Hard drive 101: How to buy, store and protect yours

October 15, 2024

By Kim Komando

All that drive space that comes with your computer, phone or tablet can quickly fill up, especially if you’re a movie fan, gamer or just have a lot of photos to store. The quick and easy fix? Pick up an external drive.

You can use these drives for backups, too. If a disaster strikes your laptop — it gets lost, looted or breaks down — you’ll be glad to have copies of your important data somewhere safe.

How to pick the best drive

The most important spec is storage space. I’ll keep it simple: Buy as much space as you can afford.

Then, determine whether you need a solid-state drive (SSD) or a hard disk drive (HDD). HDDs use older and slower tech but give you a whole lot of bang for your buck. If you need to store a lot of files but don’t need to access or edit them often, HDD is the way to go. Otherwise, SSD is best for your needs, since it has much faster data read/write speeds.

The picks below are all compatible with PCs, Macs, Android devices, gaming consoles and others:

💰 Budget: The $79.99 SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 500GB (11% off) gives you plenty of space in a stylishly compact, hard shell you can take anywhere. The $59.99 WD Elements Portable HDD 1TB gives you even more room. Both brands are super-reliable when it comes to keeping your data safe and sound. (I’m astounded you can pick up 1TB for $60! I remember when that was $500 in 2007.)

💰💰 Midrange: With the $129.99 Seagate Portable HDD 5TB, you’ll get a massive amount of storage in a compact form for not much money at all. The $169.99 Samsung T7 Portable SSD 2TB (37% off) gives you less room for more money, but it does have the benefit of SSD, so it’s incredibly fast — and about the size of a deck of cards.

💰💰💰 Premium: The $295 Samsung T7 Shield SSD 4TB (44% off!) is ultra-fast and can handle dust, water and drops better than almost all other drives — it’s the ultimate in external drives, really. The $254.99 WD Elements HDD 16TB (14% off) is big and chunky by comparison and needs a separate power cable, but it still gives you a massive amount of space for all your files.

How to look after your drive

External drives don’t need much in the way of maintenance. Once they’re set up, you can generally leave them be. With that said, there are ways to make sure your drive has a long (and healthy!) life:

• It’s not a coaster for your coffee mug: Keep your drive on a flat, hard surface with plenty of ventilation space around it. Make sure ports and any vents are kept clean. I like a dry, lint-free cloth for this.
• Connect and disconnect: If you’re not using your drive for a while or you’re taking it somewhere else, unplug it from your desktop or laptop computer. This reduces the chance of your data becoming accidentally corrupted.
• Use the bundled cables: For power and data, make sure you’re using the cables provided with the drive — or, at least, high-quality replacements. You don’t want a cheap cable affecting the data on your drive.

What about cloud backups?

You absolutely should have those, too. Chances are you’re already using a service like Amazon Photos, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Apple iCloud to store your files. While it’s great to have local storage for quick and easy access, cloud backups provide an extra layer of security. Paying for cloud storage makes sense for keeping your important files safe.

🙄 That reminds me of a really bad hard drive joke: Hard drives don’t have the patience for sit-down meals at restaurants; they prefer quick bytes. You can have that one for free.

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