5 Best External Hard Drives Under $300 in the US - December 2019

Which Are the Best External Hard Drives Under $300?
Don't have time to read our analysis of the best external hard drives under $300? No problem, let's cut to the chase, the best external hard drives under $300 are:
- 1) Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb - $38.88 eBay
- 2) Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb - $63.99 Best Buy
- 3) Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB - $54.95 LootHive
- 4) Seagate STEA500400 - $57.09 Antonline
- 5) LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb -
What External Hard Drive Under $300 to Buy in November 2019?
Let's take a look at the top 5 external hard drives under $300 currently for sale in the US, compared side by side:
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Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb | Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb | Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB | Seagate STEA500400 | LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A cheap and fully featured 190g external hard drive. It is USB powered and has a data transfer rate of 5,000 Mbit/s. | A fully featured and low cost 160g external hard drive. It has a password protection and a data transfer rate of 5,000 Mbit/s and is USB powered. | A fully featured and low cost USB powered external hard drive. | The best scoring external hard drive under $100. | An astoundingly light weight and fully featured USB powered external hard drive. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 Reasons For
Cheaper by $16 Better Brand |
3 Reasons For
Password Protection Better Kagoo Score Better Brand |
2 Reasons For
More Shops Are Selling it One Month Newer |
1 Reason For
A Lot Lighter |
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6 Reasons Against
90g Heavier Does Not Have a Wi-Fi Does Not Support RAID Support Worse Kagoo Score Fewer Sellers Older by Over Five Years |
5 Reasons Against
60g Heavier Does Not Have a Wi-Fi More Expensive by $25 Less Retailers Older by One Month |
6 Reasons Against
23% Heavier Worse Kagoo Score $16 More Expensive Not As Many Stockists Over Three Years Older Worse Brand |
6 Reasons Against
30% Heavier 50% Smaller Hard Drive Capacity Vastly Slower Data Transfer Rate Worse Kagoo Score $18 More Expensive Worse Brand |
5 Reasons Against
Does Not Have a Wi-Fi Worse Kagoo Score Not Currently Available Older by Seven Months Worse Brand |
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Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb
$38.88
eBay
Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb |
Buy Now |

1TB
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5,000 Mbit/s
DATA TRANSFER
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190g
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The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb has a Kagoo Score of 87. With a price tag of $38.88 this external hard drive is fair value for money. For further details check out our full review of the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb or read our article on whether you should buy a Western Digital external hard drive.
A cheap and fully featured 190g external hard drive. It is USB powered and has a data transfer rate of 5,000 Mbit/s.
87
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Fully-Featured |
86
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Quite Popular |
87
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Very Good |
87
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Excellent |
2 Reasons For for Choosing the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb
The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb is $16.07 cheaper than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, $18.21 cheaper than the Seagate STEA500400 and $25.11 cheaper than the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb.
Western Digital external hard drives have an average rating of 95%, but LaCie only has an average rating of 93.8% and Seagate only has an average rating of 94.1%.
6 Reasons Against for Choosing the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb
The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb has a weight of 190, but the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb is a 100g external hard drive (90g lighter), the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB is a 140g external hard drive (50g lighter), the Seagate STEA500400 is a 170g external hard drive (20g lighter) and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb is a 160g external hard drive (30g lighter). More ...
'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).
A heavier hard drive will be bulkier, and more annoying to carry around.
The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb does not have a Wi-Fi (As do the the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb), but the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB and the Seagate STEA500400 do. More ...
'Wi-Fi' indicates whether the hard drive can connect to wireless networks or not.
A wi-fi connection on your hard drive means that you can connect directly to it to read/write data without an actual physical connection, meaning you can access your storage from anywhere.
The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb does not support RAID support, but the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, the Seagate STEA500400 and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb support this feature. More ...
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a system to allow multiple hard drives to link together as a single unit, pooling their capacity to create a single large drive.
A RAID array is helpful for storing very large amounts of data and to allow for additional protection for the data stored on it - if one of the drives fails, the data on the other drives will remain safe.
The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb has received a Kagoo Score of 87, whereas the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB scored 88, the Seagate STEA500400 scored 89 and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb scored 90.
The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb is only stocked by 4 shops, but the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB is stocked by 5 shops, the Seagate STEA500400 is stocked by 7 stores and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb is stocked by 6 retailers. More ...
The Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb is five years older than the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, 16 months older than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, five years older than the Seagate STEA500400 and five years older than the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb.
The cheapest price that we could find for the My Passport - 1Tb in the US is $38.88 and in total we found 4 prices for it.
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
+18 more prices
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$38.88
Standard delivery: $6.95
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$72.05
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$94.97
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$93.15
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$93.05
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$92.96
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In stock (19 available)
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$88.12
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In stock (11 available)
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$87.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock, only 2 left!
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$77.76
Standard delivery: $12.14
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock (20 available)
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$59.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
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$47.95
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$59.99
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In stock (50 available)
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$59.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock (85 available)
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$59.99
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In stock (31 available)
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$59.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock (25 available)
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$59.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock, only 4 left!
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$55.00
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock, only 3 left!
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$54.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock, only 2 left!
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$96.25
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Official Outlet
+1 more price
In stock (205 available)
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$54.99
Delivery unknown
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Official Outlet
In stock (204 available)
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$59.99
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Dispatched from the United Kingdom
In stock, only 3 left!
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$89.96
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In stock, only 2 left!
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$96.94
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Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb
$63.99
Best Buy
Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb |
Buy Now |

