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#1 Seagate Backup Plus 5TB External Hard Drive
Seagate offers five TB storage for the same price as four. It is small enough to fit in your pocket and can be used on many platforms. It measures 7.62cm by 11.43cm and is only 1.9cm thick (3 x 4.5 x 0.75 inches) and weighs slightly over 200 grams (about half a pound).
The 1-year data recovery warranty is a significant difference. However, they are not magic and can be damaged if your drive is damaged. Backups are essential. Redundancy is a must for backups. How good is your backup, if the drive dies when you try to restore it?
This drive can be purchased in multiple colors, so it’s worth considering buying it in red. Beats reading stickers.
#2 External hard drive WD Elements 2TB
WD designed the Elements drives with a stylish case that can be hung vertically. This seemingly insignificant fact not only saves desk space, but also keeps the drive’s internals cool. It has vent holes at the top and bottom.
You will find a 3.5 inch, desktop SATA drive in the WD Elements. It is capable of 6Gbs transfer speeds with an additional USB 3.0 interface. The drives will last longer if they are stacked vertically with lots of air gaps.
The product is pre-formatted with NTFS making it ready to use with Windows computers, a handy gesture considering that if you attempt to do a a full-format -as opposed to a “quick format”- on a capacity as large as 12TB you might end up waiting all day for it to finish. Mac users can plug and reformat the drive after a few minutes.
The WD Elements are a desktop drive that is housed in an external enclosure. Although they do not have USB ports, each one comes with a wall-wart-style power adapter similar to a cell phone charger, and a barrel connector.
2 Terabytes should be sufficient storage to keep you happy for a while and store plenty backups, work files, and entertainment. Larger versions are also possible:
#3 SAMSUNG TM5 Portable SSD
This reasonably priced SSD is speedy, reliable, and — as the name implies — small and portable. It can be carried in your backpack, if needed. Matt Clements, a freelance video editor in Seattle, uses Samsung Portable SSDs because they’re “very fast and conveniently sized, so we can ship them back and forth across the country.” Kellen Dengler, a director and a producer, says his production company, Shoot to Kill, used HDDs before switching to Samsung’s SSDs. “Using solid-state hard drives really can mean the difference of hours saved in data transfers,” he says. “They are more expensive, but they also don’t have moving parts like a traditional hard drive, so the life expectancy is longer.”
#4 LaCie Rugged 500GB SSD External Drive
If you’re shooting video and backing up on the go, or even if you’re just a subway commuter who is regularly trading elbows on a packed train, you want something that can handle being jostled around.
Nicholas Lea Bruno, a multimedia editor for California College of the Arts, adores his LaCie. “They work well, have a sleek design, and the rubber on the outside makes me feel safer while handling them,” he says. Gunve calls the LaCie Rugged a “good option” for folks traveling with their external hard drive. Bonus: LaCie Rugged SSDs come with an encrypted key, which means that your information is extra-secured from anyone who might attempt to access it without you permission.
#5 SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD
If you don’t have time to wait for your files to transfer, however, consider the SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD. LaManna says it’s his absolute favorite external hard drive right now. “Coming from computing during the ancient days of floppy disks, these drives seem like sci-fi to me,” he says. He loves the “credit-card dimensions, 2 3/4-ounce weight, robust construction, and USB-C interface that’s wicked-fast for transferring the huge files created by today’s digital video and stills cameras.” Two terabytes is the sweet spot for size, he says. Dengler also uses the SanDisk with his Samsung SSDs. It’s a good (albeit more expensive) rugged option, too, if you can’t get your hands on a classic LaCie.
#6 Crucial 6 4TB Portable SSD SSD
The internet is in love with the minuscule-on-the-outside, gigantic-on-the-inside external hard drive. “You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better price on this much storage in a more compact SSD, which could make it a great option for people with large photo or video libraries who don’t want to juggle multiple drives,” write our colleagues at The Verge. Piket says it’s a great option for video editors and anyone who needs to transfer large amounts of data quickly. Most other external hard drives with four terabytes of space are going to be either much more expensive SSDs or they’ll be cheaper but slower HDDs. The Crucial X6 is the only option with this much space, both in terms of price and size. It’s hardy, withstanding drops from at least six feet onto carpet, and it remains cool — even when operating in hot temperatures.