The best portable, external hard drives are lightweight, compact and inexpensive, with capacities ranging from 500GB to 4TB.
Hard drives inside PCs, Macs and laptops might be getting larger capacities, but our ability to fill them up is keeping up with them. Movies, photos, music – all fill up a hard drive rather quickly. The same is true of games consoles and other devices that use a hard drive.
An external hard drive is an easy way to add more storage to your computer, and prices are coming down as capacity increases. Portable, external hard drives mean you can carry your data with you, and plug easily into a laptop or PC when you need it. They also make great backup drives that you can keep off-site.
If you want to store your backups or data away from home or the office you don’t want to carry a large hard drive and power cable around with you. You need something smaller that connects to computers via a USB cable.
Today’s portable hard drives are ultra compact and lightweight but can store as much as 4 terabytes (4TB) that’s 4,000GB!
These you can carry around with you, although if you want the smallest, lightest and fastest portable drives you should consider a Solid State Drive (SSD), which run flash memory (like a USB stick) rather than an actual moving hard drive. SSDs do however cost a lot more than hard-disk drives. See: Best SSD drives and Best SSD drives for Mac.
Most popular portable hard drives
This list of the most-popular portable hard drives is taken using data from Amazon on the most popular models available now, based on unit sales and user reviews. PC Advisor hasn’t individually tested each hard drive, but has taken into account user reviews and other independent tests.
Check out the latest, best online prices here, which are continually kept up to date for the best bargains.
Best portable hard drives: Capacity
Portable external hard drives start at a capacity of 500 gigabytes (500GB), and then jump up in terabytes (TB). A typical movie file will take up about 1-2GB of space. 1,000GB equals 1TB. See: How many MB in a GB, GB in a TB?
When backing up your computer see how much capacity each backup requires. If it’s easily under 500GB then the smaller-capacity disks will suffice, but you’ll always do better future-proofing with at least a 1TB drive, which often can be bought for just a few pounds or dollars more.
Best portable hard drives: Power
None of the portable hard drives listed here require a separate power source, instead drawing their power from your computer via the USB cable.
Best portable hard drives: USB
Look for a hard drive that is compatible with the latest USB 3.0 technology, as these portable hard drives are faster than – but still compatible with – USB 2.0. Of course, if your computer still uses USB 2.0 you won’t gain the benefit of the faster speeds but your new portable hard drive will be ready for your next PC or Mac upgrade.
Best portable hard drives: Hard drive speed
All the drives listed here are rated at 5,400rpm disk speed.
Best portable hard drives: Size
All of the portable hard drives listed here are of the 2.5-inch factor, meaning that the hard disk itself is the same size in each drive. The dimensions of the casing, however, do differ between the various products.
Best portable hard drives: USB cable
Many printer manufacturers make a little bit more margin on each unit they sell by not including a USB cable. Thankfully hard drive makers mostly do include the cable so you don’t need to go out and buy one or rummage around under your desk looking for a spare one.
Samsung M3 1TB USB 3.0 Slimline Portable Hard Drive
- RRP: £79.99 (US$119.99)
- Buy from Amazon for £56.99
The Samsung M3 1 TB USB 3.0 Slimline Portable Hard Drive is currently the most popular portable hard drive on sale atAmazon.
It is available in more capacities than 1TB. The cheapest model can store 500GB but at £39.99 is just £1 cheaper than the twice-the-size 1TB (£40.99 at the time of writing). The 1TB model is clearly the better value!
It is also available in 2TB for £55, and a whopping 4TB at £143.99. If your storage needs are close to 1TB the 2TB model of the Samsung M3 is worth considering, and is less than £15 more expensive.
It is compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, and features SafetyKey protection for your data.
Capacities: 500GB – 4TB
USB: 2.0 and 3.0
Size: 2.5 inches
Dimensions: 11.2cm x 8.1cm x 2cm
Colour: Black
Cable included: Yes
Seagate Expansion 2TB USB 3.0 2.5-inch portable hard drive
- RRP: £115.99 or $119.99
- Buy from Amazon for £66.99
The Seagate Expansion portable hard drive looks great value at the 2TB model, which costs just £59.99/US$79.99. At the time of writing it is #2 in the Amazon Best Seller list in both the UK and Amazon.com.
There are also models available at 1TB (very reasonable at £42.99/US$54.99) and 4TB (£113.94/US$119.99).
The 4TB model makes the Seagate Expansionthe portable hard drive of choice for people requiring massive data storage in a compact form, at a reasonable price – coming in £30 cheaper than the 4TB Samsung M3.
As with some of the other hard drives listed here this product needs to be reformatted if it is to be used with Mac.
Capacities: 1TB – 4TB
USB: 2.0 and 3.0
Size: 2.5 inches
Dimensions: 12.2cm x 8.1cm x 1.5cm
Colour: Black
Cable included: Yes
WD My Passport Ultra Premium portable hard drive
- RRP: £78.45 or US$99.99
- Buy from Amazon for £49.99
WD’s My Passport portable hard-drive range features capacities from 500GB (£52.48/US$56.99) to 3TB in a range of different finishes and colours that set it out from the crowd.
