Best hard drives
More and more people are opting for an external hard drive to upgrade their lapotop’s storage capacity.
While solid state drives (SSDs) remain relatively expensive for the amount of storage on offer, standard USB external hard drives are becoming better and better value. Prices continue to tumble, and capacities increase.
The decision you need to make is whether you’re worried about portability when buying an external drive. If you aren’t, you can consider larger and heavier 3.5-inch drives. These give you a lot more storage for your money and are faster, so you can read and write to them quicker.
The drives inside these boxes are the same type you’d find in a desktop PC. And, as you can see below, you get a lot more capacity for your money, starting at £60 for 2TB (two terabytes, or two times a thousand gigabytes). We’re not sure how much stuff you need to store, but that’s an awful lot of space.
Best external hard drives
Portable drives use laptop-size hard drives, which are a little slower. The bonus is that they’re completely transportable, and indeed many include special technologies that protect the hard drive if you drop it. Prices have come down here too, and you’re now looking at spending under £50 for a 1TB drive and much less than double that for 2TB.
All these hard drives will work with PCs out of the box. They should all work with Macs, too, but check that the manufacturer specifies Mac compatibility in its product blurb.
Finally, all the drives make use of the faster USB 3.0 standard as well as being backwards-compatible with USB 2.0.
The best external hard drives 2015…
1. Seagate Expansion
If you need sheer capacity, look no further
Price From £60
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This drive may look basic but the basic model boasts 2TB of storage for just under £60. You also get 3TB variants for £75 and 4TB for £100. It’s our pick of the bunch for sheer space and simplicity. We think it’s probably best suited for storing files you access rarely, such as archive photos. A new 2015 variant changes the rather staid design for a chequered one, but is slightly more expensive for the same capacities.
See the best Seagate Expansion Deals
2. Samsung M3
Amazon’s best seller and for good reason – it’s great value
Price From £46
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With hard drives, it’s value that often wins the day and while Segate’s Expansion does it on sheer bang for your buck, Samsung’s M3 is the best value drive in the portable segment. It’s £46 for 1TB, and £65 for 2TB. A 500GB version is also available but we don’t recommend it, as it’s not much cheaper than the 1TB version. Like many portable drives, it’s USB powered. It also features some PC software that enables you to password protect your drive.
3. Toshiba Canvio Basics
Cheap, cheerful but ugly
Price From £34
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One of the only drives where the 500GB is significantly cheaper than the 1TB, which means you can have fantastic portable storage for not much over £30. The 1TB is also slightly cheaper than the Samsung, but it still loses out the the Samsung in this list simply because, well, it’s also a bit ugly. And for a portable drive, you want something that you’re not afraid to get out of your bag.
4. WD My Passport Ultra
Best for looks and security
Price From £50
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At just 15mm thick, the 1TB USB-powered My Passport Ultra is not only available in several colours (black, blue, red and grey) but also features hardware encryption and auto-backup software (WD SmartWare Pro) for your PC. Should you wish, you can even use this to create a further backup in your Dropbox. A nice feature for complete peace of mind. It’s also shock-tolerant. Mac users will need to reformat the drive, as it is formatted for NTFS out of the box. There’s also a 2TB version available, too, though the 2TB version of Samsung’s M3 represents much better value.
See the best WD My Passport Ultra Deals
5. Transcend 1TB Military-Grade Shock Resistance
If you regularly travel, this is the portable drive for you
Price From £50
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A similar drive to the WD Ultra in terms of cost and capacities available (though the 2TB is cheaper) but this drive has two key benefits. First is the shock resistance. It’s designed to meet the drop test standards demanded by the US Military; there’s a silicon shell on the outside as well as more standard casing and damper tech around the actual drive. Second is a one-touch backup feature – a nice bonus, and it adds to a likeable package for the price.
See the best Transcend 1TB Military-Grade Shock Resistance Deals
6. WD My Passport for Mac
The best choice for the Mac – it’s already formatted for OS X
Price £60
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Specifically aimed at Mac users, you do pay a bit of a premium for this drive (around £15 for the 1TB) but it’s already formatted for the Mac and is silver to match, too. The premium price is a bit of a cheek because you should be able to format any drive for OS X Extended (FAT formatted drives can be read by default), but it’s a convenient option out of the box, and you know it will definitely work with Time Machine). Mac users may also be interested in the My Passport Pro, which is a Thunderbolt-compatible portable drive with RAID.
See the best WD My Passport for Mac Deals
7. Seagate Expansion Portable
The 2.5-inch version of our first choice
Price £48
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This is a smaller version of the large desktop hard drive we’ve picked as our first choice above. It’s available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB options but again we’ve made 1TB our pick – it really does seem to be the sweet spot at the moment. These drives are also incredibly light (this one’s just 168g) so are ideal for chucking in a bag. This drive isn’t quite as cheap as some on this list, but is a highly reliable option all the same.
See the best Seagate Expansion Portable Deals
8. Samsung D3 Station External Desktop Hard Drive
Another great-value desktop hard drive
Price From £65
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Like the large desktop version of Seagate’s Expansion drive at the top of our list, this Samsung is a brilliant option if you’re not worried about portability (indeed it has a Segate drive inside the black Samsung casing). What’s more, there are numerous capacities to choose from. As well as 2TB, there’s 3, 4, 5 and 6TB (this last option costs £190). Many commenters on Amazon also recommend this drive as a great way to expand the storage space with the Xbox One.
See the best Samsung D3 Station External Desktop Hard Drive Deals
9. Seagate Wireless Plus
Access your data without connecting it to your PC
Price £117
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An alternative to the ever more popular NAS (network storage) unit, this drive can sit on your wireless network and distribute files to multiple devices. This price is for the 1TB version, although you can also get a 2TB capacity. And, as well as being useful for PCs and Macs, there are mobile apps for iOS and Android so you can stream media directly to your device.
See the best Seagate Wireless Plus Deals
10. Western Digital My Passport Wireless
Share data with up to eight devices
Price From £139
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WD’s wireless hard drive is slightly more expensive than Seagate’s, but it does have an advantage: the ability to connect up to eight devices. The rechargeable battery can last for up to six hours in use. So if there are a bunch of you needing to access the same data (such as at a remote office location), you can use it for that. Of course, you are paying a premium for that capability. This price is for the 1TB version, but 2TB is also available, as are mobile apps.
See the best Western Digital My Passport Wireless Deals
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