External Drives

External hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) draw on AC power to deliver competitive storage, flexibility, and performance for personal needs and professional workflows.

Shop All External Drives

What is an external drive?

Our external drives deliver additional capacity, streamlined backup, and powerful speed and security — plus compatibility with your favorite devices — all from a footprint small enough for your workspace.

Whether you need one for your laptop or desktop, these hard drives and solid state drives add storage for family photos, gaming libraries, and data-intensive workflows — or for simple computer backup.

Unlike our portable drives, which are powered through their USB connections, external drives rely on a separate power source.

What’s the best external hard drive for PC and Mac?

Identifying the best external hard drives for PC and Mac depends on: 

How you plan to use it 
How much storage you need 
How fast you want to transfer and access data

If you’re using it as a backup drive for PC, then consider a plug-and-play option for Windows. There are also purpose-built external disk drives for Mac users. For maximum flexibility, you can go with a hard drive formatted to work with Mac or PC. 

What kind of external HDD or SSD should I get for my gaming PC? 

Looking for an external hard drive for a gaming PC? Evaluate your storage and speed requirements.

If speed is your main priority, then you may want a high-performance external SSD PC drive. If you want max capacity, look for an external PC hard drive, since HDDs typically offer lower cost per GB or TB of storage.

External Drives for Home Storage 

WD Drives

Find reliable, high-capacity external drives for everyday use, from home media and family photos to creative projects and regular computer backup.

Easy backup

Make it easier to save important files on your home computer with password-protected storage and intuitive backup software from WD.

Ready for PC and Mac

WD external drives come ready to use with Windows out of the box, along with options to work with Apple Time Machine on your Mac device.

Highly compatible

Connect across USB generations — 2.0, 3.0, and 3.2 Gen 1 — to power workflows with adaptable WD drives, such as My Book, My Book Duo, and WD Elements.

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Home is where the backup is

Add easy, flexible storage for a wide range of everyday needs — for photo libraries, computer backup, and more.

See more WD drives

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External Drives

What is an external drive?

What’s the best external hard drive for PC and Mac?

What kind of external HDD or SSD should I get for my gaming PC?

External Drives for Home Storage

Easy backup

Ready for PC and Mac

Highly compatible

Home is where the backup is

What kind of external HDD or SSD should I get for my gaming PC? 

External Drives for Home Storage 