Greatest exterior drives 2025: Critiques and shopping for recommendation

Exterior USB/Thunderbolt drives (aka direct-attached storage, or DAS) are a super-convenient technique to shortly again up your necessary information, in addition to retailer any knowledge that you just don’t want in your laptop’s quick inner storage. They’re additionally extraordinarily helpful for transporting knowledge between places and gadgets.

Whereas auxiliary storage and transport are nice causes to purchase an exterior drive, let’s not neglect the all-important position an exterior drive performs for backup — both as the first backup medium, or the secondary backup to an inner backup drive.

Restoring from native storage is way, far quicker than flattening your knowledge from the net, which is why we’re so eager on backing as much as an exterior drive. In case your time is necessary to you, that’s.

Why you need to belief us: We’re PCWorld. We’ve been placing laptop {hardware} by its paces for many years. We’ve seen all of it and we all know the best way to root out a drive’s strengths and weaknesses, utilizing a mix of rigorous benchmark testing and real-world hands-on use. Under we provide our professional suggestions on one of the best exterior drives for every part from blazing-fast efficiency, to price range choices, to portability, and extra.

Essential X9 Professional – Greatest 10Gbps exterior SSD

Professionals

• Tremendous small kind issue
• Nice 10Gbps efficiency
• Good-looking design

Cons

• Not the least costly 10Gbps SSD out there

Greatest Costs Immediately:

₹11,399

Not everybody needs or wants to spend further for 20Gbps USB drive efficiency. The Essential X9 strikes a compelling stability between 10Gbps efficiency and affordability that ought to please nearly all of customers. In our benchmark assessments, it traded high scores with the SK Hynix Beetle (our runner-up alternative beneath), however at a considerably decrease value — making it an indeniable win-win for shoppers.

It’s additionally good-looking, described by our reviewer as “a svelte object of want.” Extra importantly, it feels nicely made, and is rated for IP55 mud and spray resistance, so that you don’t should child this transportable drive whenever you take it into hurt’s manner.

Different choice: The Essential X9 performs neck-and-neck with the SK Hynix Beetle X31 — a good-looking little drive in its personal proper. Beforehand, this drive was the extra expensive of the 2, giving the Essential X9 a slight edge. But it surely seems the Beetle X31 is perhaps nearing the top of its manufacturing life as a result of we’re seeing it at a big financial savings — as little as $85 for 1TB. That is nice information for cut price hunters whereas provides final.

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Essential X9 Professional overview

Essential X6 Transportable SSD (2TB) – Greatest price range 10Gbps exterior SSD

Professionals

• Ergonomic design
• Good on a regular basis efficiency
• Very inexpensive for an exterior SSD

Cons

• Efficiency tanks when cache runs out

Greatest Costs Immediately:

₹7,900.00 (₹202.56 / grams)

The Essential X6 Transportable SSD is sq. to be hip (search Huey Lewis). Or positioned in your hip pocket, at any price. In a sea of transportable SSDs whose form and generally sharp edges makes them a literal ache when located in your shirt or trousers, the skinny, rounded-edge X6 is a sigh of aid. It’s not state-of-the-art quick, however it’s quick sufficient for many customers and intensely inexpensive.

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Essential X6 Transportable SSD overview

SK Hynix Tube T31 USB SSD stick – Greatest thumb drive SSD

Professionals

• Quick like an exterior SSD
• Decently inexpensive
• Small kind issue
• Captive Sort-A USB connector

Cons

• Prices greater than the frequent thumb drive

There’s one thing to be stated for the thumb drive kind issue. It’s eminently transportable, being each small and eliminating the need of a connector cable. It’s additionally versatile as it will probably slot into the ever-present USB-A port.

The SK Hynix Tube T31 combines all that thumb-drive comfort with SSD efficiency, for one of the best of the each worlds.

Using 10Gbps NVMe storage internally, the wee Tube T31 performs like a cable-attached SSD, and definitively outperformed different thumb drives in its class. And whereas it’s priced comparatively excessive in comparison with a typical thumb drive, it’s priced competitively for its efficiency.

There’s no higher choice if quick and cable-free storage is what you’re after.

Different choice: The Seagate Extremely Compact SSD isn’t fairly as quick because the Tube T31, however it’s shut. What’s extra, it comes with some helpful extras, comparable to free 6-month plans for Dropbox Backup and Mylio Photographs, in addition to being eligible at no cost knowledge restoration, making it a compelling different.

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SK Hynix Tube T31 USB SSD stick overview

Lexar SL600 – Greatest 20Gbps exterior SSD

Professionals

• Good 20Gbps performer
• Prime bang for the buck
• 5-year guarantee

Cons

• 4TB mannequin not but out there

Greatest Costs Immediately:

₹37,948

The competitors is fierce within the high tier of 20Gbps exterior drives, with name-brand contenders buying and selling wins up and down our benchmark charts. Nonetheless, a winner is a winner, and cumulatively, the Lexar SL600 edged out our earlier champ, Essential’s X10 Professional, by a hair.

On high of that, it is available in a uniquely formed kind issue, full with a gap to accommodate a lanyard, if that’s the way you roll. You’ll be able to even take the extremely transportable drive’s design a step additional by choosing the SL660 variant that comes with RGB lighting round its miniature deal with. The SL600 is backed by a five-year guarantee — two years longer than the norm for exterior drives.

When efficiency is that this carefully matched amongst merchandise, the figuring out issue is worth. In that respect additionally, the SL600 is neck-and-neck with the Essential X10 Professional, and as of this writing, priced barely to considerably cheaper than lots of its opponents — significantly on the 2TB stage.

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Lexar SL600 20Gbps USB SSD overview

Teamgroup M200 – Greatest price range 20Gbps SSD

Professionals

• Quick on a regular basis efficiency
• Out there in as much as 8TB (finally) capability
• Attractively styled

Cons

• No TBW ranking
• Firm will change elements if shortages demand
• Writes sluggish to 200MBps off cache

Rated for 20Gbps and promoting for $80 with 1TB of storage, the Teamgroup M200 is a gorgeous (in a navy style) exterior drive for the budget-conscious efficiency fanatic.

It won’t be as low-cost because the Essential X6, however for the additional outlay you get excellent on a regular basis efficiency. In lots of assessments, it’s the quickest 20Gbps drive we’ve ever examined. At simply 4.13-inches lengthy and a couple of.18-inches large and weighing underneath 3 ounces, it’s additionally extraordinarily transportable and its slick combat-styling will attraction to players.

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Teamgroup T-Pressure M200 20Gbps USB SSD overview

Adata SE920 – Greatest USB 4 exterior drive

Professionals

• Quickest exterior storage we’ve examined (at 40Gbps)
• Reasonably priced for the ilk
• Fashionable enclosure
• Out there as much as 4TB
• Additionally quick on the Mac

Cons

• Pricier than USB 3.2×2 (20Gbps)

A USB 4 exterior SSD isn’t for everybody. Not solely does your PC must assist the spec with a view to reap the benefits of the 40Gbps transfers, however you pay a premium for the privilege.

In the event you’re able to enter the membership, the Adata SE920 will reward you with the quickest USB 4 efficiency we’ve skilled, and at a way more inexpensive worth than our earlier decide for USB 4, the OWC Specific 1M2 — we’re speaking $180 for a 1TB Adata SE920 versus $250 for the OWC drive. And if you would like a whole lot of capability, the Adata SE920 comes with as much as 4TB, for $500.

We have been additionally impressed by the SE920’s nifty built-in fan, which is activated whenever you slide open the enclosure as proven above. This saved our drive noticeably free of warmth throughout our benchmark assessments.

The SE920 can be fairly transportable at 4.13 inches lengthy by 2.52-inches large by 0.62-inches thick, and seven ounces — one other benefit it has over the bulkier OWC Specific 1M2. A transparent alternative for our high USB 4 exterior SSD.

Different choice: You may get record-breaking efficiency by rolling your personal USB 4 exterior SSD, utilizing Ugreen’s CM642 enclosure. In our assessments, the $110 enclosure mixed with an NVMe SSD bested the efficiency of the 2 exterior USB 4 SSDs above.

Learn our full

Adata SE920 USB4 SSD overview

SanDisk Desk Drive 10Gbps – Greatest exterior SSD for backups

Professionals

• Out there in giant 4TB and 8TB capacities
• Good 10Gbps performer
• Enticing and weird, if considerably giant, heat-shedding design

Because the identify suggests, in contrast to most of the exterior drives on this listing, the SanDisk Desk Drive isn’t significantly transportable. Not solely is it too cumbersome for a pocket or laptop computer bag, it additionally requires an AC adapter.

That nonetheless, doesn’t detract from its utility, because the Desk Drive is actually geared toward customers with extra sedentary workflows for auxiliary storage and backup. That’s additionally evident in the truth that it solely ships in 4GB and 8GB capacities, priced competitively at $280 and $500, respectively.

Granted, that’s much more per-gigabyte than you’d pay for a backup exhausting drive. However with the Desk Drive you get brisk 10Gbps efficiency, and the reassurance that comes from an SSD’s lack of transferring components, i.e. susceptibility to shocks. In different phrases, its pace, ruggedness, and reliability make it value extra an HDD.

