Compare the Best External Hard DrivesFebruary 2019

External hard drives are portable and used to backup files and data from your computer, so they’re safeguarded in case of accident or for retrieval at a later date. While Cloud-based backups are being used more and more for backups, external hard drives still have several important benefits compared to online backups:

Capacity

The main important consideration when choosing an external hard drive is the capacity. This Is a measure of how much data the drive can hold, and is measured in gigabytes (Gb) or terrabytes (Tb) . A gigabyte is 1000 megabytes, and a terabyte is 1000 gigabytes. Our drives range from relatively small portable 120gig drives to enormous 5Tb drives, which can safely hold all the data from multiple machines at once. Generally speaking the higher the capacity the better, but it does depend on what you’re going to be backing up. If you only use your computer to store documents, low-res photos and the like, a 2-500 gig drive should be enough. On the other hand, large capacity drives are useful for storing RAW photos, video editing or Photoshop files.

Size & Portability

Hand in hand with the capacity of the drive is its size. Generally speaking, the larger the capacity of a drive, the bigger it is. Small-capacity drives are extremely portable, being no larger than a mobile phone, so can be transported very easily. On the other end of the scale, the very large capacity drives are not meant to be portable, and usually sit in or under your desk as a safe deposit for all your data. Portability and weight will only become a real issue when choosing the very high-capacity drives, but it is worth paying attention to if you plan on transporting the drive frequently.

Read/Write Speeds

Read & write speeds measure how quickly data can be written from & to the external hard drive. This is measures in bytes per second - the higher the speed, the faster large files (such as movies) will be transferred onto or from the drive. The read-write speeds are also affected by the USB version supported - USB 3.0 supported drives allow far higher transfer rates than USB 2 drives, so it is worth seeking out the newest drive you can for the fastest data transfer speeds.

Power

On the subject of USBs, external hard drives are powered by 2 main methods: via USB or externally power lead. Smaller drives will be powered via USB - this means that the same lead that transfers the data also powers the device. This means no battery, no extra leads, and they are far more portable. Larger drives may be so big and powerful that USB alone can’t provide enough power - in which case they may need an external power connection to properly function. This means that extra consideration has to be made for a spare power socket and the required leads - making them less use when on the go.

Extras

Finally, there are a wealth of extras that can be found in more advanced models of external hard drives. Some of these may only be useful in specific situations, and you will usually pay more for them, but the utility may well be worth the extra cost. Some examples of extra features include:

External Hard Drive Prices

The price range of external hard disk drive is from £29 to £5,518 and in total we found prices for 413 external hard disk drive. The average price of a new external hard drive is £180 and 80% of external hard disk drives are priced between £48 and £311. The most expensive external hard drive that we found is the G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 64Tb at £5,518, and the cheapest is the Toshiba Canvio Basics - 500Gb at only £30.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

The average price of G-Technology external hard disk drive is £677 which is the highest average price of all external hard drive brands. G-Technology external hard disk drive start at £50 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £5,518.

The average price of DataLocker external hard disks is £532 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands. DataLocker external hard disks range in price from £257 to £700.

The average price of ioSafe external harddisks is £506 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands. ioSafe external harddisks range in price from £335 to £769.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 781 expert reviews and 2,923 user reviews for external harddisks and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. The top rated external hard drive brand is G-Technology with an average rating of 88%. The second best brand is Silicon Power with 88% and the third best brand is Western Digital with 88%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 290 current offers for external harddisks from Amazon UK making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is much bigger than the second biggest retailer, Ebuyer for whom we found 191 current offers for external harddisks. The third biggest retailer is Ebuyer Business with 174 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Disk Drives Released?

Most new external harddisks tend to be released between June and July. If you wait until June 2019 then you might be able to get better features on your external hard drive. Alternatively you might be able to buy one of the current external hard disk drive cheaper in June once the latest models have been released. In June 2018, 59 new external hard disk drive were released making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. 36 new external hard disks were released in July 2017 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. October was the biggest month in 2016 for new external hard disks, with 43 new external hard disks released that month.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

On average external hard drives drop in price by 1% in the first 6 months after release. On a typical new external hard drive costing £179, by waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average £2.

Weights

'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).

Across the range of external hard disk, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of the majority of external harddisks range from 0g to 300g. The G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 48Tb, which is priced at £4,150.00, has the heaviest weight and is an 11.4kg external hard drive. The Integral USB 3.0 Portable SSD External Hard Drive - 256GB, which is available at £108.99, has the lightest weight and is a 41g external hard drive.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

Of the 836 new external hard drives currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are USB powered external hard disks. 80% of external hard drives are USB powered external hard disks.

Hard Drive Capacities

'Hard Drive Capacity' denotes how much data the hard drive can hold, measured in gigabytes (GB).

The hard drive capacities of external hard disk range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external hard disk drives range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The external hard drive with the biggest hard drive capacity is the G-Technology G-Speed Shuttle XL - 64Tb, which is a 64TB external hard drive and can be purchased for £5,518.00. The Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 1TB, which sells for £131.24, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 1GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Disks?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard drive. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard drive where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard disks. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was Amazon UK. 181 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of External Hard Drive for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard drives by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of external hard drive prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's external hard drive prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Amazon UK. 62.4% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.