#Most reliable external hard drives 2019 full
#Most reliable external hard drives 2019 portable
#Most reliable external hard drives 2019 plus

The Samsung supports faster, USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds with a Type-C port, and it includes AES 256-bit hardware encryption to protect your sensitive data.

#Most reliable external hard drives 2019 portable

Why we like it: The 500 GB Samsung T5 Portable SSD works reliably, and it was consistently faster than other portable SSDs in our tests. Who this is for: Photographers, creative professionals, and people who don't mind spending a lot per gigabyte to get a compact 500 GB drive that's between three and five-and-a-half times faster than portable hard drives or desktop hard drives. The best performance: Portable solid-state drive (SSD)

#Most reliable external hard drives 2019 full

Learn more in our full guide to the best desktop hard drives. If you find a drive we've tested that costs less, go for it: WD's Elements and Easystore drives are just as fast and reliable as the My Book. Right now, that means the 4 TB Western Digital My Book. Because they perform so similarly, we recommend getting the cheapest desktop hard drive you can find from a trustworthy maker. Photo: Rozette RagoДЇlaws but not dealbreakers: All of the desktop drives we tested were good, and we found the speed differences between them to be small. Plus, 4 TB should be more than enough space for your future storage needs.ДЄ great external desktop hard drive should be reliable, fast, and inexpensive, like the 4 TB Western Digital My Book. It was about as fast as its competition in all of our tests, it's the least expensive drive we tested, and it has a longer warranty (three years) than the other contenders.

Why we like it: Western Digital's 4 TB My Book is very reliable-we found it had a 6 percent failure rate across nearly 400 reviews on Amazon-and it offers the best balance of speed and price. Who this is for: People who spend most of their time working in one place and want to keep their important documents and photos safe on a higher-capacity, faster, and more cost-effective hard drive. If you spend most of your time at one desk: Desktop hard drive Learn more in our full guide to the best portable hard drives. The Slim has a two-year warranty that's a year shorter than that of Western Digital's drives, and we've read some complaints about Seagate's customer service on Amazon, but we don't think either of these issues are dealbreakers. If you break the port, you won't be able to access your data until you find a new enclosure.

#Most reliable external hard drives 2019 plus

Photo: Kyle FitzgeraldДЇlaws but not dealbreakers: The Backup Plus Slim's USB port wobbles when pressure is applied to the cable. The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is reliable and has fast transfer rates. Seagate includes handy backup software, too. More important, it's reliable-the tried-and-true Slim has been one of our picks for four years, and has an acceptable 9 percent reported failure rate across nearly 2,701 user reviews on Amazon. Why we like it: The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is one of the lightest, thinnest hard drives we tested in our guide to the best portable hard drives, and it was consistently faster than the competition in our multi-file music and photo transfer tests. Who this is for: People who frequently move between locations and want a hard drive to back up important documents and photos from their laptop. The most convenient drive for backups: Portable hard drive But we also have recommendations if you want more storage space, if you want something more reliable or even faster, or if you need to regularly move large amounts of data from one computer to another with an external drive. If you want a dependable external drive that has plenty of storage space for documents and photos and is easy to take on the go, get the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim. We've spent hundreds of hours researching and testing external drives to find the best options for any use and budget.

Read the full guide to external hard drives. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter.