Compare the Best External Hard DrivesFebruary 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

In total we found 380 external hard drives ranging from £29 to £887. The average price of a new external hard drive is £136 and 80% of external harddisks are priced between £45 and £300. The Toshiba Canvio Basics - 500Gb is the cheapest external hard drive at only £30, and ioSafe SoloPRO - 6Tb is the most expensive at £886.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

DataLocker external hard drives range in price from £626 to £626, and the highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is DataLocker external hard drives with an average price of £626.

The second highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is ioSafe external hard disk drives with an average price of £468. ioSafe external hard disk drives range in price from £315 to £886.

Digittrade external hard disk start at £125 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £724. The average price of Digittrade external hard disk is £433 which is the third highest average price of all external hard drive brands.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 262 expert reviews and 1,610 user reviews for external hard drives and used these reviews to evaluate the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. The top rated external hard drive brand is Western Digital with an average rating of 86%. The second best brand is Seagate with 76% and the third best brand is Buffalo with 75%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

We found 100 current offers for external harddisk from Amazon UK making it the biggest external hard drive retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, eBay for whom we found 67 current offers for external harddisk. The third biggest retailer is Ebuyer Business with 64 current external hard drive offers.

When Are Most New External Hard Drives Released?

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

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

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

That means a saving of £1 on a typical £136 new external hard drive if you wait 6 months before buying.

Weights

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

The weights of external hard drives 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 - 3TB, which is available at £421.00, 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.

Of the 852 new external hard drives currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are USB powered external harddisks. 681 out of 852 are USB powered external harddisks.

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 drives range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of the majority of external hard drive range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The Western Digital My Book Duo - 20Tb, which sells for £503.60, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 20TB external hard drive. The Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 1TB, which can be purchased for £131.24, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 1GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Harddisks?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard disks. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard disks where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard drives. 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. 60 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

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

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard 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 Amazon UK. 60% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.