7 Best Portable External Storage Drives (2023): SSDs, Hard Drives, Rugged

Should you’re working out of space for storing in your laptop computer, or if it’s good to again up your information and retailer that backlog of movies you are going to edit in the future (I’m, I swear), an exterior exhausting drive can remedy your downside. The difficulty is, there are lots of of drive choices starting from grime low-cost to loopy costly—which one is correct in your wants? I’ve examined dozens with totally different use circumstances in thoughts to search out the very best transportable storage drives in your workflow.

Make sure to try our different guides, together with How to Back Up and Move Your Photos Between Services, How to Back Up Your Digital Life, and How to Back Up Your iPhone.

Up to date November 2023: We have added the Kingston XS1000, famous the excessive failure price of some SanDisk drives, and up to date costs and hyperlinks all through.

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I do know this information is for transportable exhausting drives, and that is decidedly not transportable, however bear with me. For incremental backups, which we recommend, portability is not your high precedence. And sometimes, your backup software program will run in a single day, so pace is not an enormous issue both. That is why the primary drive I like to recommend is that this Western Digital Parts.

I’ve been utilizing some variation of the WD Parts desktop exhausting drive to make incremental backups of my information for greater than a decade now. They’re huge and require exterior energy, however these are among the least expensive, most dependable drives I’ve used. Storage choices go all the best way as much as 20 terabytes. Simply be sure to verify the costs; typically you will get a 10- and even 12-terabyte drive for not way more.

Different Nice Backup Drives

• Seagate Portable 8-TB HDD for $170: Seagate is one other dependable drive maker. It by no means hurts to have extra backups, and should you do need a number of backups, use drives from totally different manufacturers, since it’s going to cut back the possibility that each fail on the identical time. This 8-terabyte mannequin is commonly on sale for round $150.
• Western Digital Elements 5-TB Portable HDD for $130: You can too get a way more transportable model of the Western Digital drive for a lot much less, and it would not require exterior energy not like our high choose.

These Essential drives are my favourite transportable drives. They’re fairly priced (for a conveyable SSD) and speedy. The one drive I examined with quicker learn speeds was the SanDisk Excessive Moveable SSD (see under). These are light-weight, which suggests they’re splendid for once you’re working away from house. I exploit one to retailer video clips, and it is a lot quick sufficient to edit them proper off the disk. The one draw back is the plastic building. Do not anticipate it to outlive many drops. Should you’re frightened about it breaking in your bag, seize a padded case. I have not tried it, however there are a lot on the market like this one for $15.

Additionally Nice

• Kingston XS1000 2-TB for $109: This tiny little drive is the smallest on this information. Just like the Essential X6, it has a largely plastic enclosure, nevertheless it has withstood life in my bag fairly properly. Whereas it is not as strong because the padded choices under, it is a lot robust sufficient for many issues. It is also a lot speedy. Kingston claims as much as 1050 MB per second. I by no means managed that, however I used to be ready routinely hit round 800 MB/s, with some older laptops nearer to the 600 MB/s, which continues to be fairly good. The drive bogs down a bit with very massive information (MP4s, for instance), so it is not the very best for professional videographers, however for everybody else it is a stable, barely cheaper possibility.
• Crucial X8 2-TB SSD for $100: Essential’s X8 makes use of an NVMe flash drive, which makes it considerably quicker than the X6. It additionally has an all-metal enclosure that is going to supply extra safety than the plastic of the X6. This drive is healthier than the X6 in each approach besides weight (it is about double the load), and typically worth. It is often on sale for round $130, however when it is round $100, it could be value selecting up over the X6.

This transportable drive from SanDisk trounces every little thing else I’ve examined. It is light-weight, with IP22-rated enclosures so it’s going to stand as much as life on the go. It isn’t the most cost effective drive, however should you’re backing up within the discipline and need to get it achieved as quick as doable, it is your finest guess. It is much less compact than a few of these drives however I like that because it makes it simpler to maintain monitor of in my bag.

I’ve been utilizing this drive to make weekly backups for over a 12 months now and have had no points. That stated, our pals at Ars Technica, and different customers across the net, have famous extremely high failure rates with this drive, primarily with the 2- and 4-TB variations. SanDisk has issued a firmware update, which appears to repair the issue, however let this be a reminder that you need to at all times have three backups, one two totally different media, with one off-site. See our information How to Back Up Your Digital Life for extra backup suggestions.

Different Speedy Drives

Should you want a drive that may stand as much as life in a backpack or camera bag, get moist, or deal with a drop onto exhausting surfaces, OWC drives are your best option. It is robust to select a winner right here as a result of there are numerous stable choices, however OWC’s Elektron drive narrowly beat others in benchmark assessments. I additionally like that you would be able to swap out the drive contained in the aluminum casing (it is simple to unscrew), which suggests two years from now, you may choose up a quicker naked SSD and drop it within the Elektron.

In order for you a bigger drive, each bodily and when it comes to storage capability, OWC’s Envoy Pro FX ($250 for 1 TB) makes an incredible alternative as properly. It’s even quicker and is available in sizes as much as 4 TB, although the latter will set you again $480. For many, the 2-TB mannequin is a lot, although nonetheless dear at $300. It’s IP67-rated and fairly drop-proof. (Take all claims of “army commonplace” with a grain of salt—there’s no one actually doing independent tests, which isn’t to select on OWC, as each “rugged” drive maker claims issues like this.) What impressed me essentially the most about this drive, although, is how extremely cool it stays even beneath a heavy load (like enhancing 4K video footage straight from the drive).

