It holds 8TB of data (up to 10TB capacity is available) and doubles as a USB hub for connecting and charging other devices. Save files in a single location or you can even free the space on the internal drive of your computer for better performance. It's shock, dust, and water-resistant and comes with a vivid orange bumper along its sides, so you don't have to worry about drops. Depending on which RAID level you choose, you can prioritize capacity, speed, or data redundancy, or some combination thereof. They also seem to have a lot of drives that use SMR, which won't be a lot of fun to work with if I'm concerned about my drive's longevity and/or I decide to delete some of the backups to replace them with updated data.

Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. In an era when gigabytes of cloud storage cost a mere few dollars per month, and trim, slim external SSDs are getting cheaper, external hard drives, based on spinning platter disks, might appear less essential than they once were. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag.Then you’ll be pleased to know that we offer flexible payment options including PayPal Credit and Klarna Pay in 3.

Only reviews that feature the label "Verified Review" have been checked to ensure that the author actually used or purchased the product. You must plug it into the wall with a power adapter, so it’s not easy to tote around different places. Slightly rounded edges and ripples give the My Passport drive both the look and the feel of a consumer gadget.The SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD is a cost-effective, semi-rugged external hard drive available in capacities up to 5TB. With a slew of protective features and boasting an impressive set of certifications, this PIN-authenticated external drive is easy for authorized users to access but impervious to attempts by outsiders to break in. Almost every recent drive we have reviewed supports USB, and the same goes for laptops and desktops. As a bonus, a desktop drive that supports Thunderbolt might also come with additional DisplayPort and USB connections that allow you to use the drive box as a hub for your keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other peripherals. These connection types are ever in flux, but these days, most external hard drives use a flavor of USB, or in rare cases, Thunderbolt.

I currently focus my testing efforts on 3D printers, pro and productivity displays, and drives and SSDs of all sorts. Many such drives are designed to meet rigorous certification standards mandated by some corporations and government agencies. Being online means that sharing content is easy, too, but on the flip side, you can create separate private spaces on the drive for each person in your household. It comes formatted in Mac-friendly HFS+, one of two formats (along with APFS) compatible with the macOS Time Machine backup system. The ADATA HD710M Pro is a good choice for outdoor workers, as the drive is able to take a tumble, and keep out water, sand, and dust.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.