The State of Solid State
Given that a single drive failure at the wrong moment could wipe out the important project you've been working on, or even your most precious memories (in the form of all the photos and videos you've taken over the years), an external drive is always a smart thing to have around. It's also handy if you want to take your important files with you on a business trip or a vacation, or just be sure you have a place to put all the files you collect on your camera, phone, or laptop. But external storage has traditionally been more about security than speed: You wanted something inexpensive and totable, and if it took a few seconds (or minutes) longer to move files to and from it? Well, that wasn't the end of the world.
It's still not, but you don't have to settle for slow-as-molasses sluggishness anymore. As solid-state storage has become increasingly affordable over the last several years, it's been appearing in more and more external drives. For users who are truly concerned about their data, the proliferation of portable solid-state drives (SSDs) hasn't come a moment too soon.
Why (and Why Not) SSDs?
At their hearts, hard drives are mechanical devices that use moving heads to read data stored on platters (or disks) inside the apparatus. The good news is that hard drive technology is fairly advanced (it's existed in some form or another for about 60 years), so it doesn't cost much to implement and thus buy. This means you can get comparatively huge amounts of storage capacity for very little money. Our current Editors' Choice for portable hard drives, the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive, sells for about $120 and gives you 4TB of space, which means you're paying approximately 3 cents per gigabyte. That's tough to beat.
But the same mechanical technology that makes hard drives such a tantalizing value proposition causes other unfortunate issues. If you drop the drive, you could damage the interior mechanism and make your data inaccessible. And, again, hard drives are slow because they can only find your data by physically searching for it. The fastest external drives you'll find spin at about 7,200 revolutions per minute (or rpm), which isn't really all that fast these days. For comparison, internal desktop-class hard drives can have speeds as high as 15,000rpm.
SSDs, on the other hand, store data on flash memory, and thus can access it very quickly. If you're connecting via a higher-speed protocol like USB 3.0 or USB-C, you'll see the most benefit, but there's basically no case in which an SSD won't be faster than a hard drive. And because SSDs have no moving parts, they're a lot hardier, and are better equipped to withstand the drops, bumps, and bruises of everyday use. This doesn't mean they can't be damaged or that you can't still lose data, but you have a lot more leeway.
One downside is that the memory used in these drives can only be written to a limited number of times, so your SSD may become unusable before a hard drive would, depending on how you use it. Another regards traditional storage applications: Hardware-based encryption is, in almost every case, a no-go on SSDs, because data is stored anywhere and everywhere rather than in one easily accessible chunk. And you should never, under any circumstances, run a defragmentation program on your SSD, as you'll be using up valuable writes for no speed benefit you're likely to notice.
Perhaps the biggest drawback of SSDs is price. Want a 2TB external hard drive? You can find one for as little as $75. A 2TB external SSD, on the other hand, will run you about $730, and no, that is not a typo—you'd be paying almost 10 times as much for exactly the same amount of storage. (That same $75 you could spend on the 2TB hard drive will only get you an SSD of about 120GB.) If speed and resilience are critical to you, all that extra money is probably worth it. If they're not, you're needlessly wasting hundreds of dollars. When considering whether to buy an external SSD, make sure you know what you're getting yourself—and your bank account—into.
For more on solid state drives versus hard drives, read SSD and HDD: What's the Difference?.
Finding the Right SSD
If you've already decided you're willing to splash the cash on an external SSD, then there are other things you'll need to focus on when shopping.
How portable do you want your drive to be? Are you looking for something you can stick in your back pocket, or do you envision your drive primarily sitting on your desk at home? Like external hard drives, external SSDs come in a variety of sizes aimed at a range of usage models, so plan ahead to ensure you don't get a drive that's too big or too small for its intended purpose.
As mentioned above, SSDs are naturally more resilient than hard drives, but that doesn't mean they're indestructible. If your work necessitates travel to extreme climates, or if you're a giant klutz in need of something capable of surviving more than the typical number of tumbles, a rugged model may be the way to go. These have additional features to protect against drops, shock, vibration, water, dust, and more, so you'll be able to rest easier no matter where your work (or your lack of coordination) may take you.
