5 best external hard drives in India in 2024

Storage solutions are extremely crucial in today’s digital age for both personal and professional users. This is because of the heaps of data, work-related and personal, that needs to be backed up. Additionally, computers, tablets, and smartphones come with limited native storage space.

Storage solutions often consist of old-school pen drives, external drives, and also cloud-based storage like Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud. External drives pack a large storage capacity compared to flash drives. There are two types of external drives –  a hard drive and a solid-state drive. Both serve the same purpose of backing up your data, transferring large files, and storing media.

They work by connecting to the computer wirelessly or via a USB cable. HDDs are often cheaper with huge storage capacity compared to SSDs, although the latter offer faster speeds. This makes them a practical choice for consumers.

Top 5 external hard drives in India in 2024

There are hundreds of storage options out there in the market. Hence, in this article, we will mention only the five best external hard drives. 

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1. Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch

2. WD MyPassport

3. Toshiba Canvio Advance

4. WD Elements

5. Seagate Expansion

1. Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch

Seagate is a popular and trusted brand in the storage industry. The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch is a portable external hard drive with a sturdy woven fabric enclosure. It has a 1TB storage capacity and Secure AES-256 hardware encryption for protecting stored sensitive data. The device comes with three years of data recovery services. There is also backup software along with folder mirroring capability that keeps files synchronised and accessible from multiple devices. This HDD is compatible with Windows and Macs via the USB 3.0 and USB-C interfaces.

The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch is priced at Rs 4,320.

2. WD My Passport

WD My Passport is compatible with laptops and desktops. It is also capable of working with Chromebooks. The My Passport comes with 1TB storage space along with backup software that allows you to customise your backup schedules. It features 256-bit AES hardware encryption. The external HDD has USB 3.2 interfaces (backward compatible with USB 2.0) with fast data transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps. 

The WD My Passport costs Rs 5,599.

3. Toshiba Canvio Advance

The Toshiba Canvio Advance is a compact external hard drive. It features a textured finish design and comes in Black, Light Beige, and Red colours. The device has a drive speed of 5400 RPM and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 technology that ensures quick transfer speeds. The hard drive has password protection software and a three-year limited warranty. 

The Toshiba Canvio Advance starts at Rs 5,099 for the 1TB storage capacity. It also comes in 2TB and 4TB options.

4. WD Elements

The WD Elements is a simple and small external hard drive compared to others in the market. The USP is that it is built for durability making it resistant to accidental drops and shocks. The storage system packs 1.5TB of space for all your important data. It works with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices. 

The WD Elements can be purchased for Rs 5,699.

5. Seagate Expansion

If you need a huge storage capacity and 1TB is not enough, then the Seagate Expansion will cater to your needs. It has 2TB storage space and a drive speed of 7200 RPM for faster transfer of large files. There is USB 3.0 connectivity and it is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS.

The Seagate Expansion is available at Rs 7,099. 

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It’s a wise decision to invest in an external hard drive if you want to avoid your data getting lost. When deciding which one to purchase, you should know your requirements, i.e. how much content you need to store, the frequency of backups, and data transfer speeds, and then choose from one of the options listed above.