What Size External Hard Drive Do I Need To Backup My Laptop

As anyone who has lost important files to a corrupted hard drive will attest, creating backups is a crucial part of modern computing. And while photos and letters from our smartphones are regularly backed up to the deject, making a physical fill-in is still highly recommended, especially for professionals working with digital files.

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Before thinking all backup drives are broadly the same, note that there is a wide range of options to consider, each with different features, designs and prices. At their simplest, these devices are used to make a re-create of everything created and saved on a calculator, whether it be written documents, presentations, images, videos, or anything else.

Mac users can plug in any big external drive and use information technology with Apple'due south own Fourth dimension Car software, while Windows users can ready upwards Windows File History, or choice from a range of 3rd-party fill-in services. Genie Timeline, CrashPlan and Veeam are pop options to consider if you are a Windows 10 user.

Why create a physical backup?

With serial like iCloud and DropBox, there is less demand than e'er to worry nearly creating physical backups of files. Only what if you decide to shift from ane of these services, or if a service is bought, goes out of business, or is the victim of a hack? In those situations having a personal backup is a safer bet.

Information technology is also much quicker to restore big files (or large quantities of files) from a hard drive fastened to a reckoner with a cable, than to download everything from a cloud-based backup service. And of class, at that place is no monthly charge for creating a personal backup.

Backup drives likewise deed as useful places to dump large amounts of data if a calculator is getting full. Say someone wants to clean up a USB stick or a camera's SD card, but doesn't have time to get through everything and option what to salve and what to delete. Dropping its entire contents into a new binder on a backup drive, then coming dorsum to information technology later, is very simple, and quicker than uploading information technology all to the cloud.

Difficult disc drive or solid state drive?

Generally speaking, at that place are two types of backup bulldoze to consider. These are both described as 'external' as they plug into a computer with a cablevision instead of fitting within it. The two options are a hard disc drive (HDD), and a solid state bulldoze (SSD).

The former stores data on a spinning disc inside the bulldoze'due south housing. These drives offering more storage for less money, but are slower than solid country drives (which contain no moving parts), and are more susceptible to information loss due to damage caused by knocking or dropping the drive, especially while it is in use.

Although more expensive per gigabyte or terabyte, solid state drives are generally seen equally more reliable, tougher, and faster.

Photo of a computer backup drive by Western Digital Western Digital

Connectivity options

The simplest backup drive may offering just a single USB-A port for connecting to your computer or laptop. This is by and large fine, as backups don't need to be done quickly (they tin can exist set to accept place in the background while y'all works on something else), but when information technology comes to retrieving information, a USB-A port is fairly wearisome.

About drives offering USB ii.0, while college functioning drives have USB 3.0 for faster data transfer speeds. USB-C is faster still, only your computer too needs a USB-C port to take advantage of the extra speed on offering.

Some of the larger external drives demand plugging into a wall outlet for power, but for many this is no longer the case every bit they can draw enough ability from their USB connexion.

Is wireless worth information technology?

A wireless backup bulldoze is too worth considering, like the Western Digital My Passport Wireless Pro. This backup drive contains a half dozen,400 mAh battery and Wi-Fi, then it tin exist taken out on the road, keeping a laptop backed up, completely wirelessly. Naturally, backing up this way is slower than using a cable, only for tablet users this can make for a practical, cable-gratuitous compromise.

Await to pay a hefty premium for wireless backups, with Western Digital (i of the largest and most trusted makers of hard drives) charging roughly the same for a 2TB wireless drive ($135) every bit information technology does for an 8TB wired alternative.

Immovability and portability

If you are buying a backup drive to sit next to your computer and never move, and then durability shouldn't be a chief business concern. However, there'due south a huge market for portable drives that are designed to shrug off a tougher life. These are by and large larger and heavier than their office-dwelling relatives, but their rubberized cases mean they can survive being used out in the field (or taken to the cafe in a backpack). If yous plan to move the drive around oft, possibly in a bag, y'all shouldn't definitely look at a solid-land drive (SSD) instead of a difficult disc drive (HDD), equally the former has none of the fragile moving parts plant inside the latter.

What size is best?

This refers to both the physical size of the fill-in drive, and also how much storage space it offers. With hard disc drives, there is a close correlation between the corporeality of storage and the size (and toll) of the device. With SSDs, more storage can be packed into less space, but the price is higher.

Every bit a general rule of thumb, purchase as much storage as you lot can afford. The fastest SSDs (similar the highly-regarded Samsung T5) kickoff at 500GB for effectually $90, which is the minimum space we would advise anyone buys.

