Best External Hard Drive (2026): SSD to Store Data, Video, and More

I’ve been testing the X9 Pro for several months now, and while I can’t yet speak to the long-term survival rate, I have been testing X6 and X8 drives from Crucial for over two years now without issue. There is also the X10 Pro drive ($275), which offers even faster speeds if you have a PC that supports USB 2X2. (The latest Intel chips support this spec, but Apple does not, so there’s no point in buying the X10 Pro if you have a Mac.) I do not own a PC that supports USB 2X2 for extensive testing, but I did get a chance to at least try it, and the X10 Pro does indeed deliver on its promise of 2,100 MB/s (I got it up to 2,050 MB/s). If your hardware supports it, the X10 Pro is worth the extra money.

Best Tiny Drive

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Seagate’s new Ultra Compact SSD straddles the line between USB thumb drive and traditional external drive. The size, design, and built-in USB-C connector make it a thumb drive, but the drive inside is much faster, offering 1,000 MB/s throughput via USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps). In my CrystalDiskMark test, it managed 1034 MB/s and a write speed of 1018 MB/s. While not as fast as some of the new Thunderbolt 5 drives coming on the market, it is still way, way faster than most USB sticks. Performance-wise, this is a more compact, down-market version of the X9 drive above (LaCie is Seagate’s high-end, Mac-focused brand). You do get slightly less performance for the money, but the compact, no-cable-needed form factor might be worth it to some people.

My one gripe with this drive is that it’s on the wide side for a thumb drive, which means that if your laptop has USB-C ports close together it might cover two. You can mitigate this by ditching the rubber housing, but then you lose some of the protection (the drive with housing is rated to withstand 3 meter drops and is IP54 rated for dust and water resistance). It also goes in and out of stock frequently. Seagate’s Ultra Compact SSD is one of several SSDs adopting the thumb drive form factor. We’ve also tested and like the SK Hynix Tube 31, which is featured in our guide to the Best USB Flash Drives.

Other Great Tiny Drives

• Kingston XS1000 2-TB for $269: This tiny little drive is one of the smallest in this guide. Like the Crucial X6, it has a mostly plastic enclosure, but it has withstood life in my bag quite well. While it’s not as robust as the padded options below, it’s strong enough for most things. It’s also speedy. Kingston claims up to 1,050 MB/s. I never managed that, but I routinely hit around 800 MB/s, with some older laptops closer to 600 MB/s, which is still quite good. The drive bogs down a bit with large files (MP4s, for example), so it’s not the best for pro videographers, but for everyone else, this is a solid, slightly cheaper option.

Best Go-Anywhere Drive

OWC

Envoy Pro Elektron SSD

If you need a drive that can stand up to life in a backpack or camera bag, get wet, or handle a drop onto hard surfaces, OWC drives are your best choice. It’s tough to pick a winner here because there are many solid options, but OWC’s Elektron drive narrowly beat others in benchmark tests. I also like that you can swap out the drive inside the aluminum casing (it’s easy to unscrew), which means two years from now, you can pick up a faster bare SSD and drop it in the hardy Elektron enclosure.

Other Great Rugged SSDs

• Sabrent Rocket Nano 1-TB SSD for $170: I really like this one. It’s smaller and slightly faster than the OWC, but it has two drawbacks. The first is that it can get hot. If you’re trying to work with it in your lap, it can be downright uncomfortable. The other issue is that sometimes it’s slow to be recognized by my PC. I could find no pattern to this; sometimes it appeared right away, and other times it took a couple of minutes. If those things don’t bother you, this drive is tiny.

Best Padded Drive

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Samsung’s T9 has been my go-to portable drive for a couple years now. While I do like the LaCie drives that usually dominate this category, the Samsung is plenty fast. The 20-Gbps T9 was able to take full advantage of that speed, clocking in at over 1350 MB/s, handily beating the Crucial X9. The T9 also seems to have a lower power draw, or at least when I plug it into my Android tablet it drains the battery far less than any other drive I use regularly.