Results 1 - 24 of 985 - Find a great selection of $25 to $50 External Hard Drives at low prices. WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0.
An external hard drive is a great way to store huge amounts of data, far more than can be saved to most laptops or tablets. Sometimes you need the extra space that only a serious hard drive with terabytes of data will allow. Most laptops come with limited amounts of hard drive space, around 500GB or less, as they have solid state drives (SSD) inside. External hard drives are a great way to store or back up extra files, especially photos and videos. They can also be useful if you plan to do a lot of moving about and travelling while keeping your key files at the ready.
Here is everything you need to know when buying an external hard drive. The best external hard drives Seagate Backup Plus Slim. Sizes: 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, 5 TB Seagate's smaller drives are reliable and speedy and offer great value for money. This smaller drive is one of the most popular and best value out there. Offering 1 TB of storage it can be used with PC or Mac. The Backup Slim Plus is fairly reliable.
Although Seagate has been known to make drives with less than average reliability, they are among the cheapest external hard drives you can buy. Its data transfer rate is a respectable 100 MB per second and at just 159g it makes for an ideal portable option. Size: 500 GB or 1 TB For something faster, Samsung's T3 solid state drive offers faster transfer than most normal hard drives and is a great expansion for tablets, smartphones and Windows devices. You can see a full list of. However, it only stores around 500GB of data, so although you get faster data transfer that is less storage for your external drive.
It has lightning fast transfer speeds up to 450 MB per second. It is also tiny, weighing just 51g, making it ideal for portability and practicality. It connects via USB-C. WD Wireless Pro 3TB. Sizes: 6 TB, 8 TB, 12 TB or 16 TB Sometimes you will just need that extra space. The WD MyBook Pro range builds up from 6 TB with fast data transfer speeds of 435 MB per second and read and write speeds of around 365 MB per second.
It has two USB 3.0 ports and two Thunderbolt ports with dual 7200 RPM drives. It starts at just over £545 for the 6 TB version, but for a real storage beast goes up to 16 TB for £1,180. Hard drive brands The most well-known hard drive brands include Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba and Hitachi, while others such as Samsung, SanDisk and G-Tech also offer sleek and powerful external storage or solid state drives. Storage capacity Smaller hard drives have less than 1 TB of storage, not much more than you get in some laptops. These are smaller and more expensive but offer faster boot up for files and programs, ideal for use inside a slim and powerful ultrabook or notebook. If you are a video editor or a photographer you may want several terabytes of storage. Fortunately, hard drive storage is not that expensive to add, and a 4 TB hard drive will set you back less than £200 from some brands. Connectivity Until recently, most hard drives connected with USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 connections, but now many are moving over to USB-C, which offers 10 Gps of transfer speed, equivalent to twice the speed on offer from USB 3.0.
Other forms of connection include wireless transfer to the hard drive. Reliability Although hard drives tend to be pretty reliable there are few comprehensive reviews of how reliable drives are over a long time under strain, and nobody wants to loose years of cherished photos or videos. Data from shows Hitachi and Western Digital drives had some of the lowest failure rates last year, although these stats are largely limited to internal drives.
To keep your files safe you may want to buy a more rugged hard drive. Write and read speed Read speed is essentially how long it takes to upload files from your head drive, while write speed is how long it takes to save something to the drive.
Most cheaper hard drives will have a fairly modest read/write speed of around 100 to 150 MB per second, not brilliant if you want to load or transfer lots of large video files. Better hard drives will offer zippier speeds of 400 MB per second or better, although the prices will start to stack up at this range. How much should I pay for a hard drive? The price of an external hard drive can vary from anything between £50 to £250 for medium sized drives of between 1 TB and 4 TB. More expensive, faster hard drives can cost £250 or more, while seriously large and powerful hard drives can cost several hundred pounds.
You can also get external SSDs. These will cost more for the storage space, so a medium sized SSD of around 1 TB will be significantly more expensive than a hard drive of a similar size.
