $349.00, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 16TB external hard drive. The Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 1TB, which currently retails for $164.27, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 1GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Drive?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard drive. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard 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 Overstock. 48 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 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. 84.2% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.