Compare the Best External Hard DrivesOctober 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

In total we found 137 external harddisk ranging from $49 to $702. On average, a new external hard drive costs $190 and 80% of external hard disk are priced between $78 and $349. The ioSafe SoloPRO - 3Tb is the most expensive external hard drive that we found at $702, and the Seagate Expansion Portable - 1Tb is the cheapest at only $50.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

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

DataLocker external hard disk range in price from $328 to $562, and the second highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is DataLocker external hard disk with an average price of $433.

The third highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is OWC external harddisk with an average price of $374. OWC external harddisk range in price from $249 to $500.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 13 expert reviews and 849 user reviews for external harddisk and used this information to determine 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 91%. The second best brand is Buffalo with 75% and the third best brand is iStorage with 72%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 80 current offers for external hard disk from Adorama making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, Overstock for whom we found 59 current offers for external hard disk. The third biggest retailer is Target with 2 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Disk Released?

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

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

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

That means that on a typical external hard drive costing $189 you could save on average $2 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Weights

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

Comparing all external hard disk drive, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of most external hard disk drive range from 0g to 300g. The ioSafe SoloPRO - 3Tb, which currently retails for $701.99, has the heaviest weight and is a 6.8kg external hard drive. The LaCie Rugged Secure - 2Tb, which is available at $112.49, has the lightest weight and is a 100g external hard drive.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

The vast majority of the 810 new external hard disk currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external harddisk. 673 external hard disk out of 810 are USB powered external harddisk.

Hard Drive Capacities

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

The hard drive capacities of external harddisks range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of the majority of external hard disk drive range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The external hard drive with the biggest hard drive capacity is the Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra - 16Tb, which is a 16TB external hard drive and is priced at $699.99. 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 harddisk. For each retailer it shows the total number of external harddisk where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard disk drive. 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. 50 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 harddisks 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. 84.7% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.