Cloud storage sounds great until you realize you’ll have to pay monthly fees forever and hope your internet connection stays strong when you need to get to something important. External hard drives solve both problems by letting you physically control your files without having to pay for them over and over again. Plus, with 2TB of space, you can store about 500,000 photos or hundreds of hours of video before you even think about running out of space.
Because it works right away with almost any device you own and only needs a USB cable to start transferring files, Seagate’s portable drive has become one of Amazon’s most popular storage options. This Black Friday weekend, the price of the 2TB model dropped from $79 to $64, which is the lowest it’s ever been for a drive that is always one of the best-selling in its category.
Storage That Works Everywhere
The drive connects through USB 3.0 which in real-world tests speeds up transfers to 120MB per second which means that moving a full movie file takes less than a minute instead of the slow speed you’d have to deal with with older USB 2.0 connections.
You can also plug it right into Windows PCs, Macs, PlayStation consoles, or Xbox systems without having to install drivers or reformat it in most cases because is because Seagate ships the drive with broad compatibility already set up. People who use Macs may need to reformat their drives for Time Machine backups, but this only takes a few clicks, and once you set it up, the drive does backups automatically without any problems.
The metal case protects the device well from small drops and bumps but if you’re putting it in a backpack with other gear, you should get a padded case. Seagate offers a one-year rescue service that includes data recovery in case the drive fails which gives you peace of mind because professional recovery services usually cost hundreds of dollars and can’t always guarantee results.
The USB connection provides power directly so you don’t need a separate power adapter that could get lost in a drawer or make your desk look messy. You can use this drive anywhere there is a USB port like in coffee shops or airport lounges, without having to look for an outlet. The drive spins at 5400 RPM which is a good balance between speed and reliability and it also uses very little power so it can be used with laptops without draining the battery.
This drive can be used as extra storage for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X systems that fill up their internal storage faster than you can delete old games. You can store PS4 and Xbox One games on the drive and play them right away without having to copy them back to the console’s internal storage. However, you have to transfer PS5 and Series X games back to the console’s SSD before you can play them.
For $64, you can get 2TB of reliable storage that is $20 to $50 less than most other drives. Plus, you get Seagate’s reputation for durability and a rescue service, so you don’t have to worry about buying an unknown brand. The price works out to about 3 cents per gigabyte, which is better than cloud storage subscriptions after just a few months of use.