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SanDisk Desk Drive 10Gbps USB SSD overview

WD My Passport, Works with USB C – Greatest transportable exhausting drive

Professionals

• As much as 6TB of capability
• Tremendous-low worth per terabyte
• Good wanting and transportable

Cons

• Micro-B, not Sort-C as intimated
• Laborious drive stage efficiency

Greatest Costs Immediately:

₹7,599

We will forgive the cumbersome identify, and the truth that this drive, misleadingly, doesn’t really use a USB-C connector, as a result of there are different extra substantial ways in which it pleases us.

For starters, the WD My Passport, Works with USB-C affords a ton of capability — as much as 6TB — and at a much more inexpensive worth per terabyte than one can get from an SSD (round $30/TB versus twice that for the latter). This makes the WD My Passport a pure match for backup wants, significantly since these could be timed throughout off hours, mitigating the necessity for an SSDs superior speeds.

As for the deceptive moniker, the My Passport does certainly work with USB-C, however it’s by the use of the drive’s normal SuperSpeed Micro-B port, utilizing the included Micro-B to Sort-A cable and a bundled Sort-A to USB-C adapter. Thoughts you, WD’s My Passport Extremely sequence, which really do function a USB-C port, don’t carry out any quicker than this drive, and value a bit extra.

The truth is, the My Passport performs on par with one of the best of two.5-inch exhausting drives we’ve examined, whereas being one of the best deal. If it’s a conveyable, high-capacity exhausting drive that you just’re after, that is the one to choose.

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WD My Passport, Works with USB C overview

Seagate Growth Desktop – Greatest desktop exhausting drive

Professionals

• Tremendous-low worth per terabyte
• As much as 24TB whole capability
• Good wanting
• Twice as quick as 2.5-inch exterior HDDs

Cons

• Gradual in comparison with SSDs
• Requires AC adapter

SSDs have definitely been a sport changer in storage, however there are nonetheless instances when a tough drive is the appropriate instrument for the job — and an unbeatable worth. Similar to whenever you want extra capability on your digital stuff than an SSD can present.

Enter the three.5-inch Seagate Growth Desktop, which delivers as much as 24TB of capability — thrice the present most for SSDs. It additionally delivers twice the sustained switch price of two.5-inch exterior exhausting drives — our 16TB check unit learn and wrote at near 280MBps.

As talked about, all this storage comes at a really aggressive worth level, hovering round $20 per terabyte, in comparison with the $70 per terabyte an SSD prices. Our solely caveat is that HDDs are extra fragile, and necessary knowledge on them needs to be backed up repeatedly.

As we stated in our overview of the drive: “In the event you cope with giant quantities of information, you’ll be able to’t beat a high-capacity exhausting drive for gathering it into one place.” That is the drive we’d decide.

Learn our full

Seagate Growth Desktop overview

Our newest exterior drive evaluations

• PNY Professional Elite V3: This 10Gbps, Sort-C USB stick is quick, however what actually grabbed our consideration is the intelligent, retracting bodily design and svelte form-factor.
• Seagate Extremely Compact SSD: A 10Gbps USB thumb drive that delivers much better efficiency than generic 5Gbps or 400Mbps varieties. Plus it comes with some perks, comparable to free knowledge restoration.
• Lexar Go w/Hub: Whereas removed from low-cost, this 10Gbps cell drive is an uber-convenient manner so as to add as much as 2TB of storage and further USB ports to your cellphone.
• Corsair EX400U: Whereas it’s not the quickest 40Gbps SSD on the market, this gentle and compact drive may be very inexpensive and much more appropriate throughout PCs and Macs than 20Gbps USB 3.2×2 SSDs.
• Ugreen CM642 USB4: This quick, good-looking, and rugged SSD enclosure is a simple technique to roll your personal high-performance exterior storage. In our assessments, it gave the highest USB4 SSDs a run for his or her cash.
• Corsair Flash Survivor: Corsair’s Flash Survivor Stealth SSD is a USB keep on with 10Gbps/NVMe pace; it’s additionally weatherproofed and ruggedized — however you’ll pay a premium for that field-sturdiness.
• TerraMaster D8 Hybrid enclosure: Outfitted with 4 3.5-inch SATA HDD bays (two in RAID), and 4 NVMe SSD slots, the D8 Hybrid means that you can configure an array of drives on your system, operating over 10Gbps USB.
• Seagate Sport Drive SSD: This drive is aimed particularly at PS4/PS5 homeowners, and options a gorgeous aesthetic full with the Ps emblem. The 10Gbps SSD can be very quick for its class, however it’s additionally comparatively expensive.
• Lexar Armor 700: Just like the PNY RP60 above, the Lexar Armor 700 is a 20Gbps drive that may stand up to some abuse — good for the gamer on the go, or the accident-prone. Its IP66 weatherized physique is enticing, its efficiency is aggressive. It’s additionally a bit expensive.
• Teamgroup PD20M: This light-weight drive is a good journey companion, full with carrying case — however solely really useful for light-duty chores, as this 20Gbps drive slows significantly when writing greater than 20GB of information.
• Adata SD810: This can be a stable 20Gbps drive, so long as you aren’t within the behavior of writing very giant quantities of information to it regularly, as a result of in our assessments, the drive slowed down significantly in that situation. That being stated, the 4TB capability is a very good worth at simply $300.
• Lexar SL500: A stablemate of the Lexar SL600 — our decide for finest 20Gbps exterior drive — the SL500 stands out for its very slim and enticing kind issue. It has virtually equivalent efficiency to the SL600, aside from performing slower than its sibling in our 48GB file writes.
• Corsair EX100U: This good-looking drive, which may simply slide right into a pocket, isn’t an awesome all-around performer, however for those who’re largely involved with gentle workloads it can deal with these duties capably. On sale, it may simply earn its hold in that regard.

