Best External Hard Drives for Backup

External hard drives remain the cheapest way to store lots of data, which makes them ideal for backups and archives. They're slower than SSDs, but for bulk storage that sits on a shelf, speed barely matters.

Why HDDs for backup

A hard drive costs a fraction of an SSD per gigabyte, so you can afford terabytes for backups and long-term archives. Since backups run in the background, the slower speed is rarely a problem.

What to look for

• Capacity of 2TB to 5TB for most home backups
• USB 3.0 or newer for reasonable transfer speeds
• A reliable brand with a good warranty

The backup rule

One backup isn't enough for data you can't lose. The 3-2-1 rule is a good guide: three copies, two different media, one offsite. An external drive covers the second copy nicely.

Buy a 2TB to 5TB external drive from a reliable brand for backups. Pair it with a cloud or offsite copy, and you've got a solid backup strategy for cheap.