10 Best Hard Drives of 2026, Portable, Desktop and SSD Storage for Backups Ranked

Plug it in, let the backup software run overnight, and forget about it: that's the job the WD My Passport does best. This link is the 4TB model in black, a 5400rpm portable drive on USB 3.2 Gen 1 with 256-bit AES hardware encryption, password protection and a 3-year limited warranty. At about 210g it lives happily in my laptop bag. A UK roundup names it its top hard drive. It isn't quick, though: expect roughly 120-130MB/s, so a first full backup takes an evening, and the Micro-B lead feels dated next to USB-C.

If your backups live on a desk rather than in a bag, this is the better buy. The Seagate Expansion Desktop gives you 8TB in a full-size desktop drive over USB 3.0, with drag-and-drop saving and two years of Rescue Data Recovery Services. That's enough room for every laptop in a busy household, and the same UK roundup that rates the My Passport picks this model line for desktop backup. Mine would sit under the desk beside the PC. The trade-off is power: it needs its mains adapter and a free socket, and Mac owners must reformat it for Time Machine.

Two thousand megabytes a second is the headline, and it holds only on the right port. Not fast everywhere, then: fast on a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 socket, which many laptops lack. The Samsung T9 is a 1TB NVMe portable SSD rated up to 2,000MB/s read and write, weighing 122 g and rated for drops of up to 3 metres, with both USB-C to C and C to A cables and a 5-year limited warranty. For video editing straight off the drive, that's worth having. For plain backups, the My Passport gives you four times the space.

Buy this if you want a backup drive and nothing else to think about. The Canvio Basics is a 2TB 5400rpm portable hard drive with a matte, smudge-resistant finish, USB 3.0 and no software to install, and it needs no mains lead. A UK testing roundup includes it. At about 150g, it barely registers in a coat pocket. That simplicity has a cost, though: there's no encryption or backup app, and it's pre-formatted NTFS for Windows, so Mac owners need to reformat it first.

Picture a camera bag dropped on a station platform; this is the drive built for that moment. LaCie's Rugged USB-C model, here in its 2TB version, carries a MIL-STD-810F drop rating up to 1.2 m, IP52 dust and drip protection and 1 tonne crush resistance, plus 256-bit AES encryption, Rescue Data Recovery Services and a 3-year limited warranty. A UK roundup covers it. Inside, though, it's still a 5400rpm disk at about 130MB/s, no quicker than the Toshiba Canvio Basics, and 2TB fills fast with video.

Think of the Crucial X9 as the sensible middle ground between a slow hard drive and the Samsung T9. It's a 2TB portable SSD rated up to 1,050MB/s read over USB 3.2 Gen 2, with a USB-C to C cable included, and it works with Windows, Mac, Android, iPad, Xbox and PlayStation. At 65 x 50 x 10mm it disappears into a coin pocket. A UK roundup includes it. It's drop, shock and vibration resistant, but there's no water rating, unlike the SanDisk Extreme, and no write speed on the listing.

If your drive spends weekends clipped to a backpack, this is the SSD I'd choose. The SanDisk Extreme 2TB uses NVMe flash for up to 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write over USB-C, adds IP65 dust and water resistance and a 3-metre drop rating, and has a carabiner loop for a belt or bag strap. Password protection with 256-bit AES hardware encryption is included. It appears in two UK roundups. My only gripe is the Memory Zone app, which I'd happily skip; companion apps rarely earn their place on my laptop.

Got a PS4 or Xbox One short on space? Silicon Power lists the Armor A60 for both, with PS4 system software 4.50 or later. It's a 2TB 5400rpm hard drive in a shockproof, IPX4 water-resistant shell, with a cable-carry design so the lead doesn't wander off. It comes pre-formatted NTFS for Windows, and Mac users have to reformat it. It's judged on its listing alone, and at about 135 x 89 x 20mm it's chunkier than the Toshiba.

Mac owners can skip this one, since the bundled Nero BackItUp software is Windows only. On a Windows PC, though, the Store 'n' Go makes scheduled backups easy: the software backs up files, folders or whole drives on a timetable you set. The drive itself is a 2TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive, bus powered and backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports. The linked listing is the silver version. There's no encryption or rugged casing, and no roundup we read covered it.

Of all the drives here, this has the highest water rating. The ADATA HD710 Pro is IP68 rated, meets MIL-STD-810G 516.6 for falls from 1.5 metres, and with its port cover fully closed survives being submerged 2 metres deep for 60 minutes. The detachable cable wraps into a groove around the shell. Inside it's a 2TB 5400rpm drive on USB 3.1, so speed is ordinary. The link is the red one, it's big at about 300g, and it ranks on its listing alone.