The 10 Best Mechanical Hard Drive, Tested And Researched

Piers Anthony By, Piers Anthony
Updated
Best Mechanical Hard Drive
Best Mechanical Hard Drive

The Rundown

1. Best Overall: Seagate 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD

This 2TB Seagate external hard drive offers speeds of up to 5 Gbps and features a sleek design. It is simple to use with its one-touch backup button that lets you easily schedule backups, and easily share content between your home computer and portable device. Read Review

2. Best For The Price: WD_BLACK 5TB P10 External Hard Drive HDD

The WD Black P10 5TB External Hard Drive HDD offers up to three times faster performance than a standard desktop hard drive. With its large capacity, this 5TB drive can store up to 125 full-length movies or 2,400 hours of high-definition 1080p video. Read Review

3. Best Compatible: UnionSine 2TB Ultr0a Hard Drive

With no software to install, just plug and play, this hard drive is designed to make storage easy and convenient. It is NTFS formatted, and features a signal shielding layer that ensures faster transmission speed and uninterrupted, stable data storage. Read Review

4. Best Technology: Seagate BarraCuda 4TB Internal Hard Drive HDD

The Seagate 4TB Internal HDD is a compact and powerful hard drive that offers the speed and capacity you need to hold all of your important data. With its 3.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB Cache, this internal hard drive offers an industry standard for data storage. Read Review

5. Best Speed: SP Silicon Power 2TB Portable External Hard Drive

The SP 2TB Portable External Hard Drive is a shockproof, waterproof and dust-proof HDD that lets you store a lifetime of memories. It features sturdy aluminum alloy material for extra protection with an anti-scratch coating to prevent scratches on your beautiful photos. Read Review

The hard drive is probably the most important component of your PC. You can’t run any programs, access stored files or save anything to your computer without a hard drive. That’s why it’s so important to find the best mechanical hard drive for your needs and budget. A great hard drive won’t just keep your operating system and programs stable. It will also protect your data by preventing them from becoming unreadable through wear and tear, shock, humidity, temperature, magnetic fields and other environmental influences.

If you’re like most people, you probably have dozens of digital files stored on your computer right now. With a good hard drive, you can quickly access all those files when you need them. There are many factors that go into picking the best mechanical hard drive for you. These include price, storage capacity, file transfer speeds, and reliability. We have taken all these factors into consideration and come up with our list of the top 10 mechanical drives available on the market today.

We think the best mechanical hard drive available now is Seagate 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD. This USB 3.0 hard drive offers a quick and easy way to store documents and photos that you can access from any location with a compatible computer or device, as well as being compatible. It can easily fit on your desk or in your bag. If you were wanting another option, you can check the WD_BLACK 5TB P10 External Hard Drive HDD as an alternative. You may relax knowing that its quality is also good per what we researched.

Our Top Picks

TOP Choice #1 Seagate 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD
Our Score:
9.7
Seagate

This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable

To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition no software required

Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop

Easily store and access 2TB to content on the go with the Seagate Portable Drive, a USB external hard drive

TOP Choice #2 WD_BLACK 5TB P10 External Hard Drive HDD
Our Score:
9.6
WD_BLACK

Available in capacities up to 5TB that can hold up to 125 games, so that you can save old favorites and still have room for new titles (As used for storage capacity, one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment. Number of games based on a 36GB average per game. The number of games will vary based on file size, formatting, other programs, and factors.)

Comes with an 18-inch (457mm) USB Type-A to Micro-B cable with SuperSpeed interface up to 5Gbps (Cable length may vary.)

Portable form factor with sleek metal top covering that provides fast access to your growing game library

Premium HDD with 3-year limited warranty, purpose-built for gamers based on WD_BLACK quality and reliability

Compatible with Xbox Series X/S (play and store Xbox One games, archive Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S games) and PlayStation 5 (play and store PS4 games, archive PS5 games) consoles

TOP Choice #3 UnionSine 2TB Ultr0a Hard Drive
Our Score:
9.5
UnionSine

【Plug and Play】 - With no software to install, just plug and play.The product has been formatted and the file format is NTFS.

【Ultra-Fast Data Transfers 】- Works with USB 3.0 ports to provide ultra-fast transfer speeds In theory read speed up to 120MB/s, write speed up to 103MB/s.Built-in anti-electromagnetic interference aluminum foil to prevent interruption of data transmission due to interference, increase heat dissipation, more stable.

【Double anti-interference】-The external hard drive chip adds a signal shielding layer, the transmission speed of the hard disk will be faster than other hard disks, stable and undisturbed

The go to SATA hard drive solution for nearly every PC application from music to video to photo editing to PC gaming

Build a powerhouse gaming computer or desktop setup with a variety of capacities and form factors

Confidently rely on internal hard drive technology backed by 20 years of innovation; Max sustained transfer rate OD(MB/s): 190 MB/s

Store more, compute faster, and do it confidently with the proven reliability of BarraCuda internal hard drives

For Windows User: The A60 is pre-formatted as NTFS, so you could use it directly on Windows .

