Shop for hard drives

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.5 stars Spectacular

  Overall score: 9.1 (4.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: The Buffalo DriveStation DDR is by far the fastest single-volume external drive on the market and makes USB 3.0 a true alternative storage connection to Thunderbolt. Read review

• CNET Editor rating:
  3.5 stars Very good

  Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: The Patriot Aero is a fast and competent mobile drive that unfortunately doesn't have enough new features to make it stand out. Read review

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.2 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: Versatile, good-looking, and fast enough for most applications, the Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt HD-PATU3 makes an excellent buy for those looking for a portable Thunderbolt storage device. Read review

Specs: 1 TB, External hard drive

• CNET Editor rating:
  3.5 stars Very good

  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: The Samsung 840 series is an excellent entry-level solid-state drive for budget and general users, but not really a good buy for advanced or professional users. Read review

Specs: 250 GB, Internal hard drive, 2.5" Ultra Slim Line

• CNET Editor rating:
  0.0 stars

  Overall score: 0.0 (0.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

Specs: 180 GB, Internal hard drive, 2.5" x 1/8H

• CNET Editor rating:
  3.5 stars Very good

  Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: With very good performance and even better pricing, the SanDisk Extreme makes a great replacement drive for a standard laptop or desktop computer. Read review

Specs: 240 GB, Internal hard drive, Serial ATA-600, 2.5" x 1/8H

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.3 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: Fast, flexible, rugged, and affordable, the LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt is one of the best high-end portable drives on the market. Read review

Specs: 120 GB, External hard drive

• CNET Editor rating:
  3.5 stars Very good

  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: The Samsung 840 series is an excellent entry-level solid-state drive for budget and general users, but not really a good buy for advanced or professional users. Read review

Specs: 250 GB, Internal hard drive, 2.5" Ultra Slim Line

• CNET Editor rating:
  0.0 stars

  Overall score: 0.0 (0.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

Specs: 4 TB, External hard drive

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.2 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 1.0 stars out of 1 review

The Bottom Line: Versatile, good-looking, and fast enough for most applications, the Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt HD-PATU3 makes an excellent buy for those looking for a portable Thunderbolt storage device. Read review

Specs: 500 GB, External hard drive

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.0 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: The Samsung 840 Pro lives up to its name: it's a top-notch solid-state drive for professionals with a price to match. Read review

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.0 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 5.0 stars out of 2 reviews

The Bottom Line: So far, the Crucial m4 offers the best value among SSDs. Though it's not the fastest, it's by far the most affordable among its peers. Read review

Specs: 256 GB, Internal hard drive, Serial ATA-600, 2.5" x 1/8H

• CNET Editor rating:
  3.5 stars Very good

  Overall score: 7.6 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: If you're moving up from a hard drive, the SanDisk Ultra Plus is totally worth its price. Read review

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.2 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 2 reviews

The Bottom Line: Storage-hungry users, especially tech-savvy ones, will find the Seagate Barracuda XT a great balance of storage space, backward compatibility, and speedy performance. Read review

Specs: 3 TB, Internal hard drive, Serial ATA-600, 3.5" x 1/3H, 64 MB, 7200 rpm

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.1 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: If priced a little lower, the Intel 520 Series SSD would be an ideal investment for those who want to greatly improve their computer's overall performance. For now, it's still an excellent drive. Read review

Specs: 180 GB, Internal hard drive, 2.5" x 1/8H

• CNET Editor rating:
  0.0 stars

  Overall score: 0.0 (0.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

Specs: 4 TB, External hard drive

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.4 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 4 reviews

The Bottom Line: Even with the slightly low USB 3.0 performance, the GoFlex Ultra still makes an excellent portable external hard drive for people who need to expand their computer's storage. Read review

Specs: 1 TB, External hard drive, Hi-Speed USB

• CNET Editor rating:
  3.5 stars Very good

  Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 23 reviews

The Bottom Line: The Hitachi Easy Hard Drive packs a lot of capacity and fast performance into an easy-to-use external drive. We recommend it. Read review

• CNET Editor rating:
  0.0 stars

  Overall score: 0.0 (0.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 5.0 stars out of 20 reviews

Specs: 2 TB, External hard drive, 7200 rpm

• CNET Editor rating:
  0.0 stars

  Overall score: 0.0 (0.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

Specs: 4 TB, Internal hard drive, 3.5" x 1/3H, 64 MB, 8.5 ms

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.0 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 3 reviews

The Bottom Line: While other external hard drives offer built-in backup software, automatic data encryption, or rugged casing protection, the Transcend StoreJet 25F only promises, and delivers, the fastest data transfers at the lowest price. The missing FireWire prevents us from giving this Transcend an Editors' Choice award, but we still highly recommend this drive to storage hounds who don't mind USB 2.0. Read review

Specs: 500 GB, External hard drive, Hi-Speed USB, 2.5"

• CNET Editor rating:
  3.5 stars Very good

  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: The Kingston SSDNow KC100 Upgrade Bundle Kit makes a great buy for first-time SSD upgrader. Read review

Specs: 120 GB, Serial ATA-600, 2.5" x 1/8H

• CNET Editor rating:
  0.0 stars

  Overall score: 0.0 (0.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

Specs: 256 GB, Internal hard drive, 2.5"

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.3 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 1.0 stars out of 2 reviews

The Bottom Line: The G-Tech G-Drive Mobile's Mac-friendly formatting, triple interface design, and snappy throughput performance make it a worthwhile storage solution for Apple users. Read review

Specs: 500 GB, External hard drive, 8 MB, 5400 rpm

• CNET Editor rating:
  4.0 stars Excellent

  Overall score: 8.0 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 0 stars No reviews, write one!

The Bottom Line: The OCZ Octane SSD makes an excellent host drive for any laptop or desktop. It offers great value in terms of performance and cost, especially for an SSD. Read review

Specs: 256 GB, Internal hard drive, Serial ATA-600, 2.5" x 1/8H, 512 MB