Whether you’re an artist, photographer, gamer, IT guru, or anyone in between, some extra storage space is always nice to have for your digital library. An external hard drive is a great way to add storage space, and with the announcement of the Prime Day 2022 date, you can bet Prime Day deals will include some great discounts on external hard drives. The Amazon sales event will be taking place on July 12 and 13, but we’re already starting to see some external hard drives at a discount. Read on for more details on the best external hard drives currently seeing a discount, and for more information on what to expect from the Prime Day external hard drive deals.
Today’s Best Prime Day External Hard Drive Deals
- WD Easystore 1TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive —
- LaCie Rugged Mini 1TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive —
- WD My Passport 5TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive —
- WD Easystore 14TB USB 3.0 external hard drive —
WD Easystore 1TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive — $45, was $85
Why Buy
- Affordability
- USB 3.0 interface
- Portable yet plenty of storage
- Automatic backup features
If you have a ton of digital assets and you’re working or playing on a budget, the WD Easystore is a great external hard drive option. It will pair well with any of the best laptops, but if you’re looking to keep expenditure down across the board, it will also sit nicely alongside one of the best laptops under $500. Its USB 3.0 interface offers an easy-to-use connection, and its backward compatible with USB 2.0 for simple connection to older computers.
The WD Easystore comes with a massive 1TB of storage space, and you can load it up with games, photos, video, or any media format you’re looking to house. It’s a particularly great option if you have a lot of media that you don’t access regularly, as it’s able to tuck easily into a drawer without taking up much space when it’s not in use. Its portability can also be enticing for users who collaborate and exchange media regularly, and anyone who likes to do their work away from their desk.
The WD Easystore is compatible with Mac and PC, and it even comes with automatic backup options. It allows you to use compatible software to back up your files to a server, and it’s equipped with WD Backup software, which simply needs to be downloaded before setting up your hourly, daily, or monthly backup schedule.
LaCie Rugged Mini 1TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive — $80, was $85
Why Buy
- Super portable design
- Shock and drop resistance
- USB 3.0 interface
- 1TB of storage space
With their usage ranging from the desktop to the coffee shop to out in the field for photography and video shoots, external hard drives have become more durable over the years. This is particularly true with LaCie’s Rugged lineup, which offers fast external hard drives in durable casings. This Mini 1TB version of the LaCie Rugged hard drive is its most portable model, and is ready to go wherever you go.
The portable design of the LaCie Rugged Mini is great for students and travelers, or anyone who wants to keep their desktop less cluttered. With its rugged design, it also offers shock and drop resistance of up to 4 feet, and it’s also dust and water resistant for all-terrain use. It’s even capable of withstanding the weight of a 1-ton car.
This LaCie Rugged Mini comes with a massive 1TB of storage space, and a USB 3.0 interface that’s compatible with both Mac and Windows platforms. It has password protection built in for security, whether you’re using it on the go or in a busy office environment. It provides fast transfer speeds of up to 130MB/s, and LaCie’s Toolkit software offers on-demand, one-click backup.
WD My Passport 5TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive — $110, was $150
Why Buy
- Portable design
- Massive storage capacity
- USB 3.2 interface
- Automatic backup options
Western Digital’s My Passport external hard drive lineup has been the go-to option for creatives and people who work with massive amounts of files. For a relatively small price, a My Passport external hard drive will get your supreme portability and massive amounts of storage space. This model is a 5TB model, which is a ton of digital storage space, even for the likes gamers, video editors, and people with huge photo libraries.
Even with its massive amount of storage capability, the WD My Passport external hard drive still remains as portable as it gets when it comes to an external hard drive. It’s a cool sidekick to all of the best laptops, and it’s ready to go with you anywhere, whether that’s to work at the coffee shop, at a client’s office, or even just on the living room couch.
WD Discovery software allows the My Passport external hard drive to connect to popular social media and cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive, and its USB 3.2 interface offers an easy-to-use connection to devices that include both Mac and Windows operating systems. Automatic backup options come with the My Passport external hard drive as well, ensuring you keep all of your favorite digital media safe and secure.
WD Easystore 14TB USB 3.0 external hard drive — $250, was $363
Why Buy
- Massive 14TB storage capacity
- Small desktop footprint
- Fast USB 3.0 interface
- Easy-to-use backup features
If massive amounts of storage are what you need to house your digital media, or to provide the storage space you need for your business or creative projects, the Western Digital Easystore offers a massive 14TB of external hard drive space. Unlike a portable hard drive, it’s meant to remain part of your desktop setup, and despite that and its massive amounts of storage, it maintains a small footprint, keeping desktop clutter at a minimum.