Jargon buster Tech terminology RAM: This is the laptop’s main memory where programs and files are stored. Smaller laptops may have 4GB or less, but powerful devices will have 8GB. CPU: The central processing unit (or CPU) essentially runs the programs on the computer. There is a huge range of options here, but generally you should be after an Intel Core i5 or i7 6th or 7th generation processors. GPU: The graphics card (graphics processing unit or GPU) produces the pictures and images you see. High-end laptops for gaming or video editing will need a more powerful graphics card, such as those from the Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radeon series. Solid state drive (SSD) vs hard disk drive (HDD): Many laptops now come with an SSD, which uses flash memory to draw up files faster.
However, these can be slightly limited in size and more expensive than traditional hard drives.
The hype machine may lead you to believe all our data is headed to the cloud, but don’t count physical storage out just yet. External devices have grown in popularity over the past decade, so choosing the right one can become confusing with the wealth of options available.
If you want to ensure you pick the best external hard drive for your needs, follow these easy tips. How to Choose the Best External Hard Drive HDD or SDD?
There are two types of external hard drives, and the style you choose dictates the speed at which it can read and write data. Everyone will be familiar with HDDs, but if you’re running a dated rig, a solid-state drive may seem somewhat exotic. HDD – HDD stands for a hard disk drive, and it’s the most common option available. They utilize a spinning platter and magnetic head and allow you to vastly increase your storage for cheap. On the downside, they are not as fast as SSD and prone to errors due to those mechanical parts. SSD – On the other end of the spectrum, we have solid-state drives or SSDs. You can think about these as big in a sense, but ones that are very fast and expensive.
We’re talking seconds instead of minutes compared to some HDDs. This style of hard drive is also perfect for people on the go as there is less concern about data loss from a drop or bump. Capacity What will you use your new external hard drive for? If you’ve found your way to our site, there’s a strong chance you game, but that’s not the only data you may want to keep secure.
How much space you need to back up save files or store classics varies, so there is no magic number. It all comes down to your needs at the end of the day. With that in mind, go big or go home with a standard hard disk drive. The prices have come down considerably in recent years, so it doesn’t make sense to pick up a 1TB drive when you can triple that for a few more bucks.
If you’re in doubt, opt for a 5TB external drive unless you are a media mogul with thousands of games and films to store. As for solid-state drives, you have to consider their capacity beforehand carefully. They aren’t cheap, but they are extremely quick. If you underestimate your needs with an SDD, you could end up buying a cheap HDD to go with it once you run out of space. Connectivity Plenty of PCs and laptops still use the USB 2.0 standard even though modern machines, smartphones, and slates are using USB-C now. No matter how fast the drive is, you’re going to lose speed if the ports on your end are outdated. Even the best external hard drive for PCs will slow to a crawl if you’re using a 2.0 port.
Outside of USB 3.0 and C-type jacks, we also have Apples array of ports to contend with. Thankfully, there is no shortage of options for Macs although there is another “connectivity” issue of sorts that may cause problems. That would be formatting, something you’ll have to do more often than not with a Mac. If speed is critical, look for an external hard drive that comes ready to roll for Macs or one that doesn’t require reformatting.
Durability We’ve all spilled a soda on our keyboard at some point, and before the rise of wireless tech, plenty of peripherals hit the floor. High-end external hard drive can cost considerably more than an optical gaming mouse, which means durability is key. Unfortunately, it varies wildly although solid-state drives are still your best bet. When it comes to external damage, you can always choose a case, but some hard drives have built-in protection. A shockproof model will keep your data safe during a drop while a waterproof HDD allows you to store or access your action shots from damp locales, not when you’re back home at the PC. If drops are your primary concern, pay attention to the rating but never put it to the test intentionally.
The term waterproof can be a little tricky if you don’t read the fine print and another area where the rating matters. It can be easy to get excited when you see an “” tag, but there are different degrees of protection against water and dust. Some hard drives are also water-resistant, not waterproof which makes a huge difference.
