Top 10 external hard drives
All modern external drives support the third version of the specification for universal serial bus, although compatible with the second. You just need to keep in mind that the average USB2 controller is not able to provide the hard drive with the current of the desired value and for this operation you need a Y-cable for this connection, and under the Micro-B connector on the other end.
Top best external hard drives in 2017-2018
Category | A place | Name | Rating | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|
The best drives of 500 GB | 1 | Toshiba CANVIO BASICS 500GB | 9.6 / 10 | 2 990 |
2 | Seagate STEA500400 | 9.5 / 10 | 3 158 | |
The best external hard drives of 1 TB | 1 | Toshiba Canvio Ready 1TB | 9.9 / 10 | 3 750 |
2 | ADATA HD720 1TB | 9.8 / 10 | 4 640 | |
3 | Silicon Power Stream S03 1TB | 9.8 / 10 | 3 970 | |
The best external hard drives of 2 TB | 1 | Western Digital My Passport 2 TB (WDBUAX0020B) | 9.5 / 10 | 5 740 |
2 | Seagate STEA2000400 | 9.5 / 10 | 5 290 | |
3 | Toshiba CANVIO ALU 2TB | 9.5 / 10 | 5 496 | |
Portable drives with capacity of 4 TB and more | 1 | Seagate STDR5000200 | 9.8 / 10 | 9 496 |
2 | Western Digital My Passport 4 TB (WDBUAX0040B) | 9.5 / 10 | 8 490 |
The best drives of 500 GB
External hard drives of less than 500 GB in size cannot be found on the free market, and there is no special meaning in them, but the five hundredth models are interesting as a portable storage for family photo and video archives. As for the recommended drive, it is worth bearing in mind that its earlier versions were equipped with hard drives with a rather outdated SATA2 interface, supplemented with appropriate adapters. The latest revisions of CANVIO BASICS are already being completed with more modern HDDs, but as long as the corresponding USB adapter is located directly on the controller board, it’s impossible to disassemble such a device and connect its “screw” directly. Of the more significant drawbacks, mention is worth only a relatively solid weight of the device - 230 g. Of the benefits are the non-staining plastic of the case and sufficiently effective rubber feet that easily hold the external drive on the most slippery surfaces. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.6 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Acquired for an external hard drive recording from the TV. No sound from the disc. The LED is lit in a faint blue. When a disc is in operation, the indicator flashes, and after a couple of minutes after recording or playing it goes out. Very comfortably. |
3 158
If you didn’t like the rounded shape of the external hard drive, which won first place in our ranking, take a look at this model from Seagate. The recommended device has an original design that combines the underlined angularity and the stylish embossed texture of the case. And there is the latter on both sides, but for some reason there was no space for the legs. Actually, this was the reason for a slight decrease in the STEA500400 rating, as far as the grip on the device’s solid smooth surface is mediocre. By the way, this drive is noticeably lighter than the “Japanese” competitor and comes with a longer cable. Speed parameters are typical for a budget class - on average, about 20 Mb / s. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.5 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Took for backup storage. We were pleased with the price - among the competitors this is the best inexpensive external hard drive. |
The best external hard drives of 1 TB
3 750
Despite the fact that the pseudo-relief points visible on the device images are actually glossy, such a design of the case perfectly masks fingerprints. In short, the appearance of Canvio Ready is both spectacular and practical. Do not forget the developers of the model and the rubber feet on the bottom. By the way, they not only prevent sliding on a smooth surface, but also partially dampen the inevitable vibration. Of course, the device design provides damping pads for the hard drive, but two levels of compensation is clearly better than one.Of the interesting features of the recommended external drive, you can highlight support for improved power management. The essence of the "chip" is to stop the rotation of the HDD plates with prolonged inactivity, and the "improvement" is the ability to set the allowable downtime, and in a very wide range. It is noteworthy that this has almost no effect on the overall speed. Another “plus” in favor of choosing this particular drive model is support for the Ramp Load technology. With moderate shocks and jolts your data is not in danger. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.9 / 10
Rating
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Conveniently, by the color of the indicator it is easy to determine which port an external drive is connected to. Lit blue - USB3; white - USB2. |
4 640
Currently, the company AData Technology produces nine lines of external drives, among which our attention was attracted by the HD720 model range. It is interesting in that it has the “coolest” degree of protection from the effects of various adverse factors. In particular, without fatal consequences transfers a two-hour stay at a depth of 2 or a fall from a height of 1.8 meters. As stated on the manufacturer's website, the impact resistance of the device significantly exceeds the requirements of the army standard MIL-STD-810G. It is noteworthy that the developers were not limited to passive protection, but attracted electronics to this business. A special G-sensor is mounted in the device case, which allows to fix dangerous shock load in a timely manner and generate commands for parking the heads. By the way, this also turns on the light indication of vibration protection. In short, this terrabaytny external hard drive is the best choice for tourists and travelers. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.8 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Quiet, fast, smart external drive. Bought in return for what fell and began to fail. Took a rubberized case. Not going to drop and yet ... |
By its design, this external hard drive resembles a notebook with a rounded face and one cropped corner on which the indicator is located. The LED clearly shows which interface is used for the exchange: USB 2.0 or USB 3.0. In the first case, the indicator color is red, in the second - blue. The case of the drive is plastic, with a practical matte surface, on which fingerprints are not visible. Like many other manufacturers, the basis of the drive is a Toshiba hard drive, in this case the MQ01ABD100. Its power consumption is 1.5 W with a noise level of up to 24 dB. The disk is installed in a housing with rubber seals and due to this, to a certain extent, protected from shock. The drive supports hardware encryption, to take advantage of this opportunity you need to download a special utility from the company's website. In addition to cryptography, it allows you to configure the backup of documents from the main folders of the computer, including emails. Main advantages: · Hardware encryption · High speed serial exchange · Strict and at the same time original design Minuses: · Hardly ever |
9.8 / 10
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The best external hard drives of 2 TB