What it’s essential to know before you purchase

Capability versus worth

For many shoppers, the first buying standards for exterior storage are capability and worth. Nevertheless, when you would possibly suppose that the lowest-cost drives present probably the most worth — most frequently, they don’t. The truth is, greenback for greenback, cheaper low-capacity drives have all the time been the worst deal by way of worth per terabyte.

You’ll be able to see the phenomena within the charts beneath the place we evaluate the favored WD Components desktop exhausting drive’s out there capacities and costs. You’re paying greater than twice as a lot per terabyte for the lowest-capacity drive versus the following step up. It’s virtually as dangerous on the WD Components Transportable drive.

IDG

The most effective “worth,” as you’ll be able to see, usually means probably the most capacious exhausting drives. But it surely additionally means larger whole value, and never everybody wants most capability.

How a lot storage capability do you want?

So how a lot storage do you really want? For backup, we advocate a drive that’s no less than twice the capability of the whole quantity of information residing in your PC’s inner storage.

In case you have 1TB of storage in your PC, a 2TB drive means that you can make a full backup whereas holding earlier variations, in addition to extra differential and incremental backups. I.e., the bigger the capability, the extra backups over an extended time frame you’ll be able to hold, or the extra PCs you’ll be able to again as much as the identical drive.

Whereas a desktop exhausting drive (learn 3.5-inch) gives much more capability (as much as 30TB at the moment for those who’re an information heart), it additionally requires an influence cable, weighs extra, and usually gained’t be as shock resistant as a conveyable 2.5-inch exhausting drive. The latter is designed to take bumps, even when powered up. Then once more, for those who really need rugged — go the SSD route.

Interface

The overwhelming majority of exterior drives at this time are USB drives. Nevertheless, USB is available in many flavors: 5Gbps, 10Gbps, 20GBps, and — finally with USB 4 — 40Gbps, as with Thunderbolt 3/4. Ignore the model quantity (3.x) and search for the pace. BTW, add two zeroes to any of these numbers and you’ve got the approximate real-world MBps.

The USB Discussion board has modified its nomenclature to point throughput pace — SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps (previously USB 3.x gen 1), SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps (previously USB 3.x gen 2), and SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps (previously USB 3.2 2×2). For the sake of brevity (and our sanity), we usually shorten these to, for instance, USB 10Gbps, 10Gbps USB, 10Gbps and many others.

All single USB exhausting drives use the slower USB 5Gbps normal. No exhausting drive, except mixed with different drives in RAID 0 or above, can saturate even the 5Gbps interface (roughly 500MBps real-world after overhead).

The place SuperSpeed 10Gbps/20Gbps, USB 4, or Thunderbolt are of worth is with the aforementioned RAID exhausting drive setups, or extra doubtless, an SSD. USB 10Gbps is quick sufficient for many customers, and getting cheaper by the week. A 10Gbps Samsung T7 Defend could be had for $80 in its 1TB capability.

Quicker USB 20Gbps (Gen 2×2) doubles throughput, however strikes you right into a higher-price bracket, with the Seagate Firecuda Gaming SSD costing $100 for less than 500GB of storage. Though far quicker than 5/10Gbps, there nonetheless aren’t a whole lot of 20Gbps USB 3.2×2/USB4 ports on the market.

