Best External Hard Drive
Backup drives are a must if you store important files on your home or office system, and can be a life-saver if your main hard drive fails. Great for storage, backups, or simply as a medium to transfer data from your computer to a friend's computer, external hard drives are the way to go when it comes to large portable storage. They come in two flavors - "portable" external HDDs, which are essentially laptop drives that can be run simply off of USB, and "desktop" external HDDs that require the use of an AC adapter but offer greater capacity/$. Here are our top picks for the best external hard drive.
Why it's best:
This “ruggedized” portable hard drive is designed to withstand large amounts of shock damage, such as drops onto carpet, wood, or even hard concrete. Equipped with a shock-resistant “blackbelt” rubber ring and sturdy external casing, it’s rated ... read full review
Price Range:
$109.95 - $129.99
See all sellers ››Available From:
PC Connection $109.95
Mwave.com $117.20
Why it's a best pick:
The Fantom G-Force is a well-priced, well designed 1TB external hard drive. It is unique amongst the many other desktop 3.5" external hard drives in that it has USB 2.0, two FireWire 800 ports, and eSATA. This flexibility in ports combined with this drive's great prici...
read full review
$119.95 - $145.76
See all sellers ››Available From:
PC Connection $119.95
CompUSA $119.99
Why it's a best pick:
2.5" hard disk drives have undergone rapid shifts in areal density, which allows for much more capacity in the same chassis. This 640GB 2.5" hard drive is portable and capable of being powered simply by USB 2.0 5V, which is very convenient for constant use without ...
read full review
Amazon.com
Why it's a best pick:
The Western Digital My Passport Essential is an invaluable asset to any computer user. This small, portable hard drive is particularly useful for its data density and the ability to be powered solely by USB 2.0. It’s ideal for those that don’t want to lug around ...
read full review
$99.95 - $109.99
See all sellers ››Available From:
Buydig.com $109.00
PC Connection $99.95
Why it's a best pick:
A fairly straightforward desktop external hard drive, the Western Digital Element 1TB is only connected to a computer through the USB 2.0 interface. This drive is well priced for an individual 3.5" 1TB drive — not to mention a convenient external hard drive! The W...
read full review
$99.99 - $109.95
See all sellers ››Available From:
PC Connection $109.95
CompUSA $99.99