Best for expanding storage for Xbox Series X/S games
Seagate Storage Expansion Card
Best for expanding storage for PS5 games
Seagate FireCuda 530 with Heatsink
What's the best external hard drive?
From storing family photos to making space for creative projects or games, you can never have too much storage space. External hard drives are the easiest way to add more storage to your computer or console, but if you are looking for faster speeds when transferring files then go for a compact solid-state drive. Whether you own several storage devices or have never needed extra storage space until now, we found the best external hard drive and SSDs to get you by.
Even though prices are decreasing over time, an SSD with terabytes of storage is still a significant investment. You might also want to consider hard disk-based external drives. These aren’t as fast as SSDs but strike a better balance between capacity and cost. Regardless of your choice, your external drive may also require specific cables. These are just a few factors to keep in mind when trying to find the perfect hard drive for you.
All of CNET’s picks for the best external hard drives and SSDs can work across platforms, be it Windows PCs, Mac computers or gaming consoles like PlayStation and Xbox. You might, however, have to format the drives for your platform of choice. Often, they will be designated to work with a specific platform out of the box and sometimes come with backup software that’s platform-specific. Unless otherwise indicated, all the PC drives mentioned here are compatible with Windows but can be formatted for Mac. Many of them include cables or adapters to accommodate USB-C and USB-A ports. If they don’t happen to be included, you can easily buy dongles for about $12.
Console gamers will want to keep an eye out for platform-specific details. For example, the PS5 can store and play PS4 games from an external drive but not PS5 games. The Xbox Series X, on the other hand, can store Series X games on an external hard drive, but you will have to transfer them to internal storage before playing them. Both consoles will let you expand internal storage. The Xbox Series X uses a proprietary Seagate-made storage expansion card, and the PS5 uses a more standard M.2 SSD.
With those caveats noted, our current top picks for the best external hard drive and external solid-state drive are below. These (or nearly identical models with less storage capacity) have been used or anecdotally tested by CNET editors. We’ll update our list of the best external hard drives and SSDs as we test new products. Remember: A single backup doesn’t cut it. Ideally, you’ll want redundant backups either off-site or using cloud storage for key data and large files (such as family photos) in case of theft or fire. Make sure to encrypt your data too.
Best external drives of 2024
Western Digital, which owns SanDisk, sells its WD My Passport SSD as well this SanDisk External Portable SSD for basically the same price. I like the design of this model a little better, and it's technically ruggedized with an IP65 rating, meaning it can withstand a sustained spray of water. Also, it's dust- and shock-resistant and has a USB-C interface.
The latest version offers speeds up to 1,050MB/s (just over 1GB per second) and is right around $110 for the 1TB version. While step-up models like the SanDisk Extreme Pro offer faster read/write speeds with the right computer, that may be overkill unless you regularly work with very large files.
Your speed will vary if you're moving a mishmash of files to or from the USB drive, but when copying a single large file you should be able to get close to that fast transfer speed.
Photo Gallery 1/1
First released in 2022, the WD Black P40 has come down in price and is now pretty affordable. It's an ultrafast SSD that's more geared toward recent Windows PCs equipped with USB 3.2 Gen2x2 dual-lane architecture that allows for a theoretical 20Gbps data transfer rate. It can also be used with consoles and Macs. It's capable of speeds up to 2,000MB/s.
Rated for surviving drops of up to 2 meters, the drive is durable and has an RGB lighting element that can be customized with a Windows PC.
You do pay a bit of a premium over the WD Black D30 (see below), which comes with a stand and is more geared to game consoles. This drive is more future-proof as PCs are increasingly equipped with USB 3.2 Gen2x2. Kingston's XS2000 has similar specs for around $10 less for the 1TB model, but some users have noted this drive offers slightly better write speeds.
For better or worse, there's currently only one way to expand the storage on your Xbox Series X/S for next-gen Series X/S games: the Seagate Expansion Card. Similar to the storage situation with the PS5, you can plug in any external SSD or hard drive to expand the storage for standard Xbox games (previous-gen), but you can store only native Xbox Series X/S games on the game console's internal memory or the Seagate Expansion Card.
It plugs into a proprietary slot on the back of the Xbox Series X/S and "replicates the Xbox Velocity Architecture" (Microsoft's internal NVMe SSD tech) with peak speeds of up to 2.4GBps of raw I/O throughput. Microsoft says that's more than 40x the throughput of the Xbox One.
The expansion card comes in 1TB ($150) and 2TB ($250) versions.
This is SanDisk's entry-level SSD, and while it doesn't have quite the same speedy performance as the step-up Extreme model, it still has solid performance just a step or two behind with 800MB/s speeds compared with 1,050MB/s (that's about 1GB per second). The Extreme model is also ruggedized, while this one isn't. SanDisk says it's drop-tested to 2 meters. To get the 1TB SSD capacity version costs around $85, while the 2TB goes for $140. They offer more than enough speed for general use (by that I mean folks who aren't moving around hundreds of gigs of video files).
You can expand storage for PS4 games on your PS5 by adding a standard external SSD because you can play PS4 games directly from an external SSD. That's not the case for PS5 games, which take up a ton of space and can be played only from the PS5's internal drive or an M.2 SSD that you install in a special expansion bay inside your PS5.
