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Top 10 rating according to KP

1. Western Digital WD Elements Portable

A pop­u­lar mod­el of an exter­nal hard dri­ve, which has been pro­duced by West­ern Dig­i­tal since 2013 with almost no changes. The buy­er can choose the vol­ume from 500 GB to 4 TB. Inside the box is a 2.5‑inch WD10JMVW-11AJGS1 hard dri­ve run­ning at 5400 rpm and with an 8 MB buffer. The con­nec­tion pro­vides a USB 3.0 port, which in the­o­ry can give a data trans­fer rate of 500 MB / s. But, in fact, you can’t count on speeds above 120 MB / s. True, this mod­el has one unpleas­ant fea­ture — for some users, it com­plete­ly unex­pect­ed­ly ceased to be rec­og­nized by the com­put­er. The man­u­fac­tur­er’s war­ran­ty works well and the mon­ey will be returned to you in this case, but lost data can­not be reim­bursed.

Pros and cons

Proven mod­el, com­pact dimen­sions

Ran­dom in qual­i­ty — some work for years, oth­ers face a break­down a week after pur­chase

2. Transcend TS1TSJ25M

A fam­i­ly of portable hard dri­ves, the first rep­re­sen­ta­tives of which were released back in 2012. The choice of stor­age capac­i­ty is not the widest here — 1 or 2 TB. The mod­el is quite mas­sive against the back­ground of com­peti­tors, with a weight of 212 g. Some con­fi­dence in the design of the box is giv­en by its rub­ber­i­ness. Many users believe that this is what can save the hard dri­ve when it falls. How­ev­er, exper­i­ment­ing, espe­cial­ly with a run­ning hard dri­ve, is not worth it, because the man­u­fac­tur­er does not declare shock resis­tance in the char­ac­ter­is­tics. By the way, please note that in the fam­i­ly of these hard dri­ves there are mod­els with USB 3.0 con­nec­tors, as well as with uni­ver­sal USB Type‑C, which will please own­ers of mod­ern devices.

Pros and cons

Well-estab­lished mod­el, also avail­able with USB Type‑C port

Com­peti­tors also offer cheap­er mod­els

3. Toshiba Canvio Ready

Rel­a­tive­ly fresh mod­el that entered the mar­ket in 2016. You can choose from 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB stor­age options. Toshi­ba uses hard dri­ves of its own pro­duc­tion of the MQ01 series in this mod­el, which adds con­fi­dence in a long and hap­py life of the device. The dri­ve is con­nect­ed using a USB 3.0 con­nec­tor, which means that the speed, although high, is not a record one. The mod­el is of rare qual­i­ty for an exter­nal hard dri­ve — it prac­ti­cal­ly does not feel vibra­tion. But the “crazy hands” of Toshi­ba Can­vio Ready will not like it — a hard dri­ve with a sol­dered USB con­nec­tor, which means that anoth­er 2.5‑inch dri­ve can­not be insert­ed into the case.

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Pros and cons

4 Seagate STEA

Portable hard dri­ve from indus­try giant Sea­gate. The series is dis­tin­guished by an inter­est­ing (but imprac­ti­cal) design and a large num­ber of mod­i­fi­ca­tions, up to mod­els posi­tioned as a solu­tion for Xbox con­soles. The vol­ume of the line is exten­sive — from 500 GB to 4 TB. The Win­ches­ter is quite com­pact and has a mass of 170 g, but it also has a minus — many com­plain about the flim­sy plas­tic case, which notice­ably creaks. There are also ques­tions about the qual­i­ty of the hard dri­ve itself, there are reviews about dri­ves that stopped show­ing signs of life a few months after pur­chase. But there is a two-year war­ran­ty.

Pros and cons

5. ADATA HD330

The line of orig­i­nal exter­nal hard dri­ves stands out against the back­ground of monot­o­nous com­peti­tors. Let’s start with the fact that the case has a durable and volu­mi­nous sil­i­cone shell, which can real­ly pro­tect the hard dri­ve, for exam­ple, when car­ry­ing. How­ev­er, you have to pay for this with increased dimen­sions and a weight of 317 g. Unlike com­peti­tors, the HD330 uses a USB 3.1 inter­face. Exter­nal­ly, the port does not dif­fer, but the speed in real use can reach 200 MB / s. This, of course, is not an SSD, but sig­nif­i­cant­ly more than the com­pe­ti­tion. By the way, this dri­ve has an extend­ed ver­sion of 5 TB.