1TB
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5,000 Mbit/s
DATA TRANSFER
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160g
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The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb has a Kagoo Score of 90. However with a price tag of $63.99 this external hard drive is a bit expensive. For further details check out our full review of the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb or read our article on whether you should buy a Western Digital external hard drive.
A fully featured and low cost 160g external hard drive. It has a password protection and a data transfer rate of 5,000 Mbit/s and is USB powered.
89
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Fully-Featured |
90
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Very Popular |
89
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Very Good |
90
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Excellent |
3 Reasons For for Choosing the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb
The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb has a password protection, whereas the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, the Seagate STEA500400 and the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb do not. More ...
'Password Protection' indicates whether the hard drive has password protection as a security measure against unauthorised entry.
Setting a password on your hard drive stops anyone plugging it in and reading the information stored on it - it's a good mid-level security feature.
The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb has received a Kagoo Score of 90, however the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb scored only 73, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB scored 88, the Seagate STEA500400 scored 89 and the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb scored 87.
Western Digital external hard drives have an average rating of 95%, whereas LaCie only has an average rating of 93.8% and Seagate only has an average rating of 94.1%.
5 Reasons Against for Choosing the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb
The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb has a weight of 160, whereas the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb is a 100g external hard drive (60g lighter), the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB is a 140g external hard drive (20g lighter), the Seagate STEA500400 is a 170g external hard drive (10g heavier) and the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb is a 190g external hard drive (30g heavier). More ...
'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).
A heavier hard drive will be bulkier, and more annoying to carry around.
The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb does not have a Wi-Fi (As do the the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb and the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb), whereas the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB and the Seagate STEA500400 do. More ...
'Wi-Fi' indicates whether the hard drive can connect to wireless networks or not.
A wi-fi connection on your hard drive means that you can connect directly to it to read/write data without an actual physical connection, meaning you can access your storage from anywhere.
The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb is $9 more expensive than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, $7 more expensive than the Seagate STEA500400 and $25 more expensive than the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb.
The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb is only stocked by 6 retailers, whereas the Seagate STEA500400 is stocked by 7 shops. More ...
The Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb is one month older than the Seagate STEA500400.
The cheapest price that we could find for the My Passport Ultra - 1Tb in the US is $63.99 and in total we found 6 prices for it.
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Official Outlet
+1 more price
In stock (219 available)
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$63.99
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Official Outlet
In stock (202 available)
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$69.99
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In stock, only 3 left!
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$64.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock (275 available)
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$69.99
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In stock (10 available)
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$71.67
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$90.57
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In stock, only 3 left!
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$99.00
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Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB
$54.95
LootHive
Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB |
Buy Now |

1TB
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5,000 Mbit/s
DATA TRANSFER
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140g
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The Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB has a Kagoo Score of 88. However with a price tag of $54.95 this external hard drive is a bit expensive. For further details check out our full review of the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB or read our article on whether you should buy a Seagate external hard drive.
A fully featured and low cost USB powered external hard drive.
88
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Fully-Featured |
89
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Quite Popular |
88
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Very Good |
88
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Excellent |
6 Reasons Against for Choosing the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB is a 140 external hard drive. That's 40g heavier than the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb (100g), 30g lighter than the Seagate STEA500400 (170g), 50g lighter than the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb (190g) and 20g lighter than the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb (160g). More ...
'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).
A heavier hard drive will be bulkier, and more annoying to carry around.
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB has received a Kagoo Score of 88, but the Seagate STEA500400 scored 89 and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb scored 90.
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB is more expensive than the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb by $16.
Only 5 sellers sells the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, however 7 shops sell the Seagate STEA500400 and 6 shops sell the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb. More ...
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB is older than the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb by three years, older than the Seagate STEA500400 by four years and older than the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb by four years.
Seagate external hard drives have an average rating of only 94.1%, however Western Digital has an average rating of 95%.
The cheapest price that we could find for the Backup Plus Slim - 1TB in the US is $54.95 and in total we found 5 prices for it.
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Store
In stock (31 available)
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$54.95
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$59.99
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$59.99
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$59.99
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2 Year Warranty
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$66.99
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Dispatched from the United Kingdom
In stock, only 3 left!
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$68.30
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
+1 more price
In stock (83 available)
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$68.59
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock (20 available)
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$87.99
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Seagate STEA500400
$57.09
Antonline
Seagate STEA500400 |
Buy Now |