Meanwhile, larger consumer-class HDDs caput north of 4TB pretty quickly, and a 8TB drive from Seagate starts at effectually $145. Anyone who has bought a backup bulldoze earlier will see only how quickly prices take fallen — and storage space has increased — in merely a handful of years.

Generally speaking, we would say that a drive with 2TB to 4TB is plenty large enough for virtually average users. For those who work with video or large Photoshop files for a living, and then of course yous'll desire more space — and mayhap a professional-form raid array for extra reassurance and multiple backups of every file.

That said, for those who want a fast and compact selection just don't need masses of storage, Samsung'southward T5 is available with 1TB of storage for $120 (downward from $250 a couple of years ago), or 2TB costs $215 at Amazon, down from the $280 list price, which itself was over $400 simply a couple of years ago

Ultimately we would say that, while the SSDs offer huge speed and compact size, they are still too expensive for many consumers to consider for now. For those who demand to transfer files quickly for piece of work (similar photos or video) then drives like the Samsung T5 make a lot of sense. But fill-in drives don't need to be all that fast, and they don't need to be portable, as they volition spend most of their life on your desk, probably hidden from sight, quietly backing upwards.

For now, we call back your money should go on a circa 8TB HDD from the likes of Seagate, Western Digital, SanDisk, or Toshiba.

Options to consider

With all of that in mind, here are some backup drives to consider in 2021:

Western Digital 2TB Elements Portable Hard Drive

Photo of Western Digital Elements hard drive The Elements drive offers good value with 2TB for $lx Western Digital

2TB
USB 3.0
$60

This hard bulldoze is around the size of a deck of cards and is powered by a USB 2.0 or 3.0 connexion to a calculator. There is no fill-in software or encryption software included, then all someone is getting is a big minor bulldoze to practise with whatsoever they'd like.

Larger 3TB and 4TB options are priced at $80 and $100.

Seagate Expansion Desktop 8TB

Photo of Seagate Expansion backup drive The Expansion offers 8TB of storage for $140 Seagate

8TB
USB 3.0
$140

The Expansion Desktop by Seagate can exist bought with between 3TB and 10TB of storage. It connects via USB 3.0 but too requires plugging into a wall outlet with the included 18-inch power cable.

The drive is designed to piece of work primarily with Windows, simply can likewise work with Mac once it has been formatted — something that tin be washed with the Disk Utility app on a Mac.

Samsung T5 SSD

Tiny but pricey, the Samsung T5 offers 2TB for $215 Samsung

2TB
USB-C
$215

If speed and portability is what someone needs, then the Samsung T5 certainly delivers. Being a solid land drive, data can be transferred to and from the T5 around 4 to five times faster than an equivalent hard drive drive.

The T5 is available with 500GB, 1TB or 2TB, and color options include blue, golden, ruddy and black. The drive is designed to work with Windows, Mac and even Android devices running version 4.four or college.

Seagate Backup Plus Hub

Photo of a Seagate Backup Plus Hub The Backup Plus Hub has two USB ports on its front end for information transfer and charging devices similar smartphones Seagate

6TB
USB 3.0
$130

Seagate's Fill-in Plus Hub is available with four, half-dozen, 8 or 10TB of storage, and includes a pair of USB 3.0 ports. That way, someone can plug the drive into a computer for backups, but likewise connect a smartphone for charging, or a USB thumb drive or camera for transferring data onto the drive.

The bulldoze is configured to work with both Windows and Mac, and is powered from a wall outlet with an included cable. A 10TB version is priced at just $205, which is first-class value for coin.

Western Digital My Passport Wireless Pro

Photo of Western Digital My Passport Wireless Pro This drive is wireless and includes an internal battery Western Digital

2TB
USB 3.0 and Wi-Fi
$175

This hard bulldoze offers wireless backups and data transfer with a direct Wi-Fi connection betwixt information technology and a device, plus an SD card slot.

The drive also has its ain battery which is claimed to offer x hours of life on a charge — that fashion, a photographer could take it out for a twenty-four hours's piece of work and back up to it without needing a computer or a power supply.

The vi,400mAh battery tin besides be used to charge a USB device, and in that location's a microUSB port for connecting other devices like video cameras.

If someone needs a quick and simple way to back up data while on the route — from a camera, for example — and then this drive is a good, flexible option.

Western Digital My Countersign

The My Passport portable hard drive by Western Digital Western Digital

4TB
USB 3.0
$90

Perhaps the aureate standard of portable difficult drives, the My Passport by Western Digital has been effectually for many years. The latest generation offers storage options one 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 5TB, with their respective prices being $50, $63, $90 and $109. These really are not bad value for money, and they are even available in iii colors of blackness, blue and red – which is less of a gimmick than you lot might think, as different colors makes drives like shooting fish in a barrel to place if you lot accept several.