Additional Features Compared to other types of consumer tech, you aren’t going to get much when it comes to extras with hard drives. The most common accessory would be the cable, which can vary in quality so you may want to have a spare on hand. Many companies also include security software or free trials that give you a taste of premium programs from Adobe and others.
Colors aren’t an accessory, but important when you consider most drives don’t have a whole lot of style. Gamers that want a hard drive that stands out in a crowd will find an array of colorful options available. Warranties can vary as much as the colors, but the longer the warranty, the better off you’ll be in the long run. Upgrades are a common occurrence when new games roll out, and some components are easier to swap out than others. Hard drives can be a pain, but not if you think outside the box and decide to get an external hard drive. From speedy to large hard disk drives, these portable wonders provide a lot of bang for your buck.
9 Best External Hard Drives You Can Buy in 2019. If we had to assign the SanDisk Extreme SDSSDE60 to a tier, it would be in the luxury class.
This fast solid-state drive won’t take up much space and is capable of handling far more abuse than its competitors. From a technological standpoint, this solid-state drive is comparable to other top models.
It can hit speeds up to 550MB/s and leaves a tiny footprint behind as it’s about the size of a modern smartphone. Durability is the standout feature considering it has an IPX5 rating and can handle a 2-meter drop. The SanDisk Extreme is also universal in the sense that it works with both PCs and Macs thanks to a variety of connectors. The SanDisk Extreme SDSSDE60 is an excellent SSD and can be used as, and we like the fact there is a size and price point for everyone from 250GB to 2TB.
Even if you aren’t partial to Fortnite or Minecraft, it’s a great choice when you need something rugged for the road or are merely a clumsy PC user. Western Digital is one of the bigger players in the storage world, and while the Passport lineup isn’t their best, it is a fan favorite. It’s also one of the slickest portable hard drives around with eight colors and two different finishes. The USB 3.0 interface on the My Passport is rated at 5GB/s, and it comes with a full software suite from WD.
Security won’t be a concern with 256-bit AES encryption and password protection. The automatic back up function is stellar, and nobody is going to complain about the lengthy 3-year warranty – something you need with this type of tech. It may not be as durable as the SanDisk Extreme, but the My Passport portable is quick with an eye-catching design. The hard drive will stand out on your desktop in standard or metallic finishes, and you can choose from sizes between 1TB to 4TB.
Samsung is responsible for all types of tech including hard drives both internal and external. The Samsung T5 is another SDD that needs to be on your radar and one you could potentially lose if you’re not careful. It’s that small The T5 portable SSD is only 2.9” x 2.2” with a weight of 51 grams – just let that sink in for a minute. That’s smaller than a deck of cards which is impressive as it’s a 1TB SSD with a 540 MB/s transfer speed.
You can also hook this one up to Macs with ease and pull up to 10Gbps from USB 3.1 compatible devices. The Samsung T5 portable SSD is arguably the best external hard drive for backup purposes with AES 256-encryption and a solid 3-year warranty. It’s only available in one color, but with four options ranging from 250GB to 2TB in size. Billed as a hard drive for creators, the Toshiba Canvio Advance is a great option for gamers as well. It’s not fancy, but won’t let you down whether you use it to store PC games or need to backup thousands of high-res photos.
This platter-based drive spins at speeds up to 5400rpm, so you can expect write speeds of around 140MB/s. That’s par for the course given its size, and as you’d expect, dips down to 60MB/s if you are sans a 3.0 port. If you’re running Windows, you’ll get software for automatic backups and password as well although Mac users are out of luck in that regard. The Toshiba Canvio Advance isn’t necessarily the best external hard drive for Mac users and definitely in the budget-friendly realm but a solid option nonetheless. It’s available in four different hues in two styles with Classic and Contemporary.
