Which Seagate exterior exhausting drive is finest?
We have now all heard tons of of occasions how essential it’s to again up our information, but the vast majority of us don’t do it typically sufficient. When you’ve got a Seagate exterior drive out there on your laptop or gaming console, the backup course of is quick and straightforward, and you may depart your exterior drive plugged in for a storage enhance.
Seagate exterior drives can be found in a spread of sizes to fulfill completely different wants. As well as, they’re out there as HDDs or SSDs, which range considerably of their pace and price.
To study extra about Seagate exterior drives, proceed studying our purchasing information. Our favourite mannequin is the Seagate Growth Desktop Exterior Onerous Drive, which delivers the very best mixture of worth and efficiency ranges.
HDD vs. SSD
When choosing a Seagate exterior drive, you may select between two common storage applied sciences: HDD and SSD.
HDD
HDD know-how, brief for exhausting disk drive, seems in most Seagate exterior drives. It makes use of spinning platters and a learn/write head to avoid wasting and retrieve your information.
HDD know-how has been round for a number of a long time. It’s a dependable know-how, however in the event you drop the exterior drive, the learn/write head might break, leaving your information inaccessible.
Folks have a tendency to decide on an HDD when they need large exterior storage drives from Seagate at an affordable worth per TB of storage.
SSD
SSD know-how, brief for solid-state drive, is a more moderen storage know-how. It doesn’t use transferring elements to retailer bits of information, so in the event you drop an SSD, it has a greater probability of remaining viable than an HDD storage unit.
SSD is kind of a bit costlier per terabyte than HDD in storage drives from any producer, together with Seagate.
Seagate sells SSD exterior storage drives at smaller capacities than its HDD exterior drives, so it might not work effectively for these with tons of of big information to retailer, like movies and pictures. Nonetheless, SSDs have sooner learn/write speeds than HDDs, making them common for duties like video enhancing or gaming.
Seagate exterior exhausting drive options
When evaluating Seagate exhausting drives, you’ll need to deal with a couple of particular options.
Measurement
Those that retailer fairly a couple of video information or pictures will want a large-capacity Seagate exterior drive. It’s your decision a drive of 2TB or bigger to deal with massive information. Some clients could need a drive of 1TB or smaller to avoid wasting cash. A terabyte is the same as roughly 1,000 gigabytes.
Energy supply
Some Seagate exterior drives run from the USB cable already plugged into the pc. Others require a separate energy cable, which is much less handy, significantly if in case you have restricted out there ports.
USB connection
USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 (USB-C) ship sooner switch speeds than USB 2.0. It’s your decision a Seagate exterior drive that helps USB 3.0 or 3.1, particularly in the event you plan to switch giant picture or video information.
Portability
Some exterior Seagate drives have a extra transportable design than others. These drives may be thick and ponderous, which makes it robust to slide them right into a backpack or briefcase. Others are skinny and light-weight, which is right for utilizing an exterior drive with a laptop computer or different transportable machine.
Seagate exterior exhausting drive worth
When contemplating the value of Seagate exterior storage drives, examine the associated fee per TB of storage. HDDs will value about $25-$35 per TB of storage. SSDs could value as much as $100-$200 per TB of storage.
Seagate exterior exhausting drive FAQ
Can I daisy-chain a number of Seagate exterior drives to one another for further cupboard space?
A. No. These drives are usually not made to attach to one another. They’re solely made to connect with a pc — one per USB port.
Do Seagate exterior exhausting drives fail sooner than inner exhausting drives?
A. No, except surprising components happen, equivalent to in the event you drop the drive. These exterior drives ought to final a couple of years, even with common use.
Finest Seagate exterior exhausting drives
High Seagate exterior exhausting drive
Seagate Growth Desktop Exterior Onerous Drive
What it’s essential know: This can be a good worth for a tough drive that delivers loads of cupboard space for many customers.
What you’ll love: It’s appropriate with USB 3.0 ports and works with both Home windows or Mac computer systems.
What it is best to take into account: It wants a separate energy wire to function quite than pulling energy by means of the USB cable.
High Seagate exterior exhausting drive for the cash
Seagate Backup Plus Moveable Exterior Onerous Drive
What it’s essential know: You gained’t discover a higher worth on a high-capacity Seagate exterior drive.
What you’ll love: It ships with built-in software program to simplify making backups.
What it is best to take into account: It has odd efficiency quirks with some Macintosh computer systems.
Price trying out
Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Exterior Onerous Drive
What it’s essential know: This tough drive is designed to deal with large media information with quick switch speeds over USB 3.0.
What you’ll love: It has a fascinating quantity of storage for the value you’ll pay. It’s made for these with giant storage necessities.
What it is best to take into account: The cumbersome design makes carrying this drive in a bag or briefcase tough.
Costs listed mirror time and date of publication and are topic to alter.
