The best Black Friday external hard drive deals 2019 – updated LIVE

Now is the time to snap up a Black Friday external hard drive deal! These are the unexpected hit of this year’s sales – Black Friday external hard drive deals are popping up here there and everywhere, and practically flying off the shelves. There’s no false economy here; retailers are offering discounts on the most popular and reliable brands. We’re updating this article with all the best Black Friday external hard drive deals as they go live – read down for our pick of the deals. We’ll continue to curate offers over the weekend, then bring you the best Cyber Monday external hard drive deals on 2 December.

Whether you want to upgrade your storage with a hefty hard drive or are on the hunt for a super-fast SSD, we’re here to help you snag a great Black Friday external hard drive deal. The best offers are getting snapped up quickly, so if you’ve been holding off making a purchase, now’s probably the time to take the plunge. Need some guidance on which option to go for? Explore our guide to the best external hard drives and SSDs first. 

All the Black Friday chat might be focused on fancier products, but a reliable external hard drive is an incredibly useful bit of kit to have, and now is a great time to pick up some extra storage without shelling out a small fortune. Of course, if you are after something more exciting, you can always explore our roundups of the top Microsoft Black Friday deals or Apple Black Friday deals, or browse our general guide to nailing Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019.

Let’s take a look at the best Black Friday external hard drive deals available right now.

US: The best Black Friday external hard drive deals

• Jump straight to the UK deals

UK: The best Black Friday external hard drives deals

The best UK deals

The best Black Friday/Cyber Monday external hard drive deals: Our predictions for 2019

Let’s be clear: external drives aren’t especially sexy tech, so you’re not going to see much in the way of headline-grabbing Black Friday hard drive deals. If you’re after a bargain external drive then you’re going to have to look hard for it… or you would, if we weren’t here to do the hard work for you.

Your best bet for a getting a great deal on an external drive is to keep an eye on the big hitters. Companies such as Western Digital, Seagate, LaCie and Sandisk are notable for having large ranges of external drives, and they’re introducing new models on a pretty regular basis.

This means that come Black Friday and Cyber Monday, they’re likely to have plenty of stock of models that have either been recently superseded by a newer version, or simply aren’t selling as well as other external drives in their range, and these will be the most obvious candidates for the best deals. And we’re already seeing a few deals from these brands emerge as Black Friday approaches.

Our top tip for Black Friday and Cyber Monday external hard drive bargains is to look out for Western Digital offers. It has a huge range of external drives on offer, and there’s usually at least one bargain to be found among them; we expect there to be some great opportunities to nab a lot of storage for not very much cash.

How to get the best external hard drive deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019

If you have your heart set on Black Friday external hard drive deals then the best thing you can do is start looking out for them now. There’s an increasing amount of competition between retailers to shift their discounted stock, so every year we’re seeing stores and sites kick off their Black Friday sales earlier.

Figure out your budget and exactly what kind of drive you’re looking for. If you need plenty of storage and aren’t too worried about transfer speeds then you should probably concentrate on old-fashioned hard drives; they might not be fast but they’ll give you a lot more gigabytes for your buck.

If speed’s important, though, you should look for an SSD instead. They’re fast and reliable, and because they have no moving parts they’re a lot more suitable for taking out and about with you. The downside is that you get a lot less storage than you would from a comparably priced hard disk; that said as the technology matures you can now get a decent chunk of storage at a pretty reasonable price.

Which brand of external hard drive is best?

Always look for big name brands such as Western Digital, Seagate, LaCie or Sandisk when you’re searching for an external drive; not only are these where you’ll probably find the best deals, you can also be much more certain of getting a reliable drive that won’t fail on you. If you spot a dirt-cheap drive from a brand you’ve never heard of, look around for reviews to get an idea of its reliability; it could be cheap for a very good reason, and it’s probably not where you want to stash your important backups.

Don’t forget to check an assortment of retailers for the biggest choice. Amazon’s Black Friday deals are always worth a look, but explore some other online stores as well. Some of them might have cashback offers that could save you a bit extra, so that’s always worth looking out for. Very, Best Buy and Walmart are also worth keeping an eye on. 

Which is the most reliable hard drive?

All the big names we’ve already mentioned, such as Western Digital, Seagate, LaCie or Sandisk or Samsung produce reliable hard drives, but the best way to be absolutely sure of your purchase is to make sure it comes with a guarantee. 

Use the same common sense that you would when making any purchase online; check the guarantee, make sure you’re buying from a reputable store, and keep your receipt just in case you change your mind later on.

External hard drive features/specs that creatives should look out for

Once you’ve decided whether you need a hard disk or an SSD, the key thing to look for is the amount of storage you’ll get. It all depends on your needs, naturally; 500GB is probably fine if you don’t work with enormous files, but if your business involves videos then you’re probably well into terabyte territory.

Beyond that, the most important thing to check is what type of connections an external drive has. At the very minimum you’ll need a USB 3.0 connection; anything less and you’ll be waiting ages for your files to transfer back and forth. If you have a recent Mac then it may have a Thunderbolt 3 port; if so, try to find a drive that’s compatible and you’ll get lightning-fast transfer speeds.

3 external hard drive to look out for on Black Friday/Cyber Monday

Western Digital My Passport 4TB

The overall best external hard drive for Mac or PC

Capacity: 4TB | Interface: USB 3.0

Large capacity

Good data transfer speeds

WD backup software is basic

For an excellent all-round external hard drive, you’ll have a tough job beating Western Digital’s My Passport 4TB. The latest generation features excellent transfer speeds and cloud storage options as well as 256-AES encryption to keep your files safe, and WD’s backup software will take care of transferring your data.

Samsung Portable SSD T5

The all-round best external SSD

Capacity: 500GB, 1TB or 2TB | Interface: USB 3.0

Great performance

Very high capacity

No USB Type-C

If speed’s more important to you than capacity, this external SSD from Samsung ought to do the trick. The Samsung T5 SSD performs brilliantly, with speeds up to 550 MB/sec. It plugs directly into PCs and Macs with either a USB-C port or USB-A, is roughly the size of a matchbox and, as a solid state device, contains no moving parts, so can survive being dropped unlike a hard disk.

Western Digital My Book Duo 16TB

The best high capacity external drive for your Mac or PC

Huge amounts of space

RAID support

Expensive

Requires two free USB 3.0 ports

Serious about protecting your files? This 16TB monster from Western Digital is for you. You can either use the full 16TB, or you can instead run the My Book Duo’s two 8TB drives in a RAID configuration, meaning that should one fail you’ll still have a safe backup on the other. This USB 3.0 drive also features 256-bit AES encryption and automatic backup software; bear in mind though that it’s formatted for Windows, so if you’re on a Mac it’ll need reformatting.

Today’s best pre-Black Friday external hard drive deals

What’s that? You can’t wait until Black Friday to grab to grab a lovely external hard drive deal? Fear not; we’ve found all the best deals available right now.

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• Wacom Black Friday 2019: what to expect this year
• 10 top tips for making the most of Black Friday
• The best Black Friday and Cyber Monday laptop deals