Compare the Best External Hard DrivesNovember 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

We currently list 170 external hard disks ranging from $26 to $850. On average, a new external hard drive costs $158 and 80% of external harddisk are priced between $57 and $330. 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 Wireless Pro at only $26.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

The average price of ioSafe external hard drives is $519 which is the highest average price of all external hard drive brands. ioSafe external hard drives start at $413 and their most expensive external hard drive costs $702.

DataLocker external hard disks range in price from $394 to $562, and the average price of DataLocker external hard disks is $478 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

Glyph external hard disks range in price from $100 to $500, and the average price of Glyph external hard disks is $273 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 255 expert reviews and 1,640 user reviews for external hard disks and used these reviews 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 88%. The second best brand is Seagate with 76% and the third best brand is Buffalo with 75%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

The biggest external hard drive retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 58 current external hard drive offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Adorama with 55 offers. That means eBay is slightly bigger than Adorama when it comes to external hard drives. Overstock is the third biggest retailer with 41 current offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Disk Drives Released?

Most new external hard drive tend to be released between June and July. June was the biggest month in 2018 for new external harddisk, with 59 new external harddisk released that month. In 2017 most new external harddisk were released in July, with 35 new external harddisk released that month. The biggest month in 2016 for new external hard drive releases was October, with 42 new external hard disk released that month.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

New external hard drives drop in price by an average of 1% in the first 6 months after they were first released.

That means that on a typical external hard drive costing $158 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 the majority of external hard drives range from 0g to 300g. The ioSafe Solo G3 - 4Tb, which can be purchased for $441.99, has the heaviest weight and is a 6.8kg external hard drive. The LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, which is on sale for $84.94, 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 851 new external hard disk currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are USB powered external hard disk. 684 out of 851 external hard disk 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 hard disk, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external harddisks range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The G-Technology G-Raid - 16Tb, which can be purchased for $849.95, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 16TB external hard drive. The Fantom Drives G-Force3 500GB, which sells for $54.95, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 500GB external hard drive.

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 eBay. 38 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of External Harddisks for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard disk drive 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 eBay. 65.5% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.