Pros and cons

6. Silicon Power SP010

Anoth­er mod­el of an exter­nal hard dri­ve, in which atten­tion is paid to pro­tec­tion from exter­nal influ­ences. Per­haps, Sil­i­con Pow­er SP010 in this mat­ter is even bet­ter equipped than its com­peti­tors. The case here is sealed, made of rub­ber­ized mate­r­i­al and cer­ti­fied accord­ing to the IP67 stan­dard. The USB 3.0 con­nec­tor is cov­ered with a cov­er, but some will be annoyed by the con­stant need to close and open. By the way, the con­nec­tor here is not quite ordi­nary, this mod­el uses a cable with USB 3.0 Type‑A con­nec­tors at both ends. If we talk about the main func­tion­al­i­ty, name­ly data stor­age, then the base mod­el offers a 1 TB dri­ve, and the SP020 ver­sion has a 2 TB hard dri­ve. The hard dri­ves here are from Sea­gate. The data trans­fer rate is quite stan­dard — no high­er than 120 MB / s.

Pros and cons

7. Toshiba Canvio Premium

“Pre­mi­um” ver­sion of an exter­nal hard dri­ve from the Japan­ese Toshi­ba. It dif­fers from its more afford­able coun­ter­parts not as much as it might seem, look­ing at the price tag. First­ly, alu­minum is used in the case, but only the top flat pan­el is made of met­al. Sec­ond­ly, in the design­er pack­ag­ing you can find a vel­vety bag that acts as a car­ry­ing case and a rather strange adapter from a “large” USB to a trendy Type‑C. It looks even weird­er due to the pres­ence of a microUSB-com­pat­i­ble USB Type‑B port on the hard dri­ve itself. Why it was impos­si­ble to place Type‑C on the case is a mys­tery. Oth­er­wise, this is a high-qual­i­ty exter­nal hard dri­ve that deliv­ers a sta­ble 120 MB / s and a capac­i­ty of 1 to 3 TB.

Pros and cons

8. Western Digital My Passport

The well-known series of exter­nal hard dri­ves from WD enjoys con­stant atten­tion from buy­ers, although it is not with­out flaws. As an asset of the mod­el, you can write down a nice appear­ance and as many as six col­or options. You can also choose the size of the hard dri­ve — 1, 2, 3 or 4 TB. Then the nuances begin. For exam­ple, some users come across instances that make a notice­able noise dur­ing oper­a­tion. Oth­ers expe­ri­enced a sud­den fail­ure, due to which not only the device died, but also the data was irre­triev­ably lost. All this is “sea­soned” with a sol­dered USB con­nec­tor to the case board and a notice­able heat dur­ing oper­a­tion.

Pros and cons

9 Lacie STFD

An exter­nal hard dri­ve from the French brand Lac­ie, which is not very well known in Rus­sia. How­ev­er, it was French until 2014, when Sea­gate bought it and, in fact, began to pro­duce its prod­ucts under this name, but with cer­tain fea­tures. For exam­ple, at a high price and with design solu­tions. The Lac­ie STFD bears the proud “Porsche Design” inscrip­tion on the body, for which you will have to pay. But the main thing here is the USB 3.1 Type‑C con­nec­tor. So, if you have a com­put­er that sup­ports Thun­der­bolt 3, then the dri­ve is capa­ble of writ­ing and read­ing speeds of 200 MB / s.

Pros and cons

10. ADATA DashDrive Durable HD650

Anoth­er mod­el from ADATA. The case has a sil­i­cone coat­ing, which not only pro­tects against impact, but also damp­ens vibra­tions that occur dur­ing the oper­a­tion of the hard dri­ve. True, the weight of the device is 201 g. Now there are mod­i­fi­ca­tions for 1, 2 and 4 TB, as well as ver­sions with USB 3.0 or 3.1 con­nec­tors. The lat­ter pro­vides much faster data trans­fer, pro­vid­ed that your com­put­er is equipped with such a port. Fail­ures are rare, but if some­thing goes wrong, then the fail­ure will be asso­ci­at­ed with the con­nec­tor. If the war­ran­ty expires by then, the hard dri­ve itself can eas­i­ly be moved to anoth­er case com­pat­i­ble with 2.5‑inch hard dri­ves.