500GB
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5 Mbit/s
DATA TRANSFER
RATE |
170g
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The Seagate STEA500400 has a Kagoo Score of 89. However with a price tag of $57.09 this external hard drive is a bit expensive. For further details check out our full review of the Seagate STEA500400 or read our article on whether you should buy a Seagate external hard drive.
The best scoring external hard drive under $100.
89
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Fully-Featured |
93
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Widely Available |
89
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Very Good |
89
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Excellent |
2 Reasons For for Choosing the Seagate STEA500400
A greater number of stores increases the price competition amongst retailers for this external hard drive and also increases the chances of the product remaining in stock.
The Seagate STEA500400 is seven months newer than the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, four years newer than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, five years newer than the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb and one month newer than the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb
6 Reasons Against for Choosing the Seagate STEA500400
The Seagate STEA500400 is a 170 external hard drive. That's 70g heavier than the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb (100g), 30g heavier than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB (140g), 20g lighter than the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb (190g) and 10g heavier than the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb (160g). More ...
'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).
A heavier hard drive will be bulkier, and more annoying to carry around.
The Seagate STEA500400 is a 500 external hard drive. That's 500GB smaller than the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb (1TB). More ...
'Hard Drive Capacity' denotes how much data the hard drive can hold, measured in gigabytes (GB).
A bigger hard drive capacity means that it can hold more files and data at once.
The Seagate STEA500400 has a data transfer rate of 5, however the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB, the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb are all 5,000 Mbit/s data transfer rate external hard drives (4,995 Mbit/s faster). More ...
'Data Transfer Rate' indicates how fast data can be transferred to/from the external hard drive.
Faster data transfer speeds means that you will be able to transfer larger files to/from the hard drive faster.
The Seagate STEA500400 has received a Kagoo Score of 89, whereas the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb scored 90.
The Seagate STEA500400 is more expensive than the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb by $18.
Seagate external hard drives have an average rating of only 94.1%, but Western Digital has an average rating of 95%.
The cheapest price that we could find for the STEA500400 in the US is $57.09 and in total we found 7 prices for it.
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Dispatched from the United Kingdom
In stock (33 available)
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$57.09
Delivery unknown
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Official Outlet
In stock (127 available)
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$58.99
Delivery unknown
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
+3 more prices
In stock (319 available)
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$59.45
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
In stock (12 available)
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$59.98
Standard delivery: $11.99
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
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$62.58
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eBay Money Back Guarantee
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$90.93
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$59.95
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$62.50
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$64.58
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1 Year Warranty
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$65.42
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LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb
LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb |
Buy Now |

1TB
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5,000 Mbit/s
DATA TRANSFER
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100g
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130MB/s
WRITE SPEED
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130MB/s
READ SPEED
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The LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb has a Kagoo Score of 73. With a price tag of $0.00 this external hard drive is good value for money. For further details check out our full review of the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb or read our article on whether you should buy a LaCie external hard drive.
An astoundingly light weight and fully featured USB powered external hard drive.
80
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Fully-Featured |
66
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Good |
73
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Very Good |
1 Reason For for Choosing the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb
The LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb has a weight of 100, but the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB is a 140g external hard drive (40g heavier), the Seagate STEA500400 is a 170g external hard drive (70g heavier), the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb is a 190g external hard drive (90g heavier) and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb is a 160g external hard drive (60g heavier). More ...
'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).
A heavier hard drive will be bulkier, and more annoying to carry around.
5 Reasons Against for Choosing the LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb
The LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb does not have a Wi-Fi (As do the the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb), but the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB and the Seagate STEA500400 do. More ...
'Wi-Fi' indicates whether the hard drive can connect to wireless networks or not.
A wi-fi connection on your hard drive means that you can connect directly to it to read/write data without an actual physical connection, meaning you can access your storage from anywhere.
The LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb has only received a Kagoo Score of 73, whereas the Seagate Backup Plus Slim - 1TB scored 88, the Seagate STEA500400 scored 89, the Western Digital My Passport - 1Tb scored 87 and the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb scored 90.
We couldn't find any retailers that are currently selling the product. More ...
The LaCie Rugged USB-C - 1Tb is seven months older than the Seagate STEA500400 and six months older than the Western Digital My Passport Ultra - 1Tb.
LaCie external hard drives have an average rating of only 93.8%, but Seagate has an average rating of 94.1% and Western Digital has an average rating of 95%.
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