And while the WD Easystore external hard drive is meant for desktop use, it certainly can pack up easily and move. Its USB 3.0 interface makes for fast transfer times and easy compatibility. It’s compatible with both Mac and Windows, and it’s even backward compatible with devices that use a USB 2.0 interface.
Backup features are easy to implement with the WD Easystore external hard drive, as it comes with WD Discovery, backup software that lets you set hourly, daily, or monthly backup schedules and makes it easy to back up high-capacity files to the hard drive. It’s also compatible with Apple Time Machine, ensuring Apple users can keep their entire computer backed up if need be.
External Hard Drive Deals FAQ
When do the Prime Day external hard drive deals start?
Prime Day first took place in 2015, and since then it has become a regular staple of the summer sales season. With the announcement that Prime Day 2022 will be taking place on July 12 and 13, you can now plan on those two days as the main event of Prime Day external hard drive deals. We’re expecting deals on all of the major external hard drive brands, including LaCie, Western Digital, and SanDisk. In fact, Prime Day has become a great time to expect discounts on all sorts of computer tech, so it’s likely that if you’re in the market for an external hard drive, you’ll be likely to find a discount on the one you want this Prime Day.
But while Prime Day centers on two days in mid-July, it’s not uncommon to see sales in the days and even weeks leading up to the event. Retailers like to capitalize on attention when they have it, and with Prime Day having become such a known sales commodity, you can pretty much expect to find great external hard drives like the ones listed above throughout early July. The Prime Day dates of July 12 and 13 may be the main event, but there’s going to be a lot of great external hard drive deals making up the undercard as the calendar gets closer and closer to Prime Day.
Where are the best Prime Day external hard drive deals?
Prime Day is an Amazon event, so the retail giant is a certainty when it comes to landing a great Prime Day external hard drive deal. In past events, Amazon has offered discounts on all sorts of great tech, including external hard drives. But with the popularity of Prime Day over the years, other retailers have learned how to turn some of the hype in their direction by offering great discounts in the days and weeks leading into Prime Day as well. This has led the event to become more of a shopping season than a singular event, and many retailers will be in on the hype.
If you’re in the market for a new external hard drive, odds are you’ll be able to find a Prime Day external hard drive deal just about anywhere that sells hard drives. While some of the best Prime Day external hard drive deals are likely to take place at Amazon, pretty much every electronics retailer is in play for a discount. This brings the likes of Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and Staples to the Prime Day party, and you can even keep an eye on electronics retailers such as Newegg, GameStop, B&H Photo Video, and Adorama, as they regular sell and discount external hard drives.
Keeping track of everything you need to know about catching a Prime Day external hard drive deal can feel like a lot, which is why one of the best places to look for a deal this Prime Day is right here at Digital Trends. We’re always on the lookout for all of the tech that makes your digital life more fun, convenient, and affordable. We’ll be keeping an eye out for external hard drive deals not just on Prime Day itself but also in the days and weeks leading up to it. The best external hard drive deals currently taking place are listed above, but they’ll change regularly as Prime Day approaches, and we’ll be here to keep you updated on the most current external hard drive deals you can find.
Should you shop external hard drive deals now or wait until Prime Day?
If you find a solid discount, or a deal on an external hard drive that suits your needs, there’s really no bad time to pounce on it. A deal is a deal, and there’s no telling if a better one is going to come along. You can never know for certain if the future will hold a better deal on the external hard drive you have your eye on, and holding out hope for a better deal for too long could cause you not only to miss out on a deal but also miss out on a hard drive. Supply chain constraints are still causing manufacturing and inventory problems, and with so many external hard drives going on during Prime Day and its leadup, products selling out is a real possibility.
Waiting until Prime Day to grab a deal on an external hard drive can have its benefits too, however. Amazon is known for drastically slashing products on certain pieces of tech, and while it’s an unpredictable game, external hard drives do see discounts pretty often throughout the year, making them a prime candidate for an even larger discount come Prime Day.
If you absolutely need an external hard drive right now and you’ve found a deal on the one that suits your needs, you can pounce on it knowing you got a deal. But if you’re not in a hurry and have an interest in potentially saving even more, it can be worth it to wait and see what sorts of external hard drive deals Prime Day has in store for you. Either way, the best time to grab a deal is while it’s guaranteed. So if you’re in need of a new external hard drive, don’t let Prime Day come and go without grabbing a deal. The next major sales season isn’t until much later in the year with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so ensure you walk away from Prime Day sales season with a deal on the tech you need now.
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