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Best External Portable Hard Drive for PC (Review 2022)

 

Today we are going to see what are the best external portable hard drives for PC that you can buy in 2022. They are external hard drives HDD and SSD with various capacities and quite disparate prices, but all are very reliable. We are going to recommend you the best external portable hard drives from the most popular brands on the market.

How many external hard drives do you have to have? They are never few. Right now I am looking at 3 external hard drives and a NAS in front of my desk.

What capacity is recommended? Well, with the price drop in recent years, and taking into account the capacity of computer hard drives, 2TB would be the recommended minimum capacity (but you can buy up to 4TB, 8TB in very small sizes).

But you have hard drives with much larger sizes, and in the worst case you can always buy a NAS and store your large collection of movies and series inside it.

Both movies and TV series are in better quality every time, so at the minimum you will have 100 or 200GB of these types of files. The same happens with photos (no comment if you shoot with a DSLR in RAW format).

Connectivity? USB 3.0 or USB 3.1, which has a transmission speed of up to 5 Gb/s: 10 times faster than USB 2.0 (480 Mb/s). There is also some option with USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C with sequential read/write speeds of up to 1,050 / 1,000MB/s.

Do we need the backup feature that many of these drives come with? Not really. It can be useful, but if you have a Mac, the Machine works really well, and Windows has put the batteries with Windows Backup in its latest versions.

Price? Always around $100 if we are talking about 2TB capacities (except if the hard drive is an SSD).

What Are The Best External Portable Hard Drive for PC You Can Buy In 2022?

1. Seagate Backup Plus Hub – 6 TB Desktop External Hard Drive

Seagate Backup Plus Hub - Disco duro externo de sobremesa de 6 TB (2 puertos USB, 3.5

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Our fist pick for the best external portable hard drive for PC isĀ  Seagate Backup Plus Hub. It comes in various capacities (up to 10TB), but this 6TB is very well priced. If you want a lot of storage, this is a great option.

It is compatible with Windows and Mac. Just install the NTFS driver for Mac and you can use it between Windows and Mac computers without formatting it.

It has two USB 3.0 ports on the front that allow you to recharge other USB devices, and with Seagate Dashboard software, you can schedule backups. It works very well and does not make any noise.

Read and write speed? Its read and write speed is around 180MB/sec.

2. LaCie Rugged – Mini 2 TB Portable Hard Drive for MAC and PC

LaCie_Rugged_Disco_duro_portƔtil

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The most remarkable thing about this best rated external hard drive is that it resists falls of up to 1.2 meters and is resistant to rain. It also has a USB-C connection.

The company provides LaCie Backup for backups and Genie Timeline, where you will be able to restore different versions of your files in true Time Machine style on Mac. Making it one of the best portable hard drives that comes along with backup software.

Read and write speed? The reading speed is around 130 MB/sec and the writing speed is around 35MB/sec.

3. Seagate Backup Plus Slim – 1 TB Portable External Hard Drive

Seagate Backup Plus Slim - Disco duro externo portƔtil de 2 TB (USB 3.0, 2.5

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Excellent design for this Seagate external hard drive, one of the most reliable portable hard drives in the market. It has USB 3.0 and an interesting backup program that works very well with synchronization to Dropbox, Google Drive and One Drive.

Read and write speed? Its read and write speed is around 115MB/sec.

4. Samsung T5 SSD 1TB Samsung MU-PA1T0B, T5 Disco Estado SĆ³lido SSD Externo USB

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A very good quality external hard drive if it is lowered in price for being an older version. It has an all-metal design and tremendous security thanks to its encryption capabilities. Arguably, one of the best secure external hard drives on Amazon.

You have storage options from 250GB to 2TB with a maximum transfer speed of 540 MB/s, a perfect speed to “play” with 4K videos and photos in high resolution. It has USB 3.1 Type C and Type A ports.

Read and write speed? Tremendous, it can reach 540 MB/sec.

5. WD My Passport ā€“ 4TB Portable External Hard Drive

WD My Passport - Disco duro externo portƔtil de 4TB (USB 3.0)

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You can buy this hard drive with up to 5TB and it has USB 3.0 connectivity. There are several colors and its design is quite striking. It has greatly improved the design compared to the previous version, being more compact and thin. Currently is one of the best USB 3.0 external hard drives for gaming.

It offers encryption with WD Security and backup options with WD Backup (with Dropbox sync) as the first model.

Read and write speed? It can reach 140 MB/sec which is pretty good.

If you want something a little better with USB-C 3.1 connectivity you can go to My Passport Ultra. It’s a metallic one.

6. Toshiba Canvio Basics – 1 TB External Hard Drive

Toshiba Canvio Basics - Disco duro externo de 1 TB (2.5

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The best-rated portable hard drive for travel that you can take anywhere. One of the best sellers. You have from 500GB to 3TB and it has a USB 3.0 port. It weighs only 149 grams and has dimensions of 12.5 x 13.8 x 3.8.

Read and write speed? It can reach 120 MB/sec read and 40 MB/sec write.

7. SanDisk Extreme – 1TB Portable External SSD

SanDisk Extreme SSD externo portƔtil de 1TB

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A really resistant option, with good price clarity and with a very striking design. Comparable to the Samsung T5. One of the best fast file transfer external hard drives that you can buy.

Reaches read speeds of up to 550 MB/s. Available with capacities from 250GB to 2TB. It has everything to offer that you expect from the best external portable hard drives for PC.

Includes a USB Type-C to Type-C cable and a Type-C to Type-A adapter for connecting to older devices.

Conclusion

These hard drives are great options in 2022 as portable external hard drives.

  • The Laccie Rugged due to its resistance (somewhat low write performance).
  • The Samsung T5 for its excellent reading and writing performance (somewhat high price, but it is an SSD) and for its portability (it is very small).
  • The Seagate Backup Plus Hub if you want to leave it on the desktop as a backup hard drive.
  • The other options for their good value for money (with similar speed of reading and writing or price) and are perfect for all types of use

2TB is the most demanded capacity in 2022. But 4TB is falling in price rapidly.

What If You Want An External Hard Drive with WI-FI Capabilities?

With these best-selling external portable hard drives for PC, you will be able to easily backups, save your movies and TV series to be able to watch them on your tablet or simply make a backup copy of all the photos on your camera.

We especially recommend the WD My Passport Wireless SSD (500GB)

WD My Passport Wireless SSD (500GB)

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  • Battery that lasts all day (up to 10 hours)
  • Wirelessly stream 4K videos
  • You can view photos with the My Cloud mobile app
  • You can import photos from USB card readers
  • Plex media server to organize and stream media content
  • External battery for charging the phone (with output up to 1.5A)
  • External SSD Hard Drive with Protective Enclosure
  • Dimensiones: 13,5 x 13,5 x 3 cm

It is somewhat expensive for being an SSD hard drive, but it is also one of the best options. It is the older brother of the WD My Passport Wireless Pro (this model has an HDD drive).

The advantages of the SSD are obvious. It will last you longer and the wired transfer speeds are higher. You have options from 250GB to 1TB. The LEDs at the top indicate its operating status.

It offers dual band WIFI and supports up to 8 simultaneous connections. You can configure a password to access its configuration page.

It is compatible with Dropbox, Google Drive or One Drive and you can directly insert an SD card to make backup copies of the photos from your camera. The USB 3.0 port is micro-B (a shame). The best external portable hard drives for PC to take with you everywhere. There is nothing safer.

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