Ideally, choose a solid-state drive whenever possible—they're fast and durable. I’ve tested dozens so far, using all kinds of devices and operating systems, to figure out what works best and where. But don't dismiss a traditional hard disk drive (HDD), as it's still useful and cheaper for backing up everything on your computer.
These are my top picks for the most common use cases. A word of warning: The AI race and its accompanying flurry of memory-hungry data centers are driving prices sky-high, with no end in sight. Drives in this guide have quadrupled in price in the past six months.
For example, 8-TB SSDs are selling for more than a new MacBook Air, which has itself gone up $200 to help cover surging memory costs. Check out our other guides, including How to Back Up and Move Your Photos Between Services, How to Back Up Your Digital Life, and How to Back Up Your iPhone. Updated September 2026: I’ve added a SanDisk SSD made for NAS systems and a Satechi drive enclosure, removed some sold-out drives, and added a few notes on how AI is still ruining everything.
I've also updated prices and links throughout. Note that memory prices are extremely volatile and could change after publication. If you have a lot of data to back up and don't want to spend a fortune, the Western Digital Elements desktop drive is your best bet.
I have been using a variation of the Elements desktop hard drive to back up my data for more than a decade. These drives are big and require external power, but they’re some of the cheapest and most reliable I’ve used. This is one instance where it makes sense to invest in an HDD, especially since you should not need to access the data frequently, which puts stress on the moving parts.
Transfer speeds are not off the charts—the Elements drive I tested scored 120 megabytes per second (MB/s) for sequential writes on Windows—but you should ideally run backups overnight, and even at these speeds the average PC backup will be done by morning. These drives use USB-C 3.2, and I’ve had no problem using them with Windows, macOS, or Linux. Storage options range from 1 TB to 26 terabytes.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
