Compare the Best External Hard DrivesMay 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

The price range of external hard drives is from $47 to $850 and in total we found prices for 116 external hard drives. On average, a new external hard drive costs $195 and 80% of external hard drives are priced between $66 and $413. The most expensive external hard drive that we found is the G-Technology G-Raid - 16Tb at $850, and the cheapest is the Western Digital My Passport at only $48.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

IoSafe external hard disk drives 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 drives with an average price of $558.

The average price of DataLocker external hard disk drives is $478 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands. DataLocker external hard disk drives range in price from $394 to $562.

OWC external hard drive start at $130 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $460. The average price of OWC external hard drive is $279 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 265 expert reviews and 1,699 user reviews for external hard disk drive and used this information to evaluate 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 Silicon Power with 82% and the third best brand is iStorage with 79%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 153 current offers for external hard disk drives from Adorama making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is more than twice as big as the second biggest retailer, Overstock for whom we found 51 current offers for external hard disk drives. The third biggest retailer is Target with 22 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. If you wait until June 2019 then you might be able to get better features on your external hard drive. It's also worth keeping in mind that the price of the current external hard drives tend to drop off when the next models are released. Last year most new external hard drive were released in June, with 59 new external hard drive released that month. The biggest month in 2017 for new external hard drive releases was July, with 36 new external harddisks released that month. 42 new external hard disk were released in October 2016 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 hard disk drives drop in price by 1%. That means a saving of $3 on a typical $194 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).

The weights of external hard drives range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of the majority of external hard drives range from 0g to 300g. The ioSafe SoloPRO - 3Tb, which is priced at $701.99, has the heaviest weight and is a 6.8kg external hard drive. The external hard drive with the lightest weight is the LaCie Rugged Triple - 1Tb, which is a 100g external hard drive and sells for $99.95.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

The vast majority of the 842 new external hard disks currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard disk. 674 out of 842 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 harddisk, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of the majority of external harddisks range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The external hard drive with the biggest hard drive capacity is the G-Technology G-Raid - 16Tb, which is a 16TB external hard drive and currently retails for $849.95. The Seagate STEA500400, which can be purchased for $60.49, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 500GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Disk Drive?

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

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

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard disks 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. 57.5% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.