Best External Hard Drives for 2026
Need an ultrafast drive to back up data or edit video, or a rugged option to save your photos in the field? We’ve got a solution for every situation. Updated July 2026: I’ve removed some discontinued drives and added the SanDisk G-Drive ArmorATD because, with SSD prices climbing, spinning drives are more compelling than they were a year ago. I’ve also updated prices and links throughout.
Best for Backups
Western Digital Elements Desktop Hard Drive – The AI boom and its attendant data centers are causing skyrocketing memory prices, with apparently no end in sight. Drives in this guide have tripled in price in the past six months. For example, 8-TB SSDs are selling for more than a high-end gaming PC, which itself has gone up $200 to help cover surging memory costs. Spinning drives remain affordable and are your best choice for backups. For incremental backups, speed isn’t a huge factor. I have been using a variation of the Elements desktop hard drive for backups for more than a decade. These drives are big and require external power, but they’re cheap and reliable. Transfer speeds: 120 MB/s sequential writes on Windows. Uses USB-C with USB 3 support, works with Windows, macOS, Linux. Storage options up to 20 TB. Check prices: sometimes a 10- or 12-TB drive costs not much more than 8 TB. Another great backup drive: Seagate, which is reliable; use drives from different brands to reduce simultaneous failure chance.
Best for Portable Backups
Western Digital My Passport Ultra – For travel, the My Passport Ultra uses standard USB-C, eliminating separate cable. Thickness less than an inch, solid build. Available in colors, 1 TB to 6 TB. Tested 5-TB model: 121 MB/s read, 115 MB/s write average (CrystalDiskMark, AmorphousDiskMark, KDiskMark). Another portable backup drive: one that is thinner but feels flimsier; slower but cheaper.
More Rugged Spinning Drive
SanDisk G-Drive ArmorATD – Semi-rugged, comes with macOS-friendly HFS+ format out of the box for Time Machine. Compact: 3.4 x 5.1 inches, less than an inch thick. Removable black rubberized sleeve, USB-C with USB 3.1 Gen 1. Two cables included. Drops up to 3.3 feet, IP54 rating (splashes, not submerged). Tested read speed: 133 MB/s. Options 1 GB to 6 GB (tested 2-GB model).
Best Thunderbolt 5 Drive
LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 – Blue padding instead of orange. Thunderbolt 5, though slow to trickle onto the market. Tested on a MacBook Pro 14. Claims 6,700 MB/s read, 5,300 MB/s write; achieved 5,787 MB/s read, 5,188 MB/s write. Real-world: able to edit 6K ProRes RAW footage in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Price: started at $600 for 4 TB, now $1,600 as of update. Still the fastest drive in this guide.
Best USB4 Drive
Corsair EX400U SSD – Thunderbolt 4 drive with speeds ~3,800 MB/s read, 3,550 MB/s write (if device supports USB4/Thunderbolt 4). Includes MagSafe connector on back, good for iPhone ProRes video backup. Price hasn’t skyrocketed. Note: LaCie’s new rugged SSD slightly beat it in tests but this drive is smaller, lighter, cheaper.
Best for Photographers
Crucial X9 Pro SSD – Tiny, half the size of a deck of cards, 1.3 ounces. Connects to Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS. Claimed 1,050 MB/s read/write; consistently got 1,110 MB/s read, 1,100 MB/s write. Tested for months; X6 and X8 drives have been reliable over two years. Also consider Crucial X10 Pro (2,100 MB/s) if your PC supports USB 2X2 (Intel chips, not Apple). I got 2,050 MB/s on X10 Pro.
Best Go-Anywhere Drive
OWC Envoy Pro Elektron SSD – Can survive factory or warehouse conditions, water, drops. Swappable drive inside aluminum casing (easily unscrewed). Fast benchmark scores.
Best Padded Drive
Samsung T9 Portable SSD – Go-to portable drive for two years. 20-Gbps T9 clocked over 1,350 MB/s, beating Crucial X9. Lower power draw on Android tablet. Padding less than LaCie but cheaper; not waterproof or dustproof. Another padded drive: Samsung T7 Shield adds IP65 rating (safe in rain, dust/sand protection); has hardware encryption but no fingerprint reader.
Best DIY Drive Enclosure
OWC Envoy Pro Elektron (also covered above) – Actually, the text mentions a new enclosure: the D1 Pro drive enclosure with up to 80 GBps speeds (USB 4). Available in 80 GBps and 40 GBps versions. Supports USB 2.x to 80 GBps USB 4, Thunderbolt 4 and 5. With PCIe 4 or 5 drive inside, speeds around 6,500 MB/s sequential (CrystalBenchMark 6,597 read, 6,239 write). Real-world: no trouble with 4K clips in Davinci Resolve Studio.
Best Gaming Drive
Western Digital P40 Gaming Drive – RGB lights on bottom. Inconsistent speeds in benchmarks; real-world bottleneck with huge data transfers. Solid choice for the price.
Best Bare Drive
Samsung 990 PRO SSD Gen4 – M.2 2280 form factor. Achieved 7,458 MB/s reads (claimed 7,450/6,900). Max 4 TB, reasonable price, low heat. Used for editing 5.2K video and compiling software. Other options: Western Digital WD Black SN850X (up to 7,300 MB/s, available up to 4 TB, good for gaming/PlayStation). Also: Samsung 990 EVO Plus (upgrade to 990 EVO, 5,677 MB/s read, stays cool, 4-TB model available, pricey).
Frequently Asked Questions
What Happened to WD_Black Drives?
HDD versions appear to stick around, SSDs rebranded. Western Digital and SanDisk split. WD Blue and WD_Black brands split between companies. SanDisk rebranding its SSDs from WD_Black to Optimus GX and Optimus GX Pro. I’ll be testing both.
Which Hard Drive Is Right for Me?
Balance speed, size, price. For nightly backups, speed doesn’t matter, go cheapest from known brands (Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, etc.) based on experience and Backblaze failure data. Stick with known names.
Which Are the Most Reliable Brands?
Based on Backblaze data: Toshiba, Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi (HGST). Current best-performing drives: Seagate 6- and 8-TB SSDs. For NAS: Seagate Exos 8 TB HDD. SSD failures appear random.
Which Is Better, SSD or HDD?
SSD for speed, HDD for massive cheap storage. Videographers need both. SSDs have no moving parts, withstand bumps, but wear out faster from write operations. I have 5+ year old SSDs with daily backups without issues. If your Mac/PC doesn’t support the drive’s USB standard, you waste money. For long off-state storage (years), HDD or tape better. For most casual users, SSD is fine.
Which Backup Software Should You Use?
Depends on OS (macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS). Use one or two storage devices plus cloud backup. See our guide for top-pick backup solutions for every platform.
How We Test External Hard Drives
I run a suite of benchmarking tools: CrystalDiskMark (Windows), Blackmagic Disk Speed Test / AmorphousDiskMark (macOS), KDiskMark (Linux). Run tests six times, take average. Real-world: transfer 25-GB folder of MP3s, another folder with three files totaling 25 GB. For top drives, test ProRes RAW video files. Then use drive daily for editing, backups, etc. All data points inform decisions.