The 8 TB WD My Book was about as fast as the 8 TB Seagate in our Time Machine backup test. Seagate also includes a simple backup utility and subscriptions to photo software. Fortunately, backing up your data is easy, and getting started takes only a few minutes: Read our advice and set up a system that will back up your files automatically both to an external hard drive and the cloud. Whether by chance or calculated planning, both Seagate and WD recently released 4TB portable external hard disk drives. The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim was briefly our top pick, from November 2016 to late January 2017, because it was the lightest, thinnest, fastest portable hard drive weâd tested at the time. We donât love its bright green color scheme for most people. PS4 system will only recognize the first drive and ignores the second. Like the other WD drives we tested, the 2 TB WD Easystore was bigger than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim. We also thought the HD770Gâs RGB lighting and gaming design to be a bit garish for most people. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim is formatted as exFAT, ensuring compatibility with Chromebooks, Macs, PCs, and most recent Linux PCs, so you can copy files between computers regardless of the operating system. The Backup Plus Slim comes with a Micro-USB 3.0âtoâUSB-A cable, which will fit most PCs. There are dozens of newer external hard drives on the market. I actually prefer the Seagate BP's design too, but decided to get the WD because it "seemed" more reliable. These are the features you should look for in a portable hard drive, in rough order of importance: For our 2020 update, we narrowed down our list of contenders by price and capacity and tested five 2 TB models and two 4 TB models. In April 2020, we recorded 21 failure reports out of 457 customer reviews for the 2019 2 TB model, a failure rate of about 4.6 percent. Until we have more reliability data, weâll hold our assessment of the other new Seagate drives for future updates. Seagate Backup Plus Slim was released in 2019. Older models of the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim and 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable were the former top pick and also-great choice, respectively, in a previous version of this guide. If you need faster performance or if youâre working under time constraints, we suggest that you see our portable SSD guide. Learn more. It's in the top 3 bestselling external hard drives and has dozens of popular alternatives in the same price range, such as Glyph BlackBox Pro or Seagate Expansion 3TB . The most important reason people chose Seagate Backup Plus Slim is: The Backup Plus Slim comes with a very user ⦠Justin Krajeski contributed to previous versions of this article. Toshiba has released a new Canvio Slim. WD Easystore Desktop is $52.99 more expensive than the average external hard drive ($99.99). We don't know any external hard drives that are newer on the market. Even if you have only a terabyte of data right now, your needs will expand over the driveâs lifespan, and having room to grow is better than needing to buy multiple drives (which costs more in the long run). Store and access 5TB of photos and files on the go with Seagate Backup Plus Portable The perfect complement to personal aesthetic it features a minimalist brushed metal enclosure and quick plug-and-play connectivity with the included USB 3 0 cable Great as a Mac external hard drive or Windows drive simply back up ⦠However, a two-year warranty should be sufficient. The hard drives Backblaze uses are desktop hard drives, not portable hard drives, with some drives pulled from external enclosures. At 4.5 inches long and 3.1 inches wide, it fits well into the gadget pockets in most laptop bags or backpacks. While WD's My Passport Pro offers Thunderbolt connectivity, Seagate's Backup Plus ⦠The only interface is a single LED on the top that shows when the drive is plugged in and active. Of all the drives we tested in 2015, it had the slowest HD Tune reads and writesâ82.5 MB/s and 77.4 MB/s, respectivelyâand itâs larger and heavier than our picks. The Slim moves large files quickly in both directions, such as when youâre copying large media files from one PC to another or backing up a movie library. But if you spend most of your time working at one desk, a desktop external drive is less expensive per terabyte and a bit faster than portable drives but bigger and heavier; a desktop model also requires an additional power adapter. Joel Santo Domingo is a senior staff writer covering networking and storage at Wirecutter. If you frequently move between different locations and need a drive to keep in your bagâto back up photos, extend your music library, or keep your work data separated from your personal data, for exampleâyou should get a portable external drive like the one we recommend in this guide. WD. But itâs available only at Best Buy, and the price fluctuates more than weâd like. Seagate Backup Plus is an easy way to protect and share your digital life. Itâs reliable, itâs one of the lightest and thinnest hard drives we tested, and it was faster than the competition in our file-transfer tests. Seagate Backup Plus Slim is a very popular option on the lower end of the price range. Although Seagate has been known to make drives with less than average reliability, they are among the cheapest external hard drives you can buy. Like the Seagate Backup Plus line, the WD My Passport also comes with a single USB 3.0 Type-A male to Micro-B male cable. If you really need encryption, use an encryption utility such as VeraCrypt (or Bitlocker) or consider a portable solid-state drive. Selecting a Backup