Finest Exterior Arduous Drive (2025): SSD to Retailer Information, Video & Extra

For those who’re operating out of space for storing in your laptop computer or it’s essential to again up your information and retailer that backlog of movies you are going to edit at some point (I’m, I swear), an exterior arduous drive can resolve your downside. The difficulty is, there are tons of of drive choices starting from dirt-cheap to crazy-expensive—which one is correct in your wants? I’ve examined dozens, throughout working programs and with totally different use instances in thoughts, to search out the very best exterior arduous drives for storage, backups, gaming, video modifying, network-attached storage (NAS) gadgets, and extra.

Take a look at our different guides, together with Tips on how to Again Up and Transfer Your Pictures Between Providers, Tips on how to Again Up Your Digital Life, and Tips on how to Again Up Your iPhone.

Up to date September 2025: We have added the Seagate Extremely Compact SSD, LaCie’s new rugged SSD4 and the Corsair EX400U, and we topped the brand new Samsung 990 the very best inside SSD. We’ve additionally up to date costs and hyperlinks all through.

Finest for Backups

{Photograph}: Western Digital

Western Digital

Components Desktop Arduous Drive

For incremental backups, which we suggest, pace is not an enormous issue. That is why the primary drive I like to recommend is that this Western Digital Components arduous drive. I’ve been utilizing a variation of the Components desktop arduous drive to make incremental backups of my information for greater than a decade. These drives are huge and require exterior energy, however they’re a number of the least expensive, most dependable drives I’ve used.

Switch speeds usually are not off the charts—the Components drive I examined scored 120 megabytes per second (MB/s) for sequential writes on Home windows—however once more, it’s best to ideally be operating backups in a single day anyway, and even at these speeds the typical PC backup might be achieved by morning. These drives use USB-C with help for USB 3, and I’ve had no downside utilizing them with Home windows, macOS, and Linux.

Storage choices go all the best way as much as 20 terabytes. Simply examine the costs; generally you may get a 10- and even 12-TB drive for not far more than the 8-terabyte model. And I’ve not seen an enormous distinction between the Components line, the WD My Ebook drives, or the WD My Passport drives. The My Passport drives command a premium worth as a result of they’re smaller, and the My Ebook drives have some encryption options that drive up the worth, however I discover the fundamental Components drive is enough for most individuals.

Different Nice Backup Drives

• Seagate Enlargement 8-TB Exterior Arduous Drive for $159: Seagate is one other dependable drive maker. It by no means hurts to have extra backups, and if you happen to do need a number of backups, use drives from totally different manufacturers, since it should scale back the possibility that each fail concurrently.

Finest for Transportable Backups

{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson

Western Digital

My Passport Extremely

For those who journey loads, you may need one thing that is simpler to hold than the Components drives, which are not the very best in a suitcase. For backups when touring, I like Western Digital’s My Passport collection, particularly the brand new “Extremely” model, which makes use of a regular USB-C twine, eliminating the necessity to carry a separate cable. It isn’t the thinnest drive in the marketplace, nevertheless it’s lower than an inch thick and strong sufficient that I by no means apprehensive about tossing it in my bag. (Though it ought to be stated that it is a spinning drive, so do not actually toss it.) I additionally like that the corners are properly rounded and there aren’t any screws or anything that may catch on material in your bag.

There are a selection of colours obtainable and you may get from 1 TB to six TB. I examined the 5-TB mannequin, however Western Digital claims the identical speeds no matter drive measurement. I examined it utilizing CrystalDiskMark on Home windows, AmorphousDiskMark on macOS, and KDiskMark on Linux and averaged the outcomes to provide you with 121 MB/s for learn pace and 115 MB/s write pace. It isn’t what you’d need to copy images shortly for a consumer within the area, however quick sufficient to run a day by day backup in your resort room.

Different Transportable Backup Drives

• Western Digital Components 5-TB Transportable HDD for $130: This drive is barely thinner than our high decide, however feels flimsier in my expertise. Speeds are tad slower as properly, however if you happen to’re on a funds this can prevent a bit of money. Corsair is advertising and marketing this as a great way to backup your iPhone ProRes footage, and whereas it actually works for that, efficiency is restricted by the iPhone’s USB-C interface. For max throughput, join it to a PC with a USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 port.

The Thunderbolt 5 Drive: When Pace Is Every thing

{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson

LaCie has up to date its rugged SSD line with the Rugged Pro5. This one ditches the long-lasting orange padding for blue, however it’s in any other case similar to the odd LaCie padded drives on the surface. On the within, that is an amazingly quick drive. The 5 within the identify is for, you guessed it, Thunderbolt 5, which regardless of being introduced seemingly perpetually in the past, has been painfully sluggish to trickle onto the market. This made testing a bit tough, however fortuitously a buddy let me borrow his brand-new MacBook Professional 14 for testing. And the outcomes had been spectacular.

LaCie claims learn/write speeds of as much as 6,700 MB/s and 5,300 MB/s, which it says are sufficient for real-time modifying of 8K and 6K RAW footage. In testing the best speeds, file transfers had been 5,787 MB/s learn and 5,188 MB/s write—which, whereas not fairly matching the declare, remains to be far and away the quickest drive on the web page. However uncooked speeds are simply numbers for spreadsheets; I used to be extra all in favour of real-world efficiency. Since I occurred to even be testing the Nikon Z6III (8/10, WIRED Recommends), which may shoot 6K ProRes RAW, I loaded a great little bit of footage on the Pro5 and was certainly capable of edit utilizing DaVinci Resolve Studio.

The draw back right here is the worth. At $600 for the 4-TB model (which is the minimal you’d need for working with ProRes RAW video information), it is a very dear drive. It’s nonetheless, properly well worth the cash if it is pace you are after.

Finest USB4 Drive

{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson

For those who do not but have any gadgets with Thunderbolt 5 help, this Thunderbolt 4 drive could be my advice for anybody obsessive about pace. Corsair’s EX400U is a formidable little drive, constantly delivering speeds of round 3,800 MB/s for sequential learn and and three,550 MB/s write. Once more, that is solely going to be doable if in case you have a tool that helps USB4/Thunderbolt 4 (together with current Macbooks, Dell XPS, and others—see our information to the very best laptops for extra). Technically, simply as I used to be wrapping up this replace, Lacie’s new rugged SSD got here out which beat this drive in my checks by about 10 MB/s, however this drive is smaller, lighter, and cheaper.

I additionally like that Corsair has included a Magsafe connector on the again of the case, which makes nice choice for backing up ProRes video footage out of your iPhone.

Finest Finances Transportable SSD

{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson

These Essential drives are my favourite general-purpose exterior storage drives. They’re fairly priced (for a conveyable SSD) and speedy sufficient for many makes use of. The X6 is light-weight and tiny, making it a sensible choice for working on the espresso store.

This is not a blinding-fast arduous disk. In reality, underneath the hood, the X6 makes use of an older drive interface (Serial AT Attachment, or SATA), which was extra frequent with spinning arduous drives. So whereas it is small and light-weight, its pace is restricted by that older interface expertise. In my testing on Home windows and macOS, that works out to about 550 MB/s learn pace and 208 MB/s write pace. That is adequate for backup and use as an exterior drive, however I do not suggest it for Xbox or PlayStation use. It does work advantageous with the iPad Professional although.