Four sizes are available if you go with the former while the latter comes in 1, 2 or 3TB configurations. Western Digital has always been a fine choice when it comes to external hard drives that perform without breaking the bank.
Their 2TB Elements hard drive is no exception and ideal if you’re in need of a cheap external hard drive for gaming or backups. The Element is geared towards users that need space and aren’t necessarily concerned about speed.
The internal drive speed clocks in at 5,400rpm and it’s compatible with both USB 3.0 and 2.0 computers. There is plenty of storage although it’s a little barebones with no bells & whistles aside from a free trial of WD SmartWare Pro. While SDDs are dandy, they aren’t for everyone due to their price. If you’re gaming on the budget, and in search of the best external hard drive for PS4, this one is well worth a look.
![Best Cheap Portable Usb Hard Drive For Mac Best Cheap Portable Usb Hard Drive For Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125601631/102122922.jpg)
It comes with a USB cable and a 2-year warranty out of the box. Seagate Backup Plus Slim An Excellent Option for Macs You can’t have a best external hard drive list without including Seagate, a company that’s been dealing with data since the late 1970s. While they have dozens of models available, the Seagate Backup Plus is a steal if you need a large portable drive that performs as advertised. The highlight of this particular drive is the space to price ratio. There are cheaper models if you want a meager drive in the 1-2TB range, but the value lies in the 5TB model.
It’s also one of the few hard drives you can use with a Mac or PC without needing to reformat. It tops out at 120MB/s with the USB 3.0 interface and comes with software from Seagate. Seagate produced a winner with the 5TB model of the Backup Plus, and it’s easy on the eyes as well with its clean, but simple style. You can pick this one up in a bundle with a case, and four colors are available with Black, Blue, Red, and Silver.
Porsche Design is an interesting concept that’s found its way into consumer tech like Huawei Mate RS and even computer components. In this case, it’s the LaCie Porsche Design hard drive, a looker with plenty of speed. Mechanically, this hard drive is no different than the rest. It’s nimble for its size and sports a standard USB 3.0 port. The design is what stands out as the aluminum wrapper with a sandblasted finish will look good next to your rig or laptop. It also has reversible USB-C connectivity which is still somewhat of a rarity these days. The Porsche Design hard drive comes in sizes ranging from 1TB to 5TB in the “portable tier” or you can get a 6TB or 8TB model in the desktop class.
If silver isn’t your thing, there is a 2TB model available in Rose Gold as well. If you like what SanDisk brought to the table with their rugged external hard drive, you’ll definitely dig the Silicon Power Rugged Armor A60. While not a solid-state drive, it’s just as durable and perfect if you’re searching for the external hard drive for Xbox One or console usage.
This hard drive has military-grade protection so it can handle rain or dirt along with being dropped from your desk. The shockproof case is coated with an anti-slip material as well and is resistant to scratches and other external damage. The design makes the Armor A60 easy to carry whether you’re transporting your data to the beach or a friend’s house for a long gaming session. While there’s a lot to like about this hard drive, there is one thing to keep in mind. It’s only resistant to sprays and splash damage – not dunks in a pool. Aside from that, it’s a reliable option that’s available in several colors and sizes. LaCie stands out from other hard drive manufacturers due to their unique designs.
The LaCie Rugged Mini is quite a bit different from the Porsche Design in that regard, but an excellent choice if you want something durable and appreciate options in the connectivity department. The Mini Portable lives up to its rugged namesake as it can withstand a drop from 2-meters and sports a 1000 G shock-resistant hard drive. It’s not waterproof (or resistant) however, so proceed with caution around liquids. That said, it has encryption software, automatic backup, and an Eco mode that will help you save some juice. The speeds are in line with the rest of the pack, but the connectivity options are not. Whether you need a Thunderbolt port or a USB-C, LaCie has you covered. There are five models with different ports setups while the sixth can handle three including the most popular options.
If you have a lot of gadgets, the Rugged Triple is definitely your best bet.