Pros and cons

How to choose an external hard drive

In 2022, clas­sic hard dri­ves are rapid­ly los­ing mar­ket share under the onslaught of sol­id state dri­ves. The same trend is observed among exter­nal dri­ves. But even now, the best exter­nal hard dri­ves of 2022 have a num­ber of advan­tages, the main of which is the price. Despite the reduc­tion in cost per con­ven­tion­al giga­byte of SSD, hard dri­ves are still out of com­pe­ti­tion in this indi­ca­tor. Judge for your­self — a 512 GB sol­id state dri­ve will cost an aver­age of 6–7 thou­sand rubles, when for this mon­ey you can find a 3 or 4 TB exter­nal hard dri­ve.

Price and manufacturer

In fact, sev­er­al large com­pa­nies are cur­rent­ly man­u­fac­tur­ing exter­nal hard dri­ves, the main ones being West­ern Dig­i­tal and Sea­gate. How­ev­er, the cost for every­one starts from 3–3.5 thou­sand rubles. For this mon­ey, you will get the best exter­nal hard dri­ves of 2022 with a plas­tic case, a USB 3.0 con­nec­tor and a capac­i­ty of 1 TB. A mod­el with 2 TB can be looked after from 4.5 thou­sand rubles. Giants for 4 TB will cost 6–7 thou­sand rubles.

It is inter­est­ing

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Frame

What do you need from a device that will often be tak­en on the road? Cer­tain­ly a sol­id body. Some mod­els with a plas­tic case, even from well-known man­u­fac­tur­ers, can­not boast of this, annoy­ing users with squeaks. All-met­al exter­nal hard dri­ves are now rare, but you can find mod­els with alu­minum inserts. The most advanced hard dri­ves have a rub­ber­ized cas­ing and even water pro­tec­tion. Pay atten­tion to whether the design allows you to dis­as­sem­ble the case and remove the hard dri­ve in case of a break­down. Oth­er­wise, a con­nec­tor mal­func­tion will put an end to a com­plete­ly ser­vice­able dri­ve.

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Volume

There are sev­er­al mem­o­ry capac­i­ties on the mar­ket for the best exter­nal hard dri­ves of 2022. The size of 512 GB is now rare, 1 TB has become the stan­dard. If this is not enough for you, there are ver­sions for 2, 3 or 4 TB. Of course, these are all 2.5‑inch hard dri­ves. Large ones with 3.5‑inch dri­ves have prac­ti­cal­ly dis­ap­peared from the mar­ket, unable to with­stand com­pe­ti­tion due to their size and the need for addi­tion­al pow­er.

Connectivity and speed

Mod­ern exter­nal dri­ves use two USB inter­faces for con­nec­tion and sev­er­al con­nec­tor options. Basi­cal­ly, the best exter­nal hard dri­ves of 2022 are pow­ered by USB 3.0, which pro­vides a max­i­mum trans­fer speed of 120MB/s. Advanced mod­els work with USB 3.1 (aka Thun­der­bolt 3 from Apple), which, in the­o­ry, can deliv­er speeds of 1.2 GB / s. In prac­tice, hard dri­ves them­selves can­not pro­duce such indi­ca­tors and the speed rarely exceeds 200 MB / s. As for con­nec­tors, most exter­nal dri­ves use USB Type‑B, which is an extend­ed ver­sion of microUSB. Increas­ing­ly, there are mod­els with mod­ern Type‑C. And there are quite exot­ic dri­ves with the usu­al large USB.

Reliability and guarantee

It is believed that the best exter­nal hard dri­ves of 2022 remain more reli­able stor­age media than SSDs, which have some sort of write data lim­it. But in real­i­ty, users meet with break­downs. Most often, they are not asso­ci­at­ed with the hard dri­ve itself, but with the con­nec­tor and the con­troller. A sep­a­rate cat­e­go­ry of break­downs is asso­ci­at­ed with the fall of the device dur­ing oper­a­tion, because hard dri­ves do not tol­er­ate this well. In any case, you should choose mod­els with the fewest neg­a­tive reviews and the longest war­ran­ty.

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