Compare the Best External Hard DrivesApril 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

We currently list 326 external hard disk drive ranging from £29 to £800. A new external hard drive costs on average £139 and 80% of external hard drive are priced between £45 and £299. The most expensive external hard drive that we found is the G-Technology G-Raid - 16Tb at £800, and the cheapest is the Toshiba Canvio Basics - 500Gb at only £30.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

The highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is Digittrade external hard disk drives with an average price of £610. Digittrade external hard disk drives range in price from £464 to £756.

IoSafe external hard disk drive start at £331 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £386. The second highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is ioSafe external hard disk drive with an average price of £359.

IStorage external hard drives start at £118 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £507. The third highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is iStorage external hard drives with an average price of £299.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 264 expert reviews and 1,668 user reviews for external hard disk drive and used this data to determine 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

We found 66 current offers for external hard drive from Ebuyer Business making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is very close in size to the second biggest retailer, Amazon UK for whom we found 65 current offers for external hard drive. The third biggest retailer is Ebuyer with 50 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Drives Released?

Over the last 3 years we couldn't see any prominent trend in the release month for new external hard disk drive. Eight new external harddisk were released in February 2019 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. In 2018 most new external hard disk drive were released in June, with 59 new external hard disk drive released that month. In July 2017, 36 new external hard disk drives were released 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 external harddisks drop in price by 1% in the first 6 months after release.

That means that on a typical external hard drive costing £138 you could save on average £1 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Weights

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

Comparing all external hard disk drive, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of the majority of external hard drives range from 0g to 300g. The ioSafe Solo G3 Fireproof External Hard Drive - 2TB, which is priced at £331.48, 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 priced 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 854 new external hard drives currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are USB powered external hard disk. 682 external hard drives (80%) are USB powered external hard disk.

Hard Drive Capacities

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

Across the range of external harddisks, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external hard disks range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The Western Digital My Book Duo - 20Tb, which is available at £525.98, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 20TB external hard drive. The Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 1TB, which is priced at £131.24, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 1GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Drive?

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 disk. 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 Ebuyer Business. 38 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

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

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard disk drive 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 Ebuyer Business. 57.6% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.