While this might seem trivial I have enough portable hard drives that all look so similar I’d welcome some different colours to help me remember what is on each of them!
There is an “old model” My Passport Ultra that isn’t available in the new metal case but does have the widest choice of colours (for example, Black, Blue, White, Silver and Berry). Its highest capacity is 2TB, and can probably be found cheaper online – check our links.
The newer models come in Black, Blue, White, and Berry, and up to 3TB capacities. The 1TB model costs £49.99, 2TB costs £69, and 3TB is priced at £109.99.
While in the Amazon UK Best Seller Top 5, this is the #1 most-popular portable hard drive on Amazon.com.
Capacities: 500GB – 2TB
USB: 2.0 and 3.0
Size: 2.5 inches
Dimensions: 11cm x 8.2cm x 1.6cm
Colour: Black, Blue, White, or Berry
Cable included: Yes
Toshiba HDTB305EK3AA 500GB Canvio Basics USB 3.0 portable hard drive
- RRP: £38.25 or US$79
- Buy from Amazon for £33.99
£8 cheaper than the 500GB Samsung M3 the 500GB Toshiba HDTB305EK3AA isn’t at the very top of the Amazon most-popular list but does represent excellent value for money and scores well on customer reviews. Note that this is the 500GB model.
Like the Samsung it’s a 2.5-inch portable hard drive in standard black livery.
There’s a 1TB version for £39.99 (a quid cheaper than the Samsung M3) if your storage needs are greater than 500GB. And it is also available in 2TB (£60.08) and 3TB (£96.04) models.
Capacities: 500GB – 3TB
USB: 2.0 and 3.0
Size: 2.5 inches
Dimensions: 11.9cm x 7.9cm x 1.5cm
Colour: Black
Cable included: Yes
Transcend 1TB 2.5 inch USB 3.0 military-grade shock resistance portable hard drive
- RRP: £52.99 or $117.99
- Buy from Amazon for £48.99
This 2.5-inch portable hard drive sets itself apart from the competition by claiming to be virtually indestructible because of its “military-grade” shock resistance. Its three-stage shock protection system is made up of a silicone outer shell, internal suspension system, and reinforced hard casing.
Windows users also get a one-touch back-up button.
Aside from that the Transcend portable hard drive is good value for money at 1TB, although the 2TB model (£78.99/$94.99) looks less attractive compared to others here.
Capacities: 1TB – 2TB
USB: 2.0 and 3.0
Size: 2.5 inches
Dimensions: 13cm x 8.3cm x 2cm
Colour: Black
Cable included: Yes
Western Digital Elements 1TB portable hard drive for Windows
- RRP: £69.99 or US$79.99
- Buy from Amazon for £48.77
Unlike other manufacturers WD (originally Western Digital) markets its portable hard drives as either for Windows or Mac. This will reassure Mac users, as most of the other drives include Windows software for backup and so forth. As most of us use our own backup software this doesn’t really matter, and Mac users can just reformat the other drives. But knowing that your hard drive is out-of-the-box compatible with your Mac is nice to know.
The WD Elements hard drive is Windows only for some reason, and is the basic end of WD’s portable range.
But it’s a popular model for the same reason, and at the best prices. Unlike the My Passport range from WD Elements doesn’t include Dropbox cloud services, password protection or a metal enclosure. But it’s highly affordable, and therefore a popular choice.
Unusually this is also available in a 1.5TB capacity (£75/US$), as well as 2TB at a very attractive £66.99/US$80.99.
Capacities: 1TB – 2TB
USB: 2.0 and 3.0
Size: 2.5 inches
Dimensions: 11.2cm x 8.1cm x 1.5cm
Colour: Black
Cable included: Yes
WD My Passport Ultra 2TB portable hard drive, Metal Edition
- RRP: £79.98 or US$149.99
- Buy from Amazon for £84.87
WD’s My Passport Ultra portable hard-drive range is one of the most stylish in its new Metal cases in Silver, Gold and Blue. WD calls the design ‘radial spin” because of the sheen of the aluminium.
The Silver- and Gold-cased hard drive are often priced greater than the Blue models, despite not actually being built out of real silver or gold. For example Amazon sells the Gold 2TB model for £96.36, while the Blue model costs £79 and the Silver £89.
There is also a 1TB model that costs £62/US$69. In Gold this is a few pounds higher at £65.
On a more useful note all models include password protection and 256-bit hardware encryption. Windows users also get WD SmartWare Pro backup software. Mac users need to reformat the drives before use, using the Mac’s own Disk Utility app.
Capacities: 1TB – 2TB
USB: 2.0 and 3.0
Size: 2.5 inches
Dimensions: 11cm x 8cm x 1.9cm
Colour: Blue, Silver, or Gold
Cable included: Yes
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