8 Best External Hard Drives

MOST RUGGED HARD DRIVE

LaCie Rugged Mini 5TB

Type: Portable | Connection: USB 3.0 | Size: 5 TB | Dimensions (L x W x H): 5.31 x 3.39 x 1.02 in.

This tiny external hard drive screams toughness with its heavily cushioned orange plastic bumpers. Not that I recommend tossing this drive off a cliff, but LaCie does claims it’s resistant to being dropped, getting crushed, and being left out in the rain. And with a claimed 130 megabytes per second, the Rugged Mini is fast, too. I wasn’t able to test the speed claims, but in my casual use of the Rugged Mini, it did seem faster than many portable drives I have used. It also comes with software that does one-click backup, scheduled automatic backups, and folder syncing across multiple devices.

BEST FOR GAMING

WD My Book Duo Desktop RAID External Hard Drive

Type: Portable | Connection: USB 3.0 | Size: 5 TB | Dimensions (L x W x H): 4.65 x 3.46 x .82 in.

Though this model is advertised as a dedicated game drive that is compatible with the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 game consoles, the same can be said about many other hard drives. Still, with its industrial aesthetics, metal covering, and bold lettering, it certainly looks the part—even if it doesn’t have any special gaming powers. It’s small and lightweight (about 8 oz.), so it’s easy to take anywhere the gaming action is.