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When it comes to the best external hard drives, there are three things that come to mind – speed, reliability, and portability.
It can be hard to tick all of those boxes, but if you know what functionality you need, our handpicked list of the best options should help. We’ve focused on some good, affordable choices from reliable manufacturers.
All options on our list include details about price, storage size, speed, USB/thunderbolt support, and other features like shock protection or included warranties.
The Most Affordable External Hard Drive – Seagate
If affordability is your concern, consider Seagate’s opening offering in the external hard drive space. Starting at $44.99 for 1TB on Amazon is reasonable, but the real value comes in the larger capacity drives.
For example, the 5TB option costs just $109.99. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better deal at this capacity.
For Mac users, you’ll need to reformat it, and there’s no USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt, just USB 2.0/3.0. For speeds, the real problem is the technology of the drive, though. It’s a standard hard disk drive with an RPM of just 5,400. This means read/write speeds of about 120MB/s.
What’s important here is you won’t be breaking the bank and this drive works as a great backup for all kinds of files. A 1 year limited warranty is included.
Most Affordable External SSD – Samsung T5 SSD
If you need speed but you’re on a budget, the Samsung T5 SSD is a great choice as an affordable external hard drive. Prices fluctuate, but a 500GB drive goes for $90-$120 and a 1TB drive for $150-$250 on Amazon.
The Samsung T5 uses USB 3.1. You can expect speeds of up to 540MB/520MB/s read/write. The drive is compatible with Mac, PC, and even Android.
There’s no shock protection, but so long as you’re careful when travelling, it shouldn’t be a concern. SSD’s do not use moving parts so there is less risk for damage. A 3-year limited warranty is included on purchase.
Most Affordable Thunderbolt External Drive – Buffalo MiniStation
If you absolutely need a Thunderbolt-compatible drive, you should consider the Buffalo MiniStation. The drive itself is only 5,400RPM, so it’ll only reach 120MB/s read/write, but it’s a cheap option for those that can’t go elsewhere. 1TB drives go for $127 and a 2TB option sells for $200 on Amazon.
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The Buffalo MiniStation has Thunderbolt 2 but it’s also compatible with USB. A 3 year limited warranty is included on purchase.
Biggest Storage Size – Seagate Desktop 8TB
If you need storage and lots of it, the Seagate Desktop 8TB External Hard Drive might take your fancy. This thing isn’t portable, but it’s the perfect setup for home or office use. You get 8TB of storage space in a 5,400 RPM drive. USB 3.0 is supported, so expect speeds of about 120MB/s for read/write.
This external hard drive also requires an external power source, which is included, so it’s best for setting up somewhere and leaving it there. Perhaps not the most convenient, but at just $140 on Amazon it’s great value. A one year limited warranty is included.
Best Rugged External Hard Drive – LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C
If you’re an adventurous type, the LaCie rugged external hard drive is for you. This drive is drop, splash, and dust resistant. You can feel confident taking it on an adventure day out or just as a backup drive you can drop into your backpack.
This drive is only a 5,400 RPM HDD, so you can only expect speeds of 120MB/s for read/write, but it’s a reasonable trade-off for decent protection. Prices start at $73.99 for 1TB with mini-USB 3.0, but if you want Thunderbolt and USB-C, you’ll need to get at least 2TB, which costs $169 on Amazon. Storage goes all the way up to 5TB for $249.
Purchasing the LaCie rugged drive will get you a three year limited warranty, 3-year data recovery service, and one month free of Adobe’s Creative Cloud All Apps plan.
Best Rugged External SSD – SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable
If safety is of utmost concern, we would highly recommend the SanDisk extreme portable external SSD over the LaCie rugged hard drive. SSDs are far safer as portable drives because they have no moving parts. The SanDisk extreme portable external SSD is also shock, water, and dust resistant.
As this is an SSD drive, you can get speeds of up to 550MB/500MB/s read/write. This external SSD also features USB 3.1 via USB type C.
Pricing starts at $71.99 for 250GB, with varying pricing tiers up to $269.99 for 2TB. A 3 year limited warranty is included.
Most Data Secure Drive – iStorage diskAshur2 256-bit 1TB
Need to secure your data? Take a look at the iStorage diskAshur2 external hard drive. Your files are protected real time with military grade AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption.
To access your files, you need to enter your PIN, which must include 7-15 digits. The drive won’t be recognized until it’s authenticated with the PIN. Once authenticated it will work with both Mac and Windows just like any standard drive.
The storage type used is a standard 5,400RPM HDD, so expect 120MB/s read/write. You are paying for the security here, though, not the speeds. Pricing starts at $200 for the 500GB version, but there are pricing tiers from 1TB ($220) up to 5TB ($583).
The iStorage diskAshur2 features a 3 year warranty. You can also find SSD variants on their website.
Most Portable SSD – KESU 1T
For $147, you’ll get a 1TB capacity SSD with read/write speeds of 540MB/420MB/s. The technology used includes USB 3.1 Type C for faster transfers, and it supports all major platforms including Windows and Mac.