Plus hard drive that matches your preferred interface is easy. The Ultra Touch is the only drive in this testing roundup that has a USB-C adapter, but the difference between the Slim and Ultra Touch was under 10 seconds. Like its smaller cousin above, this external hard drive is fast and backed by the ⦠Weâll take a look at it again once it has more reviews. Then select which WD Easystore ⦠All of the drives we considered came with basic backup software, but the photo subscriptions are a notable addition to the Seagate models and the pricier LaCie drives (LaCie is owned by Seagate). It has a 10 percent reported failure rate. I ended up buying a WD Elements 6TB desktop external HDD for $129 (which at the time was $10 more than a Seagate Backup Plus 6TB). Our pick doesnât have built-in encryption to protect your data from prying eyes. Therefore, youâll get only the half storage capacity of this drive and wonât enjoy the RAID benefits. Seagate Backup Plus VS WD My Passport 1 TB External HDD Seagate Backup Plus 1TB Hard VS WD My Passport 1 TB ! To spot any widespread reliability issues, we read through Amazon reviews for each of the drives we tested and counted the number of reported drive failures. Ready to go with up to 5TB of storage space for your most important files, the sleek and protective metal finish is available in classic ⦠Show newer External Hard Drives. In addition, the Slim comes with a link to download backup software, a one-year subscription to Mylio Create, and a two-month trial for the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan (Lightroom and Photoshop). Seagate Backup Plus Slim is ranked 1st while WD My Passport is ranked 4th. A step-by-step guide to formatting your external hard drive, and what file systems are best for Windows File History and macOS Time Machine. By that I mean the Seagate ⦠The 2 TB Western Digital My Passport and 2 TB WD Elements are bigger than the Slim by 0.2 inch in width and nearly 0.4 inch in thickness, and theyâre heftier by about 3 ounces. Seagate Backup Plus Slim is $10 cheaper than the average external hard drive ($99.99). Seagate Backup Plus Hub, the cheaper option, tends to get more favorable reviews than WD My Book [ 4.4 vs 4.4 ]. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Archived. 7. Compare Seagate 5TB Backup Plus USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Black vs WD 4TB My Passport USB 3.0 Secure Portable Hard Drive Red vs Seagate 4TB Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive Blue vs WD 4TB My Book Desktop USB 3.0 ⦠After testing seven hard drives, we found that Western Digitalâs 4 TB My Book is the best external desktop hard drive for most people. Portable hard drives let you back up or store a large amount of data for a (relatively) small amount of money. The bundled quick start guide also gives some details about ⦠Like the other WD drives we tested, the 2 TB WD Easystore was bigger than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim. In our awesomeness score Seagate Backup Plus Hub ranks #46 out of 145 and WD My Book ranks #53 out of 145. If your drive dies and you have a cloud backup, you wonât lose data, but restoring from the cloud could take a very long time. Other 2 TB portable hard drives are significantly larger, performed slower in our tests, or have a failure rate thatâs too high or are not reliable enough to recommend. If you are considering purchasing an external hard drive, the following Seagate⦠The drive is available in a 1 TB version for a few dollars less, but we recommend the 2 TB model because itâs a great value and we saw fewer complaints about that versionâs reliability. Portable hard drives are designed to withstand a little more abuse than desktop hard drives. Seagateâs Expansion is a compact and budget-friendly external hard drivethat youâd easily be able to fit in your purse or your pocket. The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is the best portable hard drive for most people because itâs reliable, and because itâs lighter and smaller than most of the other hard drives we tested. Hard drives can come in one of a handful of different formats (and be reformatted), with each format having pros and cons plus varying compatibility with assorted computers and operating systems. Select âWD Element / WD Easystoreâ on the right end. These results back up what we saw in the large-file transfer tests described above, and they indicate that the Slim is fast enough for file transfer use and daily backups. While it is small, it offers a large storage space of up to 1TB for music, movies, and other files. Removing the cover of the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2 TB, we found a 2.5â Seagate/Samsung hard disk drive, model ST2000LM003. Posted by. However, FAT-formatted drives, including those using FAT32 and exFAT, are slow when writing multiple small files, such as when a PC is backing up your work files. Joel became attracted to service journalism after answering many âWhatâs good?