Thunderbolt 3, the newer Thunderbolt 4 (virtually precisely the identical factor with stricter implementation necessities), and the upcoming Thunderbolt 5 are the highest-performing interfaces for exterior storage. The important thing negatives are the premium pricing and a basic lack of compatibility with the much more well-liked USB.

Be aware that Thunderbolt ports usually assist every part as much as USB 3.2 and even USB 4, however apparently, not 20Gbps USB 3.2×2, which can carry out at 10Gbps. This may increasingly change with Thunderbolt 5, however don’t purchase a USB 3.2×2 drive except you’ve got that particular port kind.

There are twin Thunderbolt/USB SSDs out there such because the Sandisk Professional-G40. The G40 is costly at $160 for 1TB, however a incredible drive for many who can afford it. Pure Thunderbolt exterior SSDs could be even pricier, as they’re virtually all bought by Mac-oriented boutique distributors comparable to OWC and Sabrent.

Connections

The kind of port you discover on exterior drives varies (see the picture above), although the business is progressively (and fortunately) consolidating on the orientation-agnostic Sort-C connector. Right here’s the listing of connectors you would possibly discover in your drive:

USB 3 Micro-B is the broader, flatter port that’s nonetheless quite common on many lower-cost transportable and desktop exterior exhausting drives. It’s really the identical Micro USB port used in your cellphone, however with extra knowledge traces to hit USB 3.0 speeds. It’ll do 5Gbps and is okay for exhausting drives and SATA (internally) SSDs. Micro-B cables are usually Sort-A on the PC finish.

USB 3 Sort-B is the bigger, squarer model of USB 3.0 Micro B. Sort B ports have gotten uncommon, although you would possibly discover one on older 5.25-inch enclosures, printers, and scanners. It helps speeds as much as 5Gbps and cables are usually Sort-A on the PC aspect. 

USB Sort-C or just Sort-C is the most recent USB connector and the one the world is standardizing on. It’s small, straightforward to insert, and also you don’t have to fret about which aspect faces up as with Sort-A.

Needless to say Sort-C refers solely to the connector itself. What’s carried over the wires varies enormously: USB 2.0 Excessive Pace (480Mbps) to USB 3.2 SuperSpeed 20Gbps, in addition to USB 4 and Thunderbolt 3 and any mixture of them.

USB Sort-A: You gained’t discover this acquainted rectangular port on any drive, however you’ll nonetheless discover it on loads of PCs and laptops in addition to the male model on the opposite finish of most Sort-B and Sort-C adapter cables.

Thunderbolt 2 is lifeless at this level. It’s discovered on older Macs, however even Apple put it out to pasture in 2017. There’s no must spend money on a Thunderbolt 2 drive except it’s for legacy assist points. That stated…

…Apple sells a bi-directional Thunderbolt 1/2 to three adapter if it’s essential to join the one technology to the opposite. The adapter doesn’t, nonetheless, carry energy, so bus-powered exterior drives (no energy jack) would require a powered dock.

eSATA is one other legacy port that’s disappeared from newer gadgets. Created for attaching exterior storage to your laptop’s SATA bus, eSATA was an inexpensive manner in its day to maneuver past the toddling 60MBps efficiency of USB 2.0.

5Gbps USB 3.0 put the final nail in eSATA’s coffin. As with Thunderbolt 2, the one purpose to spend money on an eSATA drive is to be used with older computer systems.

A number of drives for backup?

We mentioned the rule of three for backup, however whereas the cloud is a good offsite choice, you can even handle that with a number of exterior drives — storing them in several places. As soon as upon a time, I used to repeatedly ship copies of my recordings to my mother’s for safe-keeping.

In the event you’re utilizing your exterior storage as a major repository for necessary knowledge, then you need to have a second drive as a duplicate. You would possibly even contemplate a dual-drive enclosure and run them mirrored, i.e. the identical set of information written concurrently to each. SSDs aren’t almost as susceptible to mishap as exhausting drives, however even then…

Merely put, hold your knowledge backed up!

For extra steerage on constructing out one of the best backup plan attainable, see our roundups of one of the best cloud backup providers and finest Home windows backup software program.

How we check

Drive assessments at the moment make the most of Home windows 11, 64-bit operating on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Each 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are built-in to the again panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB switch assessments make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking over 58GB of the 64GB of whole reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Professional which additionally runs the OS.

Every check is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Be aware that in regular use, as a drive fills up, efficiency could lower attributable to much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different elements. This may be much less of an element with the present crop of SSDs with far quicker late-generation NAND.

Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can range by capability attributable to extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching. Distributors additionally often swap elements. In the event you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report, by all means, tell us.

To be taught extra about our testing methodology see PCWorld’s article on how we check exterior SSDs.