Need an ultrafast drive for video editing or a rugged option to back up your photos in the field? We've got a solution for every situation.
Courtesy of Western Digital Save this story Save this story I know you'll back up all those photos on your phone someday, but you should do it today. Just get a little external or portable hard drive, plug it into your phone, and make a backup. Trust me: It's so much easier than trying to recover them after your phone dies.
Ideally, choose a solid-state drive whenever possible - they're fast and durable. But which SSD, you ask? Great question. 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.
Courtesy of Western Digital Save to wishlist Western Digital
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. Just check the prices; sometimes you can get a 10- or even 12-TB drive for not much more than the 8-terabyte version. I have not seen a huge difference between the Elements line and the brand's higher-end My Book drives, and the basic Elements drive is sufficient for most people.
Micron has discontinued its Crucial brand when it wound down its consumer business. While the products are being phased out, you can still find them for sale. In fact, it may be the best way to score a reliable SSD from a reputable company at a reasonable price.
Crucial's X9 Pro hits the sweet spot of speed and portability, making it the best way to back up your phone. Sure, cloud-based backups are great, but local backups are fast and offer more privacy. These Crucial drives are tiny, about half the size of a deck of cards, and weigh a mere 1.3 ounces. They'll connect to just about anything. I tested the X9 Pro with iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux, and I never ran into any issues.
When it comes to speed, the X9 Pro claims symmetrical read and write speeds of 1,050 MB/s. I actually consistently got higher speeds, up to 1,110 MB/s for read and 1,100 MB/s for write. That puts the X9 Pro at the top of the pack for portable drive speed.
I've been using the X9 Pro for over a year now, and while I can't speak to its long-term survival rate yet, I have tested Crucial's X6 and X8 drives for over three years without issue, if that gives you an indication of the X9 Pro's potential. There is also the X10 Pro drive (approximately $360) , which offers even faster speeds. The X10 Pro delivers 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, but for most people the X9 Pro will work just fine.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson Save to wishlist Western Digital
I love Western Digital's My Passport series for on-the-road backups. The Ultra version of this HDD uses a standard USB-C cable (many portable HDDs still use the USB Micro-B connector) and is available in sizes up to 6 TB. It's not the thinnest drive on the market, but it's less than an inch thick and solid enough that I never worry about tossing it in my bag. (That said, it is a spinning drive without a rugged enclosure, so don't literally toss it.) I also like that the corners are nicely rounded and there are no screws or anything else that will snag on fabric in your bag.
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