Best External Hard Drives 2026
External hard drives remain the cheapest way to store large volumes of data. For backup and archival use, a portable 4TB or desktop 8TB drive offers the best value. Our picks are ranked by price per terabyte.
| # | Product | Capacity | Read | Write | TBW | Warranty | Score | $/TB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  WD My Passport 4TBBest value WD | 4TB | 130 MB/s | 125 MB/s | — | 3 years | 79.5 | $32.50/TB | $129.99 | Check Price on Amazon |
| 2 |  Seagate | 5TB | 130 MB/s | 120 MB/s | — | 2 years | 67 | $44.00/TB | $219.99 | Check Price on Amazon |
| 3 | 20TB | — | — | — | 3 years | 53.1 | $38.80/TB | $776.00 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| 4 | 8TB | — | — | — | 2 years | 52.5 | $35.85/TB | $286.76 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| 5 |  Western Digital | 2TB | 130 MB/s | 120 MB/s | — | 2 years | 43.9 | $72.14/TB | $144.27 | Check Price on Amazon |
Showing 5 top picksSee all best external hard drives →
Frequently Asked Questions
External HDD vs external SSD — which should I buy?
External HDDs cost 3–5× less per terabyte than external SSDs, making them ideal for backups, media archives, and bulk storage where transfer speed is not critical. External SSDs are worth the premium for daily-use portable drives where you need fast access and the durability benefit of no moving parts.
How reliable are external hard drives?
External HDDs from WD and Seagate have similar reliability. The biggest risk is physical shock — always eject safely and avoid dropping a spinning drive. For critical data, follow the 3-2-1 backup rule: 3 copies, 2 different media types, 1 offsite.