Compare the Best External Hard DrivesJanuary 2020

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:

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

External hard disks range in price from £29 to £883 and in total we found prices for 372 external hard disks. The average price of a new external hard drive is £142 and 80% of external harddisk are priced between £45 and £301. The ioSafe SoloPRO - 6Tb is the most expensive external hard drive that we found at £882, and the Toshiba Canvio Basics - 500Gb is the cheapest at only £30.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

Digittrade external hard disk drive start at £727 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £727. The average price of Digittrade external hard disk drive is £727 which is the highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

The second highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is ioSafe external hard disk drive with an average price of £497. ioSafe external hard disk drive range in price from £312 to £882.

The average price of DataLocker external hard disk is £416 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands. DataLocker external hard disk start at £239 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £711.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 266 expert reviews and 1,640 user reviews for external hard disk and used these reviews to evaluate the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. Western Digital is the top rated external hard drive brand with an average rating of 87%. Seagate is the second best brand with 76% and Buffalo is the third best brand with 75%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

The biggest external hard drive retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 127 current external hard drive offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Amazon UK with 87 offers. That means eBay is significantly bigger than Amazon UK when it comes to external harddisk. Ebuyer Business is the third biggest retailer with 64 current offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Drive Released?

We looked at the release dates for new external hard disk over the last 3 years, but couldn't see any clear pattern. The biggest month in 2019 for new external hard drive releases was February, with seven new external hard disk drive released that month. In 2018 most new external harddisks were released in June, with 59 new external harddisks released that month. 36 new external hard drive were released in July 2017 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, external harddisks drop in price by 1%.

A typical new external hard drive costs on average £142. By waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average £1.

Weights

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

Comparing all external hard disk, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of most external harddisk range from 0g to 300g. The ioSafe SoloPRO - 6Tb, which can be purchased for £882.08, has the heaviest weight and is a 6.8kg 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.

The vast majority of the 851 new external hard drives currently listed on Kagoo are USB powered external hard drive. 80% of external hard drives are USB powered external hard drive.

Hard Drive Capacities

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

Across the range of external harddisk, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external harddisks range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The Western Digital My Book Duo - 20Tb, which sells for £487.98, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 20TB external hard drive. 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 Disk Drives?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external harddisks. For each retailer it shows the total number of external harddisks where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external harddisks. 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. 39 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

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

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard disks 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. 44.8% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.