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🎧 The list in brief
1. Best overall
2. Best budget
3. Best portable
4. Best large capacity
5. Best rugged
6. Where to buy
7. FAQ
It really wasn’t all that long ago when external hard drives used to be enormous cubes, that made black box recorders on commercial airliners look petite in comparison. Today, the vast majority of them are lightweight, compact, and offer masses of storage for very little money.
Many of them don’t contain hard drives, as they sport solid state drives (SSDs). These are faster, more power efficient, and more than reliable enough to be used as a long-term storage solution. So why would you choose something that has moving, mechanical parts?
An external hard drive with spinning platters still offers the best storage-to-price ratio and they’re a great option if you’re looking for as many terabytes as possible for your money. The very best external drives balance speed and capacity, though, and SSDs the number one choice. That’s why the Samsung T7 Shield is the best external storage drive we’ve tested so far.
If speed is an absolute must, then I recommend picking up one of the best external SSDs for the sheer transfer rates of the smaller drives (1TB or so). The outright throughput of these can be up to 10 times higher than HDDs but will naturally be more expensive.
But if you’re looking for 4TB or more of storage, then SSDs are just too costly to justify the performance they offer. You’re far better off sticking to a traditional HDD in such external drives, to the point where you can 16TB HDD models for the same price as a 4TB SSD one.
Whether you’re looking to add to your gaming desktop PC’s storage or find more space for your gaming laptop, you’ll find the best external HDDs below. Grab one of these, and you’ll never have to worry about storage for a long, long time.
Curated by…Curated by…Nick Evanson
Nick’s been mildly obsessed with storage for as long as he’s been using PCs and is always looking to add an extra drive or two to his machines. He’s also lost count of the number of HDDs and SSDs he’s tested over the years, but he knows exactly what’s hot and what’s not.
The Quick List
Best external HDD
1. Samsung T7 Shield
The best overall
The Samsung T7 Shield ticks all of the right boxes for an external drive. Fast, robust, compact, and with up to 4TB on offer. Sure, it’s not actually a HDD, but you really can’t go wrong with this one.
Best budget
2. Adata SE800
The best budget
The Adata SE800 is the ideal choice for anyone looking to buy a little bit of additional external storage but not spend a fortune. It’s very small and portable, but you’re not going to get the best performance out there.
Best portable
3. WD My Passport
The best portable
The WD My Passport is the ideal choice for anyone looking for lots of storage that they can carry around with them.The 1TB version is really lightweight but the heavier 4TB model offers a better storage-to-price ratio.
Best large capacity
4. Seagate Expansion Desktop Drive
The best large capacity
With the largest version offering 20TB of HDD space, you’ll never be left wanting with the Seagate Expansion Desktop Drive. You’ll need to sacrifice portability, of course, and it’s not one for outright speed.
Best rugged
5. LaCie Rugged
The best rugged
If you’re worried about protecting your data on your travels, then the LaCie Rugged external HDD will ease your fears. It’s as tough as it looks and very reasonably priced.
Recent updates
Updated January 18, 2024 to modernise the buying guide format, to make it even easier to find the product you want.
Best overall external HDD
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1. Samsung T7 Shield
Our expert review:
Specifications
Storage: 2TBConnectivity: USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-CSequential read speed: 1,050MB/sSequential write speed: 1,000MB/s
Reasons to buy
+Good transfer speeds+Well-designed+Klutz-proof
Reasons to avoid
-Well it’s not actually an HDD-Software is not all that impressive-The 2TB option is too expensive
The T7 Shield is Samsung’s new portable NVMe SSD that’s about as big as a playing card. Thankfully, it’s a lot more durable. It is designed for the “creative professionals and consumers on the go,” which means you can use it outside or stuff it in a bag without worrying about breaking it or compromising your data.
The Samsung T7 is aimed at content creators who travel and, for whatever reason, might end up a little wet or with a bit of dirt on their person. We’ve all been there. It’s rated IP65 durability classifying it as dustproof and water resistant. Water resistant isn’t the same as waterproof, so if it gets dropped into a toilet, you’re running a 50/50 shot of it working, depending on how long it was submerged.
To test it, I left the SSD on my patio in the rain for a couple of hours since absent-mindedly leaving things outside feels more like a real-world situation I’d end up in. That’s a more common day-to-day scenario than editing videos in the desert, as some of these rugged drives’ marketing materials would have you think.
The T7 Shield is compatible with game consoles, too. Great if you’re looking for a nondescript way to expand your storage. I mostly used it to keep the games I use for benchmarking laptops and PCs. But loading games like Horizon Zero Dawn from the SSD didn’t present any issues, nor did I see any dips in performance after playing for about an hour.
The drive comes with a USB Type-C to Type-C cable and a Type-C to Type-A cable, which works on PC, Macs, consoles, and Android devices. The T7 is available in beige, black, and blue and is offered in either 1TB ($130), 2TB ($170), or 4TB ($300) capacities. The pricing for the 2TB is the best of the range, as the 1TB feels too expensive for the amount of storage and the 4TB is far too pricey.
It’s a great tiny little drive you never have to worry about breaking daily. While it may be overkill for some in this rugged form factor if you are one of those content creators working in extreme conditions or just a drop-prone klutz like yours truly, it’s a safe bet.
Read our Samsung T7 Shield 1TB review for the full details.