The most important part is the size – it is 30% smaller lengthways and about half the width of an iPhone 11. A 3 year limited warranty is included.
Alternative Portable Drive – Corsair 1TB Flash Voyager GTX
Want something so portable it can fit in your pocket? The Corsair Flash Voyager GTX is a great option. This is actually a flash drive, but it uses 3D NAND memory and USB 3.1.
As a result, the Flash Voyager GTX can achieve speeds up to 440MB/s read/write. Pricing starts at $50.99 for 128GB and increases up to $279 for 1TB. This flash drive features a 5 year limited warranty.
Fastest External SSD – Plugable Thunderbolt 3 External SSD NVMe Drive
The Plugable external hard drive offers the fastest speeds for those with Thunderbolt 3 connections. No USB 3.0 is available. With NVME, you can expect speeds of up to 2,400MB/1,800MB/s read/write. You’ll only hit these speeds on larger files, though. You can read more about how it works here.
For $199 for 480GB, $299 for 1TB, or $499 for 2TB this is a pricy drive, but it’s worth paying if you really need blazing fast external storage. All drives from Plugable feature a 3 year limited warranty.
Summary :
Is your internal or external hard drive beeping or clicking abnormally, for example, Seagate hard drive? Take it easy now! Here we will help you troubleshoot a beeping/clicking Seagate hard drive while providing you with two effective methods to ensure data security.
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Hard Drive Making Clicking Noise or Beeping Sound
'I have a Seagate hard drive that I've used for maybe a year and it started beeping. I turned on my Xbox and the stuff on it doesn't show up on the console. 'Reddit
The hard drive is usually nearly silent, but sometimes it emits a muted clicking sound when it is being accessed or turned off. This is totally normal.
However, if you start hearing noises occasionally or sound that you haven't heard before like clicking, beeping, vibration or grinding, there might be something wrong. Some of you have complained about hard drives are making noises during operations such as connecting to your computers, transferring files, etc.
Reportedly, hard drive noise issue often happens on the Seagate external hard drive. Additionally, hard disk noise can also occur if you are using other brands of external hard drives like HGST, My Passport, Transcend, etc. An internal hard drive could also be beeping sometimes.
If your hard drive is making abnormal noises, the next thing to do is to determine if the hard drive is really faulty. If it is, continue reading to follow the instructions below to protect your disk data.
Simply Fix Seagate Hard Drive Beeping/Clicking
When your hard drive is making clicking or beeping noise, you can try the following five ways to troubleshoot this issue. Just follow the clear instructions below.
Way 1: Clear the Dust
Sometimes, the Seagate hard drive beeps if its port is dusty. Follow the guide below on how to clear the dust.
Step 1: Disconnect your external hard drive from the computer.
Step 2: Unplug the cable from your disk.
Step 3: Blow into the ports of your computer, hard drive, and cable.
Step 4: Reconnect the hard drive to the PC via the same cable and check whether the hard drive beeping issue still happens.
Way 2: Use Another Cable
Sometimes the hard drive clicking or beeping noise disappears when the power cable is plugged in but returns when you attach the data cable to the hard disk. In this case, perhaps the problem is caused by a damaged data cable.
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You can try using a different cable to connect your external hard drive to the computer. After that, see if the beeping or clicking sound is gone.
Way 3: Plug Your Disk to Another Port
Another cause of your Seagate hard drive beeping may be a faulty port. So try connecting it to a different USB port, then see if hard drive noise is gone afterward.
Way 4: Use a USB Y-cable or Plug to a USB Hub
Your Seagate external hard drive might beep when there isn't enough power to support it. Therefore, you can try using a USB Y-cable - a cable with two connectors - to get rid of beeping sound. You should make sure the two connectors are plugged to your computer tightly.
Alternatively, you can use a USB hub to connect your hard drive to your PC instead of connecting it directly. Now see if the hard drive is still making the same beeping noise.
Way 5: Connect Your External Hard Drive to Another Computer
The hard drive beeping/clicking sound may still exist even after trying the methods above. In this case, you can try connecting the target hard drive to another computer.
Unfortunately, it is very common for the methods above to not be sufficient to help you out. If the beeping sound or clicking noise persists, perhaps the hard drive has failed. So what should you do? Let's go to the next section to find the solution.
Check Your Disk in Case of Hard Drive Beeping or Clicking
To check your Seagate hard drive, you can use the Windows CHKDSK command line tool. Please make sure the disk can be recognized by your PC, then follow the steps below: (we use Windows 10 as an example):
Step 1: Connect the target disk to your computer.
Step 2: Type CMD in the search box, and then right-click this tool to run Command Prompt as administrator.
Step 3: Type the following command and press the Enter key:
chkdsk g: /r
Note: G refers to the drive letter of the partition on your external hard drive. If there is more than one partition, please replace the drive letter and repeat step 3.
Additionally, you can also use a professional hard drive testing software to check the external hard drive when your disk beeps. Here, we recommend using MiniTool Partition Wizard; its Surface Test feature can be used to check whether there are bad sectors on the drive.
