Unless otherwise indicated, all the PC drives mentioned here are compatible with Windows but can be formatted for Macs. But a lot of times they’ll be designated as working with a specific platform out of the box and sometimes come with backup software that’s platform specific. Most of the drives here will work across platforms - whether you have a Windows PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 or Xbox - so long as the drives are formatted for that platform. A solid state drive doesn’t have moving parts and has up to 4x faster read speeds, but it costs a lot more per GB. They’ve become more affordable, with even mega-capacity models tipping the scales at 5TB but costing just over $100. Thanks to faster USB 3.0 (and 3.1/3.2) and USB-C interfaces, most people can make do with a standard hard drive that uses “old” hard-drive technology (mechanical platters and a moving read-write head to access data). Game consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One include only up to 1TB drives (roughly 1,000GB), which fill up pretty fast if you’re not disciplined about removing games as you acquire more. Unless you’re getting a high-end model, most new computers don’t come with a ton of internal storage - usually 256GB or 512GB. Need a backup option - or just more space? Here are our top picks for external storage options.
