It’s thicker and tougher-looking than your typical SSD or flash drive and includes a detachable stand with rubber feet to prevent it from shifting wherever you put it. But it’s really its design that sets it apart. On its surface, then, the WD Black D30 gaming unit isn’t that special (it has a transfer speed of up to 900MBps, which is basically what a console’s USB 3.1 connection is limited to).
The PS5 has the same restriction – you can only store full PS4 games on external drives.
Please note that with Xbox Series X, you can only archive Xbox Series X and S games on this drive, you cannot store entire games on it (Seagate storage expansion card is required for that). You can use any SSD with your PlayStation PS4 / PS5 or Xbox One, Xbox One Series X or Series S to store PS4 and Xbox One games and other content and get a nice speed boost when loading games compared to a standard external hard drive. The Xbox Series X offers a property Storage expansion card made by Seagate, but it costs $ 220. The PS5 can store and play PS4 games from an external drive, but not PS5 games The Xbox Series X can store Series X games, but you will have to transfer them to the main SSD in order to play them. And be sure to encrypt your data too.Īn important note for console gamers is that newer PS5 Y Xbox Series X (and Series S) consoles are much more restrictive on the use of external drives. Ideally, you’ll want redundant backups, either off-site or using cloud storage for key data and large files (like family photos) in the event of theft or fire. But if they are not included, you can easily buy dongles for about $ 10.Īnd remember: a single backup is not enough. Many of them include cables or adapters to accommodate USB-C and USB-A ports. Unless otherwise noted, all of the PC drives mentioned here are compatible with Windows, but can be formatted for Mac.
But many times they will be designated to work with a specific platform out of the box and sometimes they will come with backup software that is platform specific. Most of the options on this list of the best external hard drive models will work on all platforms, whether you have a Windows PC, Mac computer, PlayStation 4, or Xbox, as long as the drives are formatted correctly for the platform. Read and write up to four times faster, but costs significantly more per gigabyte. A solid state drive has no moving parts and the external SSD has speed. Prices have dropped significantly in recent years, even high-capacity external hard drive models tip the scales at 5TB but cost just over $ 100. USB-C and USB 3.0 (as well as 3.1 / 3.2) interfaces. One way to manage it all is to find the best external hard drive and SSD for your needs.Ī traditional hard drive or a mechanical drive that uses “old” hard drive technology (mechanical platters and a read / write moving head to access data) is suitable for most users, thanks to the faster technology. And most newer computers don’t come with a lot of internal hard drive storage space – unless you’re splurging on a higher-end model, they’re usually 256GB or 512GB. Today’s game consoles come with 1TB drives (equivalent to roughly 1,000GB of hard drive storage), but the drives fill up quickly if you’re not good at removing games from the drive as you add more.