Different Rugged Choices

• Sabrent Rocket Nano 1-TB SSD for $120: I actually like this one. It is smaller and barely quicker than the OWC, nevertheless it has two drawbacks. The primary is that it could possibly get actually sizzling. Should you’re making an attempt to work with it in your lap, it may be downright uncomfortable. The opposite subject is that typically it is gradual to be acknowledged by my PC. I might discover no sample to this; typically it appeared instantly, and different occasions it took a few minutes. If these issues do not trouble you, this drive is tiny, cheaper, and comes with a padded rubber case.

The go-anywhere drives above are a stable answer for individuals who have to make backups within the discipline, like photographers and videographers. However in order for you an additional stage of consolation, this padded drive from LaCie has lengthy been a favourite of vacationers. LaCie makes each an SSD model and a conventional spinning drive model. If pace is not a difficulty, as with making nightly backups, then the cheaper spinning drive makes extra sense. Should you’re really backing up in the midst of a photograph shoot or comparable scenario the place it must occur quick, the SSD model is what you need.

Different Padded Choices

• Samsung T7 Shield 2-TB SSD for $130: It is not as padded as LaCie’s rugged drives, nevertheless it’s cheaper and delivers practically the identical pace. It has an IP65 rating, which suggests it is positive within the rain and shielded from mud and sand. The T7 line is notable for its built-in safety features like hardware-based encryption, however not like the Touch model, the Protect doesn’t have a fingerprint reader. Nonetheless, should you do not want the total padded safety of the LaCie and need to save a bit of cash, the T7 Protect is an efficient possibility.

Take this class with a grain of salt. A lot of the drives right here will work simply positive for gaming (simply keep on with the quickest you may afford). That stated, Western Digital’s new P40 does have some cool RGB lights on the underside if that is your jam. In my testing, that did not appear to have any impression on energy consumption.

As for pace, my assessments had been inconsistent. This drive is able to speeds that handily beat each the Envoy Professional and Samsung T7, however at different occasions appeared to lavatory down (at the very least in benchmarks). In real-world use, the one bottleneck I persistently hit was some lag in transferring enormous quantities of information. That could be a deal-breaker for some, however for the value, this stays a really stable alternative.

If you wish to put a much bigger SSD in your laptop computer, all you want is a naked drive, which is mostly cheaper than the drives with enclosures listed above. The very first thing to determine is which drive your PC makes use of. Seek the advice of your producer’s documentation to search out out. In my expertise, the commonest kind issue is M.2 2280, which is the lengthy skinny drive within the picture above. Extra compact laptops could use the same, however shorter, M.2 2242 design. Once more, verify your PC to verify the drive it wants before you purchase. There are a ton of those in the marketplace and I have not had time to check many but, however thus far, out of the half dozen I’ve tried, Western Digital’s WD Black sequence has stood out for pace, and so they do not run extremely popular.

The SN 770 M.2 2280 achieved speeds of 5,100 MB per second in my testing, which is blazing quick. Should you’re doing a whole lot of drive-intensive duties, like enhancing video or gaming, this drive is properly definitely worth the cash. The biggest model you will get proper now’s 2 TB, however the worth is affordable contemplating the pace enhance. I have been utilizing it as my major drive for a number of months and located it to be quick sufficient for every little thing I do, together with enhancing 5.2K video footage and compiling software program. My favourite half? It generates little or no warmth. My older Dell XPS 13 used to get too sizzling to make use of with out one thing between it and my lap. Now it would not get sizzling till I begin making an attempt to export video, however shortly cools off as quickly because it’s achieved.

A Luxurious Improve

• Western Digital SN850X 2-TB SSD for $85: This drive is so screaming quick I needed to run my assessments twice as a result of I did not imagine the primary outcome. Western Digital claims as much as 7,300 MB per second learn speeds, and in benchmark assessments, this drive’s outcomes got here shut. To take full benefit of the pace right here, you may want a system that helps the PCIe 4.0 SSD commonplace, however it is a nice drive if you wish to improve a gaming system, whether or not it is a desktop PC or your PlayStation.

Selecting the correct exhausting drive comes right down to balancing three issues: pace, dimension, and worth. Should you’re making nightly backups, then pace most likely would not matter. Go for the most cost effective drive yow will discover—up to a degree. Drives do not final ceaselessly, however some undoubtedly last more than others. I recommend sticking with recognized manufacturers which have an excellent status like Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, and the others featured right here. That is based mostly partly on expertise and partly on the drive failure information that Backblaze has been publishing for years now. Backblaze goes via huge quantities of exhausting drives backing up clients’ information, and its report is value studying. The takeaway is straightforward: Follow names you realize.

If pace trumps worth, then you definately need to take a look at the solid-state drives we have listed right here. SSDs do not simply have a pace benefit. In addition they lack shifting components, which suggests they will stand up to the bumps and falls of life in a bag on the highway higher than spinning drives. The drawback is that they’ll put on out quicker. Each write operation to an SSD—that’s, once you save one thing to it—barely degrades the person NAND cells that make up the drive, which wears it out considerably quicker than a spinning drive. Simply how a lot quicker will depend on how you employ it. That stated, I’ve a number of SSDs which are greater than 5 years previous, and I’ve used them for every day backups all through that point. None of them have had any issues.

Do you want an SSD over a spinning drive? The reply is nearly at all times sure—should you can afford it. However they’re particularly helpful for any drive you are working with commonly: your major boot drive, an exterior drive you employ to edit paperwork from, and for backups, should you want them to occur quick.