Despite the fact that the design of the updated version of the Digital My Passport clearly worked, here even a complete cable “comes” in color with the case (and there are only six options), not everyone will like this external drive. First, his body seems to be composed of two completely different parts. And secondly, one of them has a glossy surface, perfectly collecting fingerprints.If the listed features do not scare you - briefly denote the merits of the model. Rubber feet not bad compensate for the vibration of a working hard drive and resist slip. The device comes with three proprietary utilities that allow you to set up automatic backup, protect the stored data by encrypting it and access password, and also monitor the status of the disk. Well, the speed of work. Not a record, but decently enough. More than a hundred megabytes per second for both reading and writing. Of course, through the USB3 port. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.5 / 10
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Reviews
I chose a drive in the internet and came across this cool, bright passport from WD. Outwardly, I like it very much, it works quickly and almost silently. |
5 290
This model is a great example of how, with the help of insignificant production costs, it is possible to obtain a completely recognizable and quite practical appearance. In fact, to develop a special mold is inexpensive, but the shells that go out from under it do not slip out of the hands and look spectacular. And all this - thanks to the original volumetric corrugation in the form of pyramids. It is a pity that the designers of the company did not consider it possible to “spoil” the style with banal rubber feet - the device slides just barely on the bare tabletop, and the tops of the pyramids wear out. Objectivity for the sake of - this is his most significant drawback. The hard drive installed in the device demonstrates very decent speed performance when working with data of the most diverse types, ranging from small photo files to heavy video clips. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.5 / 10
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When connected to a TV, movies in high resolution go without “brakes”. Heating is very small, barely palpable. Vibration is felt only if you put your hand on the disc, respectively - no noise. |
5 496
A portable drive that has a classic design and an aluminum case in one of four colors. Its appearance resembles external USB floppy drives of the same manufacturer, only without rubber feet. The coating is rough to the touch, does not slip in the hand, fingerprints are not visible on it. The device is equipped with a shock sensor, which, in combination with the Ramp Loading technology supported by the MQ01ABD hard drive family, improves the safety of the recorded information. The data transfer rate is not the highest for drives of this size - with a consistent exchange, its maximum value is 115 MB / s. The overall dimensions are average: weight - 240 g, thickness - 18 mm.
Main advantages: · High-quality assembly · Silent operation · Temperature never rises above 40 degrees · Includes a convenient backup utility from a reputable company NTI Minuses: · No hardware encryption · No case included · No legs |
9.5 / 10
Rating
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Portable drives with capacity of 4 TB and more
9 496
In the most capacious representative of our review, a 4-plate Seagate Barracuda Compute ST5000LM000 hard drive is used, so the whole design turned out to be rather big - a little thicker than 20 mm. At the same time, the capabilities of the third USB standard (on power) for operation with connection to only one connector is quite enough. Understandably, we are talking about the ports of a laptop, and not a smartphone or tablet - for this class of devices most likely will need an additional source. The installed hard drive has a gigabyte of built-in flash memory, which allows you to cache large enough data packets while recording, which most favorably affects the speed of the specified operation. Complete software is well integrated with the main cloud storage, multimedia services, as well as some social networks. Supports backup of various information from mobile devices. True, this will have to install on them the appropriate application.Unfortunately, no advanced software has any advanced tricks like the creation of specialized archives or hard drive images. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.8 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Continuously worked on the recording for more than a day, and the case was a little lukewarm. |
In principle, everything previously said about the two-byte drive model is also valid for this device. We emphasize once again that we are talking about the 2016 Digital My Passport lineup and will somewhat complement the capabilities of the complete utilities. 256-bit hardware encryption is supported using the AES algorithm. Backup can be performed both on the external disk itself and on the selected cloud service (Dropbox or Baidu). It is possible to customize the "sleep" mode. True, the operating system of the laptop or PC to which the device is connected may give its own settings a higher priority. In other words, surely the disk settings will only work when working with a TV. By the way, the same utility utility allows you to turn off the LED indicator so that it does not irritate in the dark. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.5 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Because of the design, I walked by for a long time, until there were no other reasonable options. This visual division into two halves causes some distrust, as if it would break in half. The rest is a good external hard drive. |
For a relatively long time there are statements that the time of external disks has come to an end. Say, unreliable, slow, heavy, and so on. However, there are no more tools available for backup or archive storage tasks. As for reliability, there are enough offers on the market with enhanced protection against damage. In addition, one should not neglect the elementary rules of working with the USB interface and programmatically disconnect the drives before they are physically disconnected. Given the tendency to place the SATA-USB bridge chip directly on the HDD card, this precaution is not superfluous.
The problem of choosing between an external hard drive, a traditional USB flash drive, and an external SSD drive is not really there. If you need an available device for long-term storage of large volumes of information - for this purpose the external hard drive is best suited. External SSD drives are faster and, in terms of unit of useful volume, significantly more expensive, so the choice of such a device is justified, if necessary, to regularly perform data processing with it. At the same time, we are not referring to frankly low-end models, in which the write speed may even be inferior to the corresponding indicator of modern classical hard drives. Well, a flash drive is a flash drive. Everyone uses it to the best of their needs, although it is better suited for transferring relatively modest amounts of data from case to case.
Have a good shopping!