The best portable hard drives give you the freedom to roam with more storage than your device alone can provide. That can mean gigabytes on the go for your laptop, tablet, or even smartphone.
In a world of cloud storage, with lots of free space, are physical hard drives still relevant? For several reasons, these are. If you want the security of knowing your data is all in one place, where the darker web can’t access it, then a physical hard drive is useful, making it ideal for use by teachers and students. .
Portable hard drives can also provide plenty of storage space for your money. Importantly, these also work offline, allowing you to access your content anytime and anywhere, regardless of the state of the internet connection.
As these can work with multiple devices, this can be useful for sharing files between machines, like taking a video from your laptop and plugging it straight into a projector, for example.
So you may have already watched the best laptops for students (opens in a new tab) Or best tablets for students (opens in a new tab) and want to save money by going for a lower storage option and pairing it with an external drive. Whatever you are looking for, this guide should have a perfect portable hard drive for your needs.
Best Portable Hard Drives
1. Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch: Best portable hard drive overall
The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch is the top model in this range from the hard drive specialist. That means it still offers plenty of storage up to 2TB and does so in a very portable and slim body, but with super protection. This offers built-in AES-256 encryption so no one but you can access your data – it would take a supercomputer hundreds of years to brute force its way into this drive.
Everything is transmitted at high speed thanks to USB-C and USB-3.0 adapters. These allow you to use the player with your Windows or Mac laptop, tablet or Android smartphone.
The inclusion of Seagate Toolkit software, which lets you create backups automatically or at the push of a button, is particularly helpful here. This allows you to always have copies of your files, which you can go back to if you need to. You can even mirror folders so all your files are backed up, live, as you make changes on your device.
The fabric exterior gives the reader a premium feel, which also makes it easier to grip on the go. It’s all simple to carry with a total weight of 5.3 oz and a slim 0.46 inch body that could slip easily into a pocket or bag.
2. SanDisk Extreme Portable: Best for Speed
The SanDisk Extreme Portable is a superb option for anyone who wants the fastest file transfers. It comes in 1TB and 2TB versions, but either way offers speeds of up to 1GB per second. This makes it ideal for anyone working with larger files such as videos, audio, or images that need to be moved quickly. Or if you want it as your primary drive that you access regularly, the speed helps make that as fast as working with an internal drive.
Everything is solid state allowing it to be compact; in fact, it’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and it’s built so well that you get a 3-year limited warranty as part of the deal.
The wrong side? It’s expensive, so you’ll pay more per terabyte than many other drives, however, it gives you that speed and portability advantage. It’s also very durable with an IP55 rating against dust or water damage, meaning you don’t have to worry about maintaining this drive when you throw it in a bag.
3. Samsung T7 Shield: Best for Toughness and Speed
The Samsung T7 Shield is a superb combo drive that offers up to 4TB solid state drive in a housing that’s built to last. Thanks to a rugged outer shell, this drive is both shock and water resistant to an IP65 rating. It works with almost any device that has a USB port and is also extremely secure with AES-256 encryption.
Unlike other drives, this one comes with USB 3.2, which allows it to read and write at over 1 GB per second. All of this makes it suitable for video, audio, images and use as an internal player equivalent with near instantaneous response rates. The fact that it looks attractive and comes in a selection of color options is just a bonus.
Samsung offers USB C-to-C and C-to-A cables so you can use them with laptops and desktops as well as smartphones, tablets and consoles. Above all, it should work easily with most smart whiteboards. It’s not the cheapest, but you get a lot for the price, and with plenty of size options, there should be a model to suit most needs.
4. Crucial X6 Portable SSD: Best Budget Option
The Crucial X6 Portable SSD is a very portable and capable drive that’s also comparatively affordable. At just 2.4 x 2.6 inches and 0.35 inches thick, it’s a svelte little square that can slip easily into your pocket. You get USB Type-C and A combos, so you can use it with most devices, from laptops and desktops to tablets and smartphones.
It’s not the fastest drive for transfer rates with SATA skills, meaning you’ll get around 550MB per second, which is still plenty fast and more than enough for most file transfers.
The drive is a basic-looking unit, but it gets the job done and is sturdy enough to withstand most daily rigors – although it’s by no means tough.
5. Western Digital My Book: Best for Storage Space
The Western Digital My Book is a great option for anyone who wants huge amounts of storage. This comes in a variety of capacities with prices to match, but pushes the limit of the top end up to 22TB of storage.
The downside here is that the drive requires a dedicated external power cable to operate, which makes it less portable than most. But the flip side is a lot more capacity from this drive which is also larger than most.
Speeds are decent with USB-A offering 5Gbps transfer rates. With built-in software, it offers AES-256 encryption as well as automated backup, keeping files safe on disk.
With high-quality construction, you get a 3-year limited warranty on this shock-resistant, built-to-last drive.