10 Best Portable Hard Drives with USB 3.0

When you want to carry huge amount of data in terms of photos, videos and files, then probably you will have to depend on USB pen drives. But the problem with USB pen drives is that the storage capacity is limited as of now to 32GB or 64B. This is where portable hard drives comes handy. They are powered by your Laptop’s or tablet’s USB drives and comes in 1 or 2TB storage options. Recently we had covered the best Thunderbolt drives available for your MacBook. Although USB 3.0 has only half the speed of Thunderbolt, it is still better than the conventional USB 2.0 which Windows PCs offer. Now most of the laptops come with USB 3.0 and here is the list of best 10 portable hard drives with USB 3.0 support.

Please note that these drives are also backward compatible with USB 2.0. Since the price of these devices vary, we have not mentioned it.

Best Portable Hard Drives with USB 3.0

1. WD Elements Portable:

WD Elements Portable is probably one of the cheapest portable hard drive with USB 3.0 support. The small, lightweight design offers high-capacity storage, making WD Elements portable hard drives the ideal companion for value-conscious consumers who want to take their important files with them. It is available in 500GB- 1TB storage sizes. It is formatted NTFS and compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. It can be reformatted for Mac.

2. WD My Passport Edge:

Offering high capacity in an ultra-compact design (extremely slim profile), My Passport Edge is the ideal companion for road warriors traveling light but needing to take their digital content on the road. The drive comes with WD’s automatic, continuous backup software which works quietly in the background to help protect your data using minimal PC resources. This version comes with a storage of 500GB.

3. WD My Passport:

My Passport is slightly bigger than My Passport Edge, but comes in higher storage capacity. Offering high capacity in a compact drive, My Passport is the ideal companion for anyone with lots of videos, photos, music, and files that they want to help protect and take on the road. It also features automatic backup and also password protection like the Passport Edge.

4. Buffalo Ministation Plus:

MiniStation Plus is a portable USB 3.0 hard drive featuring optional hardware encryption in a compact and lightweight chassis. Store and back up your files to take on the go with USB 3.0/2.0 plug and play connectivity. MiniStation Plus offers easy to use, shock resistant storage for PC or Mac with optional 256-bit AES hardware encryption. It is available in storage capacity of 500 GB – 2 TB.

5. Buffalo Ministation Extreme:

MiniStation Extreme is a rugged portable hard drive equipped with a unique wrap-around USB cable and optional secure hardware encryption. With USB 3.0 support and backward compatibility with USB 2.0, it works with both PC and Mac. MiniStation Extreme offers easy to use storage for PC or Mac with MIL-SPEC shock protection, an integrated wrap around USB cable and optional 256-bit AES hardware encryption. Available in different colors and supports storage sizes of 500 GB – 1 TB.

6. Buffalo Ministation Thunderbolt:

MiniStation Thunderbolt offers easy plug and play USB and Thunderbolt storage featuring the revolutionary Thunderbolt technology for unparalleled transfer speeds and a USB port for universal connectivity. With speeds up to 10 Gbps, the MiniStation Thunderbolt portable hard drive offers speeds 2X faster than USB 3.0, giving you the fastest portable storage interface ever. Perfect as a PC or Mac portable hard drive, the MiniStation Thunderbolt portable hard drive offers the latest and fastest connection interfaces available. Since this drive is thunderbolt enabled, the prices are also on the higher side. It comes in both 500GB and 1TB storage sizes.

7. Seagate Backup Plus Portable:

Seagate’s Backup Plus portable drive is the simple way to protect everything on your computer and everything you share online. Use it interchangeably on your PC or your Mac computer without reformatting. You can also easily upgrade to Thunderbolt technology or FireWire 800 with add-on adapters (sold separately). USB 3.0 is also backward compatible with USB 2.0.

8. Seagate Slim Portable Drive:

The Seagate Slim portable drive is one of the thinnest portable hard drives and also sleekest way yet to back up the things that are important to you.The Seagate Slim portable drive is more than just the slimmest portable external hard drive available, it also contains simple, intuitive software to make backing up what’s important to you a snap.  This amazing drive is about as thin as a pencil.

9. LaCie Rugged Mini:

As the name indicates, LaCie Rugged Mini is shock, rain, and pressure-resistant. It also comes with password protection and comes in storage sizes of 500GB and 1TB. Prices starts from $89.99 for the 500GB one.

10. LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0 :

The LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0 combines the fastest interface on the market with perfect portability. The tough aluminium casing combines form and function; it withstands bumps and jolts, but its sophisticated style sets it apart from other mobile hard drives. With interface speeds up to 5Gb/s and capacities available up to 1TB, the LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0 offers desktop-sized storage in a pocket-sized product.