After launching MiniTool Partition Wizard, choose your Seagate external hard drive, click Surface Test and then click Start Now. If bad blocks exist, this tool will mark them in red.
Warning: This software cannot shield bad sectors if it finds any. This post - What to Do If I Find Bad Sectors on Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7 will be helpful to you. After that, you can continue using this disk. But here comes a question: what if the data saved on the hard drive is important to you? Under this circumstance, we recommend protecting your data first and foremost.
Keep Data Safe in Case of Hard Drive Beeping/Clicking due to Disk Failure
If you are certain that your external hard drive is causing the strange noises, it's time for you to protect the data security now. Take it easy, we will show you two useful methods below.
Way 1: Back up External Hard Drive
Note: If you hear the external hard drive beeping but it is still recognizable by the computer, please immediately back up the data on it if possible.
The best way to back up your data is to use a piece of professional and free backup software - MiniTool ShadowMaker. As a reliable and safe backup program, it helps you back up files/folders, Windows operating system, disk or partition in simple clicks.
In addition to disk imaging, it offers other two kinds of backup methods: disk cloning and file syncing. The disk cloning method backs up all the data on the external hard drive. The syncing method quickly synchronizes your important files to other locations; these files can be viewed directly.
Now, download MiniTool ShadowMaker for free from the button below and have a try now for data protection.
Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker, click Keep Trial and then click the Connect button from This Computer.
Step 2: Go to the Backup page, click the Source module, enter Folders and Files to choose the important files on the external hard drive that you want to back up.
Step 3: Choose the destination path to save the file backup image. Here, you can back up your crucial data to a USB flash drive, or your internal hard drive.
Step 4: After that, you can click Back up Now to start backing up files.
If you don't want to back up files to an image in case of hard drive beeping, you can choose to sync files. To do this, enter the Sync page, choose the source files and target path and start syncing files.
You can also back up the disk data via disk cloning in the event of Seagate hard drive clicking/beeping. MiniTool ShadowMaker offers a feature called Clone Disk that can transfer all information on the external drive to another hard drive.
Note: The target disk needs enough disk space to hold all the data on the external hard drive that keeps beeping.
Go to the Tools page, choose your external hard drive as the source disk, select another hard disk as the target disk and then start cloning.
Tip: In addition to MiniTool ShadowMaker, MiniTool Partition Wizard can also help you clone the external hard drive for data backup. Learn more in this post - How to Clone a Hard Drive to SSD in Windows 10/8/7.
In conclusion, MiniTool ShadowMaker is really useful for backing up your important files in case of hard drive noise. Now, don't hesitate to download it to create a file backup image, sync files or clone disk.
After finishing the backup, you should consider replacing the hard drive. If MiniTool has helped you, you can share this software with your friends.
Way 2: Recover Data from Seagate Hard Drive with Beeping/Clicking Sound
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In addition to backing up data using MiniTool ShadowMaker, you might prefer recovering data from the hard drive that keeps beeping. If your disk can still be recognized in the event of hard drive beeping, you can choose to perform a data recovery easily with a third-party program.
To do this operation, we recommend MiniTool Power Data Recovery, one of the best hard drive recovery software. It enables easy and effective recovery of files, pictures, videos, etc. from a damaged hard drive without bringing any damage to the original data.
Additionally, it scans not only deleted or lost files but also existing files on your hard drive. Why not download MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial Edition for free to your Windows 10/8/7 computer and try it now?
Note: MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial can only be used to scan the hard drive but not to restore files. Here, you can use this edition to check whether your needed data is found. If so, upgrade to its full edition.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial Edition to its main interface, then choose a proper recovery module to continue.
If your Seagate external hard drive has only one partition that is recognized, you can use This PC. If the hard drive has more than one partition or the partitions are not showing up, try using Hard Disk Drive to scan the entire disk. Here, we take the latter as an example.
Then, choose the disk that is beeping clicking, and click the Scan button to start a scan.
Step 2: The entire external hard drive is now being scanned. To get the best recovery, wait patiently until the scan completes.
After that, you can go check whether your needed files are scanned and discovered. Unfold each partition in Path, or take full advantages of these features: Find, Filter or Type to search for files.
Note: If MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial discovered files that you need, you should upgrade to its full edition Personal Deluxe for a full recovery operation. After getting a license, click the Register button to activate this software.
Step 3 (after purchasing the full edition): Check all the files required and then click Save to restore them to a safe location.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is able to recover data after hard drive crash effectively and rapidly; you can try it yourself.
Tip: Maybe your Seagate external hard drive beeps 11 times but not recognized with a flashing light or you meet hard drive beeping and not booting. In this case, the disk is completely damaged an unusable; there is not any way to retrieve the data back. The only option is to contact the disk manufacturer for help.
Bottom Line
Is your Seagate external hard drive beeping or clicking? Try these simple solutions to fix it! If they didn't work and your drive is corrupted, check the disk and try your best to back up or recover important files from the disk.
If you have any suggestion to get rid of hard drive beeping/clicking noise or experience any question when using MiniTool software, please inform of us by sending an email to [email protected] or leaving a comment below.