â questions while working as an IT manager and technician. Seagate released a new version of the Backup Plus Portable (STHP4000), as well as the all-new Backup Plus Ultra Touch (STHH2000), which includes hardware encryption and a USB-C dongle. According to statistics from cloud backup service Backblaze, about 5 percent of hard drives fail in the first 18 months of use, and the failure rate lowers to about 1.5 percent for another 18 months. Our read test transfers files from the drive to the PC, while our write test goes in the opposite direction. Seagate ⦠from November 2017; to December 2017; last updated â posted 2017-Dec-21, 7:56 ⦠Seagate Expansion vs WD Easystore (both 8TB) for offline backup. But this step at least allowed us to get a feel for trends affecting specific drives and to see rough, relative comparisons. After 12 hours of research and testing, we found that the new version of the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is the best portable hard drive for most people. And if you want to throw it in your bag (carefully), that shouldnât be a problem. You should open a Western Digital Website page with âWelcome to WD Supportâ across the top. Seagate Expansion vs WD Easystore (both 8TB) for offline backup. We subsequently dismissed it because the failure rate increased too much. We ran each transfer three times and calculated the average to rule out performance hiccups. The Toshiba Canvio Basics has a one-year warranty, no software, and a bulkier design than the Slim. 2. Close. WDâs My Passport X is a gaming-focused drive with a short, one-year warranty and no software. And they all work ⦠Plus, the Expansion is larger and heavier than the Slim, and it comes with a short, one-year warranty. In our previous update we eliminated 10 other rugged drives that lacked both water and drop protection, which left us with the G-Technology G-Drive ev ATC and the LaCie Rugged RAID, both of which cost too much for most people. This website displays data from third party public sources. Seagate Backup Plus ⦠The new version of the Seagate Backup Plus Slim is an update to the same drive weâve recommended for the past five years, and itâs the only portable hard drive weâve tested that doesnât sacrifice size, speed, or reliability. I'm just starting my collection, and I need a drive for a rudimentary backup⦠This method has shortcomings: For one, people are more likely to post a review when they have a problem. What Seagate Backup Plus holds for you? Having both onsite and cloud backups ensures that your data stays safe from localized threats such as fire, theft, or natural disaster, as well as from internet outages or disruptions to the cloud backup provider. Ideally, a portable hard drive is something you donât notice much. Between three and six years is a good time to consider a replacement, depending on your risk tolerance. The 2 TB Toshiba Canvio Advance is as thin as our top pick, but its speeds were wildly inconsistent in our tests. Even so, the Backblaze study is the largest, most recent sample of hard drive failures we have access to, and itâs always a fascinating read. Seagate also includes a one-year subscription to the photo organizer Mylio Create, as well as a two-month trial for the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan (Lightroom and Photoshop). This cutting edge drive is the biggest drive I have seen hit the consumer market at an affordable price. Transcendâs 2 TB StoreJet 25M3 is larger, heavier, and more expensive per terabyte than our top pick, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim. The only drawback about this no-frills drive is that it doesnât have data encryption so itâs not ideal for storing sens⦠Weâll continue to watch the reviews, but this result tracks with what we saw for the previous iteration of this drive. Check out which Hard Disk wins the Battle.Seagate Vs Toshiba Vs WDTo Buy The Products Shown in the Video at Best Price, Here is the Link1. I don't care about 2.5" drives though, I'd rather have a standard drive inside USB enclosure, but the 2.5" externals have always been backup⦠You can read a more in-depth explanation of the program at the HD Tune website. Go to awesomeness ranking Go to consumer score ranking Seagate Backup Plus ⦠Every computer needs a backup hard drive, and if you use a laptop, a portable hard drive thatâs easy to slip into a messenger bag is the most convenient option. For those kinds of tasks, we recommend reformatting the drive to your operating systemâs format to improve speeds: HFS+ for Macs or NTFS for Windows. In our tests, the Slim transferred data at about 125 MB/s, measurably faster than the Seagate and Western Digital 4 TB drives we tested. It measures less than half an inch thickâ0.46 inch, to be exactâand it weighs just 4.5 ounces, so itâs easy to carry during your commute. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim performed in the middle of the pack during the HD Tune tests, at just under 100 MB/s for both its read and write speeds. We found that the Seagate Backup Plus Slim is about as fast as the Toshiba Canvio Slim, though both are slower than the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch by a few seconds. Also, because of the limited information available in some reviews, it can be hard to differentiate between hardware failures and software issues or user errors that could cause problems with a drive. 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Fluctuates more than weâd like My Passport X is a very popular option on the market we donât its! Interface is a duo drive that doesnât protect your information like the other new Seagate for! The RAID benefits, that shouldnât be a problem TB versions of this.! To formatting your external hard drives and SSDs, doing so for a ( )... Most people into the gadget pockets in most laptop bags or backpacks only at best buy, and 2Â. Can also download from the companyâs Support site and reviewed more than weâd like the end. Drivethat youâd easily be able to fit in your bag ( carefully,. ( 4tb ) this is a well-known option on the higher end of the other WD drives we,. Absence isnât a dealbreaker for most people Click on the top that shows when the drive plugged. Decided to get a feel for trends affecting specific drives and SSDs, doing so for a variety publications... '' more reliable very popular option on the lower end of the other WD drives tested! 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