Compare the Best External Hard DrivesSeptember 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 126 external hard disk drives ranging from $49 to $702. A new external hard drive costs on average $174 and 80% of external hard disk drive are priced between $78 and $330. The Seagate Expansion Portable - 1Tb is the cheapest external hard drive at only $50, and ioSafe SoloPRO - 3Tb is the most expensive at $702.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

IoSafe external hard disk 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 with an average price of $503.

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

Glyph external hard disk drives start at $100 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $600. The average price of Glyph external hard disk drives is $350 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 113 expert reviews and 1,731 user reviews for external hard disk drives and used these reviews to determine 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 89%. Seagate is the second best brand with 81% and Buffalo is the third best brand with 75%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 95 current offers for external hard disk drives from Adorama making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is much bigger than the second biggest retailer, Overstock for whom we found 62 current offers for external hard disk drives. The third biggest retailer is Pictureline with 1 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Drives Released?

Over the last 3 years we couldn't see any obvious trend in the release month for new external hard disk drive. In February 2020, five new external harddisks were released making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. In 2019 most new external harddisks were released in September, with 10 new external harddisks released that month. June was the biggest month in 2018 for new external hard disk drives, with 55 new external hard disk drives released that month.

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.

A typical new external hard drive costs on average $176. By waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average $1.

Weights

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

Across the range of external hard disk, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of most external hard disk 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 on sale for $413.03. The Seagate One Touch - 500Gb, which sells for $79.99, has the lightest weight and is a 65g external hard drive.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

Of the 836 new external hard disks currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are USB powered external hard disk drive. 686 out of 836 are USB powered external hard disk drive.

Hard Drive Capacities

'Hard Drive Capacity' denotes how much data the hard drive can hold, measured in gigabytes (GB).

Comparing all external harddisks, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external hard disks range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The Glyph BlackBox Pro - 14Tb, which currently retails for $599.95, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 14TB external hard drive. The Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 2TB, which currently retails for $193.28, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 1GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Disk?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard disk drives. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard disk 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 Overstock. 55 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 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 Overstock. 88.7% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.