Compare the Best External Hard DrivesDecember 2018

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 drives range in price from $35 to $5,400 and in total we found prices for 272 external hard drives. A new external hard drive costs on average $240 and 80% of external hard drives are priced between $65 and $400. The cheapest external hard drive that we found is the Edge DiskGO - 160GB at only $36, and the most expensive is the G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 64Tb at $5,400.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

The average price of G-Technology external hard drives is $667 which is the highest average price of all external hard drive brands. G-Technology external hard drives start at $58 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $5,400.

The second highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is ioSafe external hard drives with an average price of $453. ioSafe external hard drives start at $280 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $665.

IStorage external hard drives range in price from $428 to $428, and the third highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is iStorage external hard drives with an average price of $428.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 755 expert reviews and 2,564 user reviews for external hard drives and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. The top three external hard drive brands are Western Digital, Seagate and G-Technology. Western Digital has an average rating of 78%, Seagate has an average rating of 69% and G-Technology has an average rating of 66%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

The biggest external hard drive retailer by number of products currently for sale is Adorama. We found 133 current external hard drive offers from Adorama. The second biggest retailer is Overstock with 48 offers. That means Adorama is more than twice as big as Overstock when it comes to external hard drives. Target is the third biggest retailer with 20 current offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Drives Released?

We looked at the release dates for new external hard drives over the last 3 years, but couldn't see any obvious pattern. Last year most new external hard drives were released in April, with 32 new external hard drives released that month. October was the biggest month in 2016 for new external hard drives, with 37 new external hard drives released that month. 72 new external hard drives were released in September 2015 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, external hard drives drop in price by 2% on average. That means a saving of $5 on a typical $239 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 hard drives, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of the majority of external hard drives range from 0g to 300g. The external hard drive with the heaviest weight is the G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 24Tb, which is an 11.4kg external hard drive and currently retails for $2,199.95. The external hard drive with the lightest weight is the LaCie Rugged Secure - 2Tb, which is a 100g external hard drive and sells for $139.94.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

The vast majority of the 817 new external hard drives currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard drives. 653 external hard drives out of 817 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).

Comparing all 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 external hard drive with the biggest hard drive capacity is the G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 64Tb, which is a 64TB external hard drive and is available at $5,399.95. 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 currently retails for $189.88.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard 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 Adorama. 74 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 Adorama. 55.6% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.