External Drives

External hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) draw on AC power to deliver competitive storage, flexibility, and performance for personal needs and professional workflows.

Shop All External Drives

What is an external drive?

Our external drives deliver additional capacity, streamlined backup, and powerful speed and security — plus compatibility with your favorite devices — all from a footprint small enough for your workspace.

Whether you need one for your laptop or desktop, these hard drives and solid state drives add storage for family photos, gaming libraries, and data-intensive workflows — or for simple computer backup.

Unlike our portable drives, which are powered through their USB connections, external drives rely on a separate power source.

What’s the best external hard drive for PC and Mac?

Identifying the best external hard drives for PC and Mac depends on: 

How you plan to use it 
How much storage you need 
How fast you want to transfer and access data

If you’re using it as a backup drive for PC, then consider a plug-and-play option for Windows. There are also purpose-built external disk drives for Mac users. For maximum flexibility, you can go with a hard drive formatted to work with Mac or PC. 

What kind of external HDD or SSD should I get for my gaming PC? 

Looking for an external hard drive for a gaming PC? Evaluate your storage and speed requirements.

If speed is your main priority, then you may want a high-performance external SSD PC drive. If you want max capacity, look for an external PC hard drive, since HDDs typically offer lower cost per GB or TB of storage.

External Drives for Home Storage 

WD Drives

Find reliable, high-capacity external drives for everyday use, from home media and family photos to creative projects and regular computer backup.

Easy backup

Make it easier to save important files on your home computer with password-protected storage and intuitive backup software from WD.

Ready for PC and Mac

WD external drives come ready to use with Windows out of the box, along with options to work with Apple Time Machine on your Mac device.

Highly compatible

Connect across USB generations — 2.0, 3.0, and 3.2 Gen 1 — to power workflows with adaptable WD drives, such as My Book, My Book Duo, and WD Elements.

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Home is where the backup is

Add easy, flexible storage for a wide range of everyday needs — for photo libraries, computer backup, and more.

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External Drives for Professional Use 

SanDisk Professional Drives

Whether you’re on set or in post-production, external drives from SanDisk Professional keep creative workflows streamlined and secure. 

Pro performance

Power-packed HDDs with enterprise-grade endurance and reliability, and SSDs that deliver super-fast transfer speeds.

Daisy-chain for days

G-DRIVE PRO, G-RAID 2 and G-RAID SHUTTLE feature dual Thunderbolt™ 3 ports, so you can use one computer to daisy-chain up to five other devices through a single connection.

Built for the field

Set up shop wherever your shoot takes you, thanks to premium enclosures that match tough durability with sleek design. 

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Heavy-duty, pro-ready

Get ultra-fast, high-capacity storage to support your professional photo, audio, and video editing needs. 

See more SanDisk Professional drives

External Drives for PC Gaming and Consoles 

WD_BLACK Drives

Get top-tier performance with WD_BLACK external drives made for getting in the game faster with bigger libraries than ever. 

Less loading

Maximize playing time and quickly access titles with fast read/write speeds that get you in the game sooner.

Performance storage

Boost your gaming rig’s capacity with WD_BLACK external drives so you can store plenty of new titles, along with your favorite classics.

Next-gen compatibility

Game with drives purpose-built for leading consoles — or capable of handling PC, Xbox™, and PlayStation titles alike. 

No game left behind

Power up your gaming with high-performance external drives that max out storage capacity and deliver better response times. 

See more WD_BLACK drives

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External Drives for Smartphone Sync

SanDisk Ixpand

Simplify how you manage, store, and sync your smartphone photos and videos thanks to Ixpand from SanDisk. 

Save smarter

Make managing on-the-go content simpler for everyone, with custom profiles for more members of the family.¹

Charge, backup, go

Use SanDisk’s Ixpand to automatically back up full resolution photos and videos while you charge your smartphone — it’s that easy. 

More space, more content

Bring some order to your mobile content with ample external storage and an easy-to-use, smartphone-specific solution.

Storage that just works

Make room for your favorite mobile content with flexible storage that extends your smartphone’s capabilities. 

View Ixpand from SanDisk

Personal Cloud & NAS

My Cloud Drives

Bring the cloud to you with NAS enclosures and drives purpose-built for anywhere, anytime access. 

Serious storage

High-capacity storage to back up your content in one place, on your own private network, without monthly storage subscription fees.

Backup made easy

Enormous capacity and streamlined network connectivity to back up your home computers. Works seamlessly with Time Machine.

Disaster recovery

A reliable cloud backup solution for an affordable way to help protect your all-important data from natural disasters and support business continuity.

Streamline, centralize, share

Transfer and stream content, manage workflows around the clock, and simplify file-sharing across a private cloud network.

See more NAS enclosures

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External Drives

What is an external drive?

What’s the best external hard drive for PC and Mac?

What kind of external HDD or SSD should I get for my gaming PC?

External Drives for Home Storage

Easy backup

Ready for PC and Mac

Highly compatible

Home is where the backup is

External Drives for Professional Use

Pro performance

Daisy-chain for days

Built for the field

Heavy-duty, pro-ready

External Drives for PC Gaming and Consoles

Less loading

Performance storage

Next-gen compatibility

No game left behind

External Drives for Smartphone Sync

Save smarter

Charge, backup, go

More space, more content

Storage that just works

Personal Cloud & NAS

Serious storage

Backup made easy

Disaster recovery

Streamline, centralize, share

News and updates straight to your inbox

What kind of external HDD or SSD should I get for my gaming PC? 

External Drives for Home Storage 

External Drives for Professional Use 

External Drives for PC Gaming and Consoles 