While the Seagate FireCuda 530 technically isn't an external SSD, it's not so different from Seagate's Storage Expansion Card for the Xbox Series X/S in that it's an NVMe SSD with a very high transfer speed (up to 7,300MB/s, according to Seagate, though my PS5 listed the top rate at 6,800MB/s).
Several M.2 SSDs will work with the PS5 (see our complete list) but ideally, you want one with an integrated heatsink. Otherwise, you'll have to add one.
The Seagate FireCuda 530 with heatsink starts at $69 for the 500GB version and jumps to $150 for the 1TB version (most popular). The 2TB goes for around $250, while the 4TB sells for around $600.
As its name implies, Kingston's XS2000 is capable of speeds up to 2,000MB/s. Like the WD Black P40 Game Drive and SanDisk Extreme Pro (see below), it's an ultrafast SSD that's more geared toward recent Windows PCs equipped with USB 3.2 Gen2x2 dual-lane architecture that allows for a theoretical 20Gbps data transfer rate. It can also be used with consoles and Macs. (Note that the XS2000 is silver, while its predecessor is black).
Its design is a little more plain than some SSDs on this list, but the XS2000 is compact (it's about half the size of a harmonica), lightweight and comes with a rubber sleeve that's supposed to make the device water-, shock- and dust-resistant, although it doesn't have an IP rating. It's a decent value at $105 for the 1TB model.
If you're looking for a high-capacity external drive for your Xbox One, the WD Black P10 2TB portable hard drive is a good value at around $75 (the 5TB version is about $150). It gives you portable storage for your coveted game collection. This external drive also comes with a digital code that gives you one month of Microsoft's Game Pass Ultimate if you're a new subscriber. There's also a standard version of the portable hard drive, which also works with PCs and the PS4 for slightly less (it's missing the Xbox branding but is otherwise the same drive). The portable drive can deliver speeds up to 130MBps.
While this drive works with both the PS4 and PS5, it can only store PS4 games if you're using it with a PS5 (you can play PS4 games without lag directly from the portable hard drive). The 5TB version is $150.
Note that Seagate makes an SSD Game Drive For Xbox but not PS4. The storage drive costs around $230 for 1TB.
You can use any SSD with your PlayStation PS4/PS5 or Xbox One, Xbox One Series X or Series S to store PS4 and Xbox One games and other content and pick up a nice speed bump when loading games compared with a standard external hard drive like the WD Black P10 above. Note that with the Xbox Series X, you can only archive Xbox Series X and S games to this drive, you can't store full games on it (the Seagate Storage Expansion Card is required for that). The PS5 has the same restriction -- you can only store full PS4 games on external drives.
On its surface, then, the WD Black D30 game drive isn't all that special. It has up to a 900MBps transfer rate, which is basically what a console's USB 3.1 connection caps out at. It's the design that sets it apart. It's thicker and more rugged-looking than your typical SSD or flash drive and includes a detachable stand with rubber feet to keep it from moving around wherever you place it. This is an NVMe SSD (Non-Volatile Memory Express) that provides excellent performance and interoperability. It essentially looks like a mini hard drive, which is kind of cool.
The standard version works with PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and One X and S consoles, as well as PCs. The Xbox version shown in the image simply includes an Xbox logo and a month of Game Pass Ultimate, a $15 value, for $20 more. Alas, only new subscribers can use the included code, so if you already have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you're paying the extra $20 for the logo.
The 1TB version is $150 or less when on sale.
SanDisk makes the Extreme Portable SSD (see above) that delivers speeds up to 1,050MB per second transfer rates. If you're a photographer or videographer looking for an even faster SSD drive for your PC or Mac, the Extreme Pro Portable SSD is the way to go for extra storage space. The latest version can deliver up to 2,000MBps (2GBps) read/write speeds if you pair it with the right equipment. To get the maximum speed, you need a host system that supports USB Gen 3.2 Gen 2x2 speeds.
Compatible with Macs and Windows PCs, it's technically ruggedized with an IP65 rating, meaning it can withstand a sustained spray of water and is dust-resistant. It's also shock-resistant (3-meter drop protection) and is equipped with a forged aluminum chassis that acts as a heatsink. It has a USB-C interface and includes both USB-C-to-USB-C and USB-A-to-USB-C cables. The 1TB version is around $130 while the 2TB has dipped to around $220.
Note: Some users say they have encountered reliability issues with this drive and even had files mysteriously erased. SanDisk has acknowledged some firmware problems with certain drives. It's unclear if these issues have been resolved or not, but we didn't encounter any problems with the test drive we were using.
SanDisk's flagship Pro-G40 SSD starts at around $180 for a 1TB drive, while the 1TB version of Other World Computing's Envoy Pro FX goes for $280. Both offer top-end speeds (the Envoy Pro FX gets up to a 2,800MB/s transfer speed while the Pro-G40 tops out slightly higher at up to 3,000MB/s). While the drive will work just fine with Windows and Linux computers, OWC has long catered to the Mac market, and this external SSD certainly plays well with Macs.
Yes, it costs more than the Pro-G40, but it seems very well built with an aluminum chassis that does a good job dissipating heat (it doesn't heat up too much). Alas, it doesn't come with some sort of carrying case, but it's an impressive drive if you can afford it and are looking for ultrafast transfer speed.