If you're addicted to downloading videos and snapping up every game you can find online, chances are you need inexpensive, voluminous storage to house it all. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Seagate’s BarraCuda lineup is like the heavyweight champ in the world of hard drives, and it’s got some pretty good reasons to claim that title. If the drive includes only a single cable, you may need an adapter, depending on your computer's available USB ports.

As a bonus, a desktop drive that supports Thunderbolt might also come with additional DisplayPort and USB connections that allow you to use the drive box as a hub for your keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other peripherals. Right now, the fastest connection type in wide use on hard drives is Thunderbolt 3, which is handy assuming you have a newer laptop or desktop with a Thunderbolt 3 port.

Depending on which RAID level you choose, you can prioritize capacity, speed, or data redundancy, or some combination thereof. Some users reported it generating worrying noises and some heat, which doesn't necessarily mean any trouble.

com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services.Sporting a tasteful silver-and-black chassis, the LaCie Mobile Drive (2022) is a mildly redesigned version of the company's external hard drive that we reviewed in March 2019.

The 2022 iteration of the LaCie Mobile Drive is a good choice for anyone who values capacity over speed, and who appreciates a rare touch of elegance in a platter-based hard drive. These drives are known for delivering a bang for your buck when it comes to storage, offering a solid gigabyte-to-dollar ratio. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. Most such multi-bay devices are sold without the actual hard drives included, so you can install any drive you want (usually, 3.Even better, if something goes wrong, the hard drive has a three-year warranty, including data recovery services. Backing up your data to an external storage device is smart, but in today’s always-connected world, why not also take advantage of the cloud? The Seagate Expansion desktop drive provides extra storage for your ever-growing collection of files. We define these as having one or more spinning-platter drives inside and requiring a dedicated power cable plugged into AC power to work. Mainstream hard drives of 8TB capacity generally can’t fit into a portable size, but the WD My Book is still a reasonably compact unit that houses a 3.