How to Choose an External Hard Drive

An external hard drive is a simple, easy-to-use device, but the wide variety of drives available can make choosing an external hard drive difficult. This article outlines how to find the right external hard drive for your needs.

5 Factors to Consider When Buying an External Hard Drive

Every external hard drive can store some files, but various storage capacities, technologies, and connection options are available. This can make your choice complicated. Keep these essential points in mind:

• Price
• Storage technology
• Storage capacity
• Connection type
• Power requirements

How Much Should an External Hard Drive Cost?

External hard disk drives remain affordable at higher capacities. It's less expensive to buy a single external drive in the capacity you need than it is to purchase multiple, smaller ones.

External solid-state drives are different. Price rises quickly with capacity: 16TB drives are often over $1,000. It's less expensive to buy multiple, smaller drives than it is to buy a single, larger one.

More expensive drives rarely have unique features when compared to less expensive drives. Storage capacity is what determines the price. With that said, drives above $500 may try to stand out with a premium enclosure made of solid metal or an extended warranty.

What Storage Technology Should an External Hard Drive Use?

External hard drives use one of two storage technologies. They're either hard disk drives or solid-state drives.

Hard disks are literal metal disks inside an enclosure. They spin when data needs to be written or retrieved. This makes them more fragile, slower, and louder when in use. There's also a limit to how small they can become, as the smallest hard disks are 2.5 inches across. Low pricing offsets these problems: hard disks have the highest storage capacity for your money.

Solid-state drives are, well, solid. They don't have moving parts and instead store data by shuffling electrons. This makes them more reliable, as the drive lacks spinning components that can break. They're silent and often smaller than external drives with a hard disk. However, their solid-state chips are more expensive, so expect to pay more per gigabyte.

How Much Storage Capacity Should an External Hard Drive Have?

The simple answer, of course, is "as much as you need." Yet this might be challenging to determine if the files you want to store are strung across multiple folders on your computer. A disk space analyzer is a tool that can help with this.

Prices constantly fluctuate in this market, but we suggest starting at a 1 terabyte (1TB) model as they offer quite a bit of room and are usually only a couple of dollars more than a smaller capacity drive.

A larger drive might be necessary to store dozens of hours of 4K video, thousands of DSLR photos, super-sized images, or vector-based art. If you're working with those kinds of files, you likely know how big the files are and how many you need to store them.

What Connection Type Should an External Hard Drive Use?

Most external drives connect over one of the USB standards available today. Older models connect using USB Type-A, and USB Type-B, while newer ones use USB Type-C. Almost all external drives come with a cable, so the only variable is which port your computer has.

That's why it's worth knowing the type of USB ports your computer has. Even if the cable fits into the port on your computer, you may notice disappointing performance if you plug an external drive into a slow USB port. If this is true of your computer, consider sticking to a slower, less expensive external hard drive since you won't see the benefit of newer, faster models.

USB-C is the newest connection, offering quick data speeds and power over one cable. USB Type-C is physically different from the older connection types. You can buy a USB-C to USB-A adapter if your computer lacks USB-C, but the USB Type-A port might be unable to provide power to the drive (if the drive doesn't come with a power supply).

There's one last connection to mention: Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt 3 and 4 are physically compatible with USB-C but often quicker, with a required bandwidth of 40 gigabits per second. Most external drives don't use Thunderbolt because USB is usually fast enough, but you may encounter Thunderbolt on high-end external drives. You'll need a Thunderbolt 3 port on your PC to make the most of this connection.

What Power Requirements Do External Hard Drives Have?

Most modern external hard drives don't require external power. They instead are powered entirely over USB, which draws power from your computer. That means you don't need to use a power brick.

This isn't always true, however. Large external hard disk drives are the most likely to need external power. This is also true of older external drives produced before USB 3 and Thunderbolt were standard.

An external hard drive that requires power isn't meant to be moved around a lot, even if it is, technically, able to be moved about. Only buy an external drive with a power brick if you rarely need to move it.

Who Should Buy An External Hard Drive?

An external hard drive will appeal to anyone needing more storage and not wanting to (or can't) upgrade a computer's internal hard drive. Internal hard drive upgrades are often less expensive but more complex, and many laptops don't support upgrades.

Another reason to get an external hard drive is if you frequently switch the computer you're using. Since an external hard drive is physically separate from your computer, it's easy to hand over to someone else or take with you when you use a different computer.

Finally, these drives generally have more capacity than a USB flash drive, though the most expensive flash drives rival the storage of some external hard drives.

What to Do After You Buy An External Hard Drive

External hard drives are plug-and-play, meaning they don't require additional driver or software installation. Connect it to the best available USB port on your computer (or Thunderbolt, if supported).

Your computer should recognize the drive almost immediately; if not, use the links below to prepare the drive.

More Tips for Buying an External Hard Drive

External hard drives are relatively simple devices with few hidden features or quirks.

You may want to consider a drive's warranty or promised longevity. Depending on the manufacturer, you'll see warranties between one and ten years. A more extended warranty period hints at better reliability, so consider a drive with an extended warranty if you're concerned about data loss.

The most important tip is this: keep an eye on the price. Because external hard drives differ so little between brands and features, it's almost always worth shopping for the lowest price.