Best budget external HDD
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2. ADATA SE800
The best budget portable HDD
Our expert review:
Specifications
Storage: 1TBConnectivity: USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-CSequential read speed: 1,000MB/sSequential write speed: 1,000MB/s
Reasons to buy
+Fast NVMe technology+Competitively priced+IP68 dust and water proofing
Reasons to avoid
-Slight sustained performance drops-It’s not an HDD
NVMe inside? Yep. TLC NAND memory? Affirmative. IP rating for increased robustness, including waterproofing? Check. All for an attractive price? Confirmed. The Adata SE800 Ultra FAST 1TB does have quite a bit going for it.
It starts with that NVMe SSD, bridged to a USB interface. In this case, it’s a 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface rather than a 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connection. But this drive is still claimed to be suitable for 1,000MB/s data transfers in both directions. Lest you have forgotten, that’s around twice as fast as any SATA-based drives, including internal SSDs connected natively via SATA.
It’s also lovely that Adata has equipped the SE800 with TLC rather than QLC NAND memory. The latter is typically slower and offers lower write endurance. All very nice, but what is unusual is the SE800’s IP68 rating, a characteristic hinted at by the pop-off cover over the USB Type-C port. It means the drive is rated impervious to dust ingress and can survive immersion in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.
That makes it unique among these SSDs, and, what’s more, given the competitive pricing, you’re getting that IP rating effectively for free. Performance-wise, in testing, the Adata delivers in the headline 1,000MB/s spec for sequential transfers while notching up 4K random throughput comparable to the competition at 21MB/s for reads and 40MB/s for writes. The only slight chink in the SE800’s armor is that sustained performance drops to around 260MB/s after around 15GB of internal drive traffic. That’s a little off the pace of some alternatives. But it’s not enough to spoil an otherwise highly appealing package.
Best portable external HDD
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3. WD My Passport 4TB
The best portable HDD
Our expert review:
Specifications
Storage: 4TBConnectivity: USB 3.2 Gen 1Sequential read speed: 640MB/sSequential write speed: 640MB/s
Reasons to buy
+Cheap, bulk storage+Can automate backups+Doesn’t require external power
Reasons to avoid
-Average performance compared to SSD
We like WD’s My Passport. It’s not as compact or fast as Samsung’s T5, and it can’t withstand an armageddon like LaCie’s XtremKey can, but at up to 4TB for $125, it offers copious storage space at a good value. We also like that Western Digital fares well each time cloud backup provider Backblaze releases a hard drive reliability report.
The 4TB model is compact and weighs just 210g. You probably wouldn’t want to try and jam one into a shirt pocket, but they’re almost as portable as a smartphone, just a little chunkier.
The 1TB Passport is slightly thinner and weighs a mere 120g if you don’t need as much space. It is, undoubtedly, the minivan of external hard drives.No external power supply is required in order to use WD’s drive—plug in the USB cable and start backing up your files. You can also install WD’s backup software to automate the process.
WD also goes the extra mile with password protection and hardware encryption. And if you’re looking to make a fashion statement, you can select a My Passport in various color options.
Best large capacity external HDD
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4. Seagate Expansion Desktop Drive 8TB
The best large capacity HDD
Our expert review:
Specifications
Storage: 8TBConnectivity: USB 3.0Sequential read speed: 146MB/sSequential write speed: 168MB/s
Reasons to buy
+Loads of storage for cheap+A reliable HDD+Good speeds for HDD
Reasons to avoid
-Requires external power
If you need to go big when you leave home, Seagate’s 8TB Expansion drive is the way to go. It’s not exactly the best external hard drive; you don’t get the best speeds when transferring files—although they’re not too far behind the WD My Passport, you get masses of space and a very reliable drive.
While there’s no real point in getting a Seagate with a small capacity, as its speeds are quickly eclipsed by other drives; the 8TB version strikes a nice balance between capacity and efficiency.
It hits around 150MB/s during both read and write tests, which is about mid-range for HDDs, but in terms of price, you can get this drive for around $160 (8TB) or up to $300 (16TB) if you’re feeling particularly storage hungry. That’s way better than you’ll find on SSDs and beats most internal HDDs if you compare them.
It’s USB 3.0 compatible, too, so you have a drive that’ll plug into most PCs and laptops. If you’re a regular laptop user, this is handy for extending the pitiful storage in most machines. As a warning, this requires external power and comes with its own power unit, so it’s slightly less portable than other drives.
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Best rugged external HDD
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5. LaCie Rugged 2TB
The best rugged external HDD
Our expert review:
Specifications
Storage: 2TBConnectivity: USB 3.0 Type-CSequential read speed: 130MB/sSequential write speed: 130MB/s
Reasons to buy
+Very tough for an HDD+Protection isn’t pricey
Reasons to avoid
-Not the speediest-Type-C connection onlyPeak Storage
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When you think about what external hard drives are used for, durability suddenly becomes essential. While it might look like a doggy chew toy, the LaCie Rugged portable HDD is as tough as they come and even has a rubber cover around the edges to dampen the shock from any impacts.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, but you can drop this thing from a fair height, and it’ll stay perfectly intact.
The speeds it operates at are respectable if on the lower end of the scale, hitting about 130MB/s in read-and-write tests. You can pick up the LaCie relatively cheap, even though you are paying for that durability, so you’re looking at about $90 for a 1TB model and $190 for a 5TB model. We recommend the 2TB because it will last so long that it’ll store your files for years, and it’s nicely priced at around $120.
If you’re careless with how they pack their bag, or you genuinely take your PC files on more extreme outings, this is the external HDD for you. The latest version of LaCie’s Rugged only supports a USB Type-C connection
