Cheap External Hard Drives

External hard drives to backup your files on a budget

You can spend hundreds -- even thousands -- of dollars on external hard drives that offer top-notch performance and large storage capacity. While these are great for movie editors or those who actively perform large backups, it's overkill for many people. If your storage needs -- as well as your budget -- are more modest, cheap external hard drives can be had for well under $100. Granted, these hold less and aren't as fast as the best external hard drives. But if you're just looking for an inexpensive way to backup your personal library of music files, photos or documents, these cheap external drives offer great value.

For those looking for a ton of capacity without spending a ton of dollars, the Seagate Backup Plus Desktop (Est. $90 for 1 TB) external hard drive might be a decent choice. It doesn't earn nearly the acclaim of the Buffalo DriveStation DDR (Est. $180 for 3 TB) among experts (both CNET and Laptop Magazine name the DriveStation DDR an Editors' Choice selection as the best external hard drive), though users give largely positive feedback.

The Seagate Backup Plus Desktop gets 3.5 stars out of 5 at PCMag.com, and reviewer Joel Santo Domingo calls it a "fairly speedy drive." It ships with Seagate's signature Universal Storage Module (USM) adapter for USB 3.0, which can be swapped for Thunderbolt or FireWire interfaces at an extra cost. The Backup Plus Desktop earns 4 out of 5 on Newegg.com, where users describe it as good overall and easy to use. This cheap portable external hard drive scores similarly at Amazon.com.

If you want a rugged portable drive, and the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt (covered in our discussion of external portable hard drives) is overkill for your budget, the Silicon Power Armor A80 (Est. $55 for 500 GB) external hard drive is a low-cost option to consider. It's waterproof, and reviewers say it's quite durable. CNET says that its USB 3.0 interface offers "very fast" performance and  the drive is "compact and nice-looking." The Silicon Power Rugged Armor A15 (Est. $60 for 500 GB) is similar, but it lacks water resistance. It's also just a touch faster than the A80 in CNET's tests.

User reviews of the portable hard drive are largely positive. The A80 (and A15, as the reviews are lumped together on the site) earns a solid 4.1 rating following nearly 230 user reviews at Amazon.com. A healthy handful of Newegg.com contributors also weigh in on the Silicon Power A80 portable external drive, and it receives an overwhelming majority of 5-star ratings.

One contributor calls it "fast, quiet and durable." Another says "if you're looking for a rugged drive, this is an excellent external drive and is highly recommended." It comes with a three-year warranty. The A80 comes in a wealth of capacities, ranging from 320 GB to 1 TB, while the A15 is available in 500 GB, 750 GB and 1 TB configurations.