A short introduction to the Best External Hard Drives
The best external hard drives for you will be based on what you will be using the hard drive for. There are so many different varieties on the market in a multitude of sizes, shapes and price ranges. Knowing what to get can at times become especially confusing, so you need to determine the purpose for buying it, how you’ll be using it, where you’ll be using it-under what conditions it will be kept. Some folks may need an external hard drive that can take abuse where others just need one that will be kept in a safe, well-maintained area.
The idea is to get an external hard drive that is actually bigger than what your anticipated usage may be. This is necessary as you don’t know what you may decide to use it for in the future. You want to be sure the unit you buy has plenty of storage for any potential content need possibilities and it doesn’t end up being too small somewhere down the road. Also, if you have plans to upgrade your computer, you will want to buy an external hard drive with that notion in mind being prepared to have a unit that will go along with that upgrade. Let’s take a look and see what the consumers on Amazon feel may be among the best external hard drives on the market. They’ve used these units and can let us know how they operate.
Seagate Desktop 8TB External Hard Drive HDD
This hard drive is boasted as an awesome option to use for expanding the storage of your computer. It is super user friendly and intuitive. It connects right into the USB port and allows you to just drag and drop your content that needs to be switched into the external hard drive with ease. The Seagate offers a USB 3.0 port what gives quick moving of even larger capacity files and it is backward compatible using USB 2.0. The storage with this unit is 8TB which will reasonably allow this device to backup all content from your computer. It is so simple that you just need to plug it in and start, no special programs need to be used. It’s not harmful to leave it plugged in either in order to have access to your material always as you would with the internal hard drive. There are no complex configurations or difficult settings with this unit. This can be used for added storage or for backup purposes and is able to be used with Windows 8, 10, 11. The no-hassle, ease of use and reasonable price makes this a must-have for an external hard drive.
FEATURES:
- 8TB of humongous storage allotted for music, movies, photos, or whatever you may need it for, and you can take it with you anywhere whether it be your office or at home or even a school library.
- Windows or Mac computers external hard drive that you can use to back up quickly with simple drag/drop action.
- Computer will automatically recognize once plugged in with absolutely no kind of software needed. It’s the perfect PC drive or laptop hard drive.
- USB 3.0 cable of 18” included along with a power adaptor of 18W.
- One-year manufacturer’s warranty.
PROS
- User friendly, easy set up.
- Affordable.
- Perfect compact size.
- Tons of storage space.
CONS
- Not really a con but you may need to get busy creating content in order to fill up all of this storage.
PRICE:
The price for this unit as listed on Amazon is $139.99.
REVIEWS:
The best external hard drives reviews came in with nearly all perfect scores for every category. Folks love the tiny, compact size of this hard drive compared to the large amount of storage that it holds. It’s small but very powerful. They found the set up to be so simple and usage to be even easier. There were many who would highly recommend this to other users saying it works like a charm. Others said an absolutely great purchase. It doesn’t get in the way because it’s such a great size. They can buy/download games until their heart desires and still have a multitude of storage. Some said very nice, good choice, and overall they said they’d buy another one to backup their backup.
Western Digital 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive
The Western Digital allows affordability and portable storage on the go. You can take it wherever you need to have access to your files with you whether you’re at the library, the cafe, anywhere you want to set up shop you can transport this hard drive with ease. This unit offers dependability and storage of high capacity with a data transfer that is super fast. This unit provides the latest USB 3.0 compatibility but it is also able to backward adjust to USB 2.0 for convenience. Western Digital provides auto-backup software, hardware encryption, password protection, and shock resistance. It is a small, lightweight design makes it the ideal companion on the desktop for staying out of the way.
FEATURES:
- USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0.
- Data transfer is super quick.
- Enhances the performance of PC.
- WD quality is both high capacity as well as dependable.
- Manufacturer offers a 2-year limited warranty
- NTFS formatted to go with WIndows 10, 8.1 or 7. Other operating systems may need to be reformatted. Depending on the hardware, compatibility may differ based on configuration and operating system.
PROS:
- Storage space amazing.
- Easy setup.
- User friendly.
- Affordable.
- USB 3.0 is backward compatible to 2.0.
CONS:
- Make sure that you follow instructions when setting up and transferring so you get optimal results. Not a con, but sometimes folks don’t follow instructions and have issues.
PRICE:
The price for this unit as listed on Amazon came in at $59.99.
REVIEWS:
The best external hard drives reviews for this unit were positive with folks being very happy with their purchase and the amount of storage capacity that this unit provides. They definitely recommend it to others looking for a decent external hard drive. One person bought two and is very happy. Small, lightweight, easily portable and awesome amount of capacity, love it, small and speedy, excellent piece of equipment, and overall big drive in a little space–much more than thought it would be.
Toshiba HDTB 410XK3AA Canvio Basics 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0
The canvio basics offer a sleek, portable style that you can take anywhere with you and carry in a purse, backpack, lunch pail, briefcase with absolutely no problem. You have the convenience of carrying your most important files wherever you go and gaining access at any point of the day whenever you need them with the simplicity and durability that this external hard drive offers. The unit provides high-capacity storage along with user-friendly setup and ease of use operation, not to mention fast access to the content that you have saved within the drive. The Canvio Basics is powered by 3.0 USB, super speedy offering quick-moving and organizing of all of your files. It allows for backward compatibility with USB 2.0 as well. It provides an easy plug-in to play performance. It is ready to use without any need to have software of any type. Drag-drop files with your PC or laptop.
FEATURES:
- Profile design is slick with black matte finish and resistance to smudges.
- Plug in and ready to go, user-friendly with no need for software to be installed.
- Gives added capacity to your PC as well as other devices that are compatible.
- 2.0 USB backwards compatible without the need for an AC power cord.
One-year manufacturer’s limited warranty.
PROS:
- User friendly.
- Affordable.
- Tons of storage.
- Lightweight, small, portable.
- Backwards compatible to 2.0 USB.
CONS:
– Not really a con, but if you carry it in your pocket, need to be careful it doesn’t slip out and get lost.
PRICE:
The price for this unit on Amazon is $47.99.
REVIEWS
The best external hard drives reviews for this unit were excited about the price for the value that they received. They feel it has excellent read/write performance, easy to use, compact size is perfect, love Toshiba, great to have for on the go, very wide compatibility range, ‘don’t know why didn’t buy sooner’, and overall excellent product that works well with consoles.
CONCLUSION
Having one of the best external hard drives is important as our computers generally don’t give us enough space for the amount of content that we are producing in the world today. There is just so much with a lot of us working from home nowadays and many, many gamers in the industry. The reviewers on Amazon felt that these three were among the best and provided them with the most amount of storage for their present needs and will well into the future. Hopefully, one of these will meet the requirements that you have as well.