How you connect the drive to your computer is also important. Though drives using older USB standards like USB 3.0 remain easy to find, the newer USB-C is quickly gaining traction as a replacement. It's twice as fast as USB 3.0, so it lets you take better advantage of SSDs' capabilities, and it uses a smaller, more convenient reversible-plug connector. Only newer drives use USB-C, and though the ports are showing up on more computers all the time, there's a good chance your current machine doesn't support it. For this reason, you'll want to note what cables are included with the SSD. Some come with both USB 3.0 and USB-C cables, which will give you more options both now and in the future.
If you want the easiest experience possible, check how your potential SSD comes formatted out of the box. While NTFS drives will work on PCs and HFS+ drives on Macs, there's the possibility you may have to reformat depending on the computer you use. This isn't difficult, but this is where drives formatted for exFAT, which work on both Macs and PCs, have a slight edge. It's also something to watch for if you need to transfer data between multiple computers with different operating systems.
Lastly, do you want lots of bells and whistles, or can you be satisfied with something a little more bare-bones? While encryption isn't as easy on SSDs as it is on hard drives, some come with software you can use for a little more security. There are also other additional features, like data recovery services or cloud storage. But you should also be aware that extra features may translate to a higher price. A no-frills drive—one that just copies and stores files—will generally be less expensive (in SSD terms, anyway).
Do Yourself a Solid
Below are the top external SSDs we've tested recently. They vary widely in features and price, but should all deliver plenty of speed and peace of mind if that's what you want from your portable storage. Don't need (or don't want to pay for) an SSD? Then check out our roundup of the best external hard drives. If you're building or upgrading your desktop or laptop, read about how to buy the best internal SSD at our sister site, Computershopper.com. For other ways to preserve your data, read our lists of the best cloud storage and file-sharing services, the top backup software, and our favorite online backup services.
Featured in This Roundup
Oyen Digital MiniPro 3.1 USB-C Portable Solid-State Drive
$299.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The Oyen Digital MiniPro 3.1 USB-C Portable Solid-State Drive may not have many frills, but it offers fast transfer speeds, plenty of storage, and a solid metal build at a nearly unmatched price. Read the full review-
LaCie Bolt3
$1999.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The 2-terabyte LaCie Bolt3 is the fastest external SSD we've tested. Take a look if 4K video editing and production are in your future, but be prepared to pay. Read the full review -
SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD
$499.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD hits a rare sweet spot for solid-state drives: It's durable, versatile, speedy, and reasonably priced for its capacity. Read the full review -
ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD
$649.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% If you and your files need to venture into the unknown, the ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD might be the trusty, nearly indestructible companion you're looking for. But for the average user, there are plenty of durable, reasonably priced external drives with higher capacity. Read the full review -
OWC Envoy Pro EX
$469.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The OWC Envoy Pro EX is a speedy, but pricey, portable SSD aimed at Apple users who need lots of fast storage, but want a drive that will complement a MacBook. Read the full review -
Samsung Portable SSD T3
$849.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The pricey Samsung Portable SSD T3 is one of the fastest portable drives we've tested. It's an ideal choice if you need lots of speedy storage in a box about the size of a deck of cards. Read the full review -
SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD
$199.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD is a versatile solid-state drive that combines durability, fast performance, and value in a compact package. Read the full review -
Adata SE730 External SSD
$149.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The Adata SE730 is a compact, ruggedized solid-state drive that delivers speedy transfers over USB-C. But its design is a little fussy and it doesn't come with a USB-C-to-USB-C cable. Read the full review -
G-Technology G-Drive slim SSD USB-C
$379.95 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The G-Technology G-Drive slim SSD USB-C isn't the tiniest, fastest, or most ruggedized portable drive out there, but it delivers style, decent performance, good capacity, and excellent value. Read the full review -
OWC Envoy Pro mini
$169.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Although it's packaged like a USB flash drive, the OWC Envoy Pro mini is a thumb-size SSD that copies data faster, has more capacity, and is more reliable. Read the full review