ALL-ROUND DATA PROTECTION: Military-grade shockproof and IPX4 water-resistant protection,

NO MORE MISSING CABLES: Cable-carry design for easy cable storage, Supported OS: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OS 10.5.x, Linux 2.6.x,

Reliable everyday computing

Free Acronis True Image WD Edition cloning software

Massive capacity up to 8TB

Western Digital quality and reliability

2-year limited warranty

Western Digital’s StableTrac and Dynamic Cache Technology increase reliability and optimize performance

Performance storage available in up to 10TB* capacities | * As used for storage capacity, 1TB = one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less depending on operating environment.

Desktop performance gaming hard drive

Designed for gamers, system builders, and creative professionals.

An industry-leading 5-year limited warranty** | ** See official Western Digital website for warranty details.

Formatted exFAT for cross-device compatibility (2).

USB-C ready, USB 3.0 compatible.

Designed for PC, Mac, and Tablet (check compatibility at Toshiba's Consumer HDD website).

9 Toshiba Canvio Basics Hard Drive
Our Score:
8.3
Toshiba

USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatible with no external AC power cord needed

Plug and play; Easy to use with no software to install. Requires reformatting for Mac OS v10.12 /OS X v10.11 / v10.1

Sleek profile design with a matte, smudge resistance finish

10 Maxone External Hard Drive HDD
Our Score:
8.6
Maxone

✔ Plug and Play: This external drive is ready to use without external power supply or software installation needed. Ideal extra storage for your computer and game console

✔ What's Included: Portable external hard drive, 19-inch(48.26cm) USB 3.0 hard drive cable, user's manual, 3-Year manufacturer warranty with free technical support service

✔ Improve PC Performance: Powered by USB 3.0 technology, this USB hard drive is much faster than - but still compatible with - USB 2.0 backup drive, allowing for super fast transfer speed at up to 5 Gbit/s

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To Choose The best mechanical hard drive, What Criteria Do You Need To Study Before?

Almost all buyers are anxious about getting best mechanical hard drive. Whenever creating multiple purchases, various issues need to be resolved. Our market expertise will give you help to make the best shopping selection.

Please consider the following factors before selecting best mechanical hard drive:

External Vs. Internal HDD

The main advantage of external hard disks is their portability. Which also makes them perfect backups in case your PC is compromised. Desktop PCs allow you room to add extra hard disks, but if you are using a laptop or other gaming device, you will have to replace your existing hard drive.

Performance

Transfer speed is the feature that most people notice on a daily basis. We evaluated each drive with tests that replicated different real-world uses, and we focused on the drives that consistently outperformed the other contenders. Drives that did well on some tests but failed others were unreliable and not worth purchasing.

Cache Memory

This is a cache that functions much like Computer RAM Memory. It stores important files temporarily so that it takes less time to access them on the disk. The larger the cache size, the faster the hard disk will be. However, the difference is not major, and as such, this should not be the biggest determiner.

Rotation Speed

Did you know that hard drives store information on spinning magnetic plates? The faster these plates spin, the faster the load and access time. The rotation is measured in RPM (Rotations per Minute), and although we recommend hard disks with 7200RPM, 5400RPM is still a good option.

Reliability

All hard drives eventually die, and there’s no definitive answer on when that day will come. We recommend replacing your backup drives between the third and sixth years of use, if possible. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get metrics on which hard drive models are more reliable over the long run, and even so, there will always be outliers and failures that occur sooner than expected.

Size Of The Disk

I understand that you are buying the hard disk in order to eliminate the need to delete some files when you install a new game or add modifications. Also, at a time when a single game can take up to 100GB, Call of Duty WWII is 90GB; it only makes sense that you select the hard disk that will allow you sufficient storage space.

Speed

HDDs, or hard drives, contain spinning disks that read and write your data. The faster these disks spin—rated in rotations per minute (RPM)—the faster the drive can access data and transfer it to your computer.

FAQs

What is a mechanical hard drive?

A mechanical hard drive is a storage device that uses a spinning magnetic disc to store data. It is one of the oldest forms of computer storage, and is still widely used today.

How do I install a mechanical hard drive?

Installing a mechanical hard drive is relatively simple. Most computers have a dedicated hard drive bay, which can be opened and the drive inserted into the bay. Once the drive is in place, the computer's operating system can then be used to format and partition the drive as needed.

What are the advantages of using a mechanical hard drive?

Mechanical hard drives are usually the most cost-effective type of storage, and they offer large storage capacities. They are also reliable, durable, and easy to install.

How long do mechanical hard drives last?

Mechanical hard drives can last up to 10 years, depending on the quality of the drive and the amount of use it gets.

Are there any disadvantages to using a mechanical hard drive?

One of the main disadvantages to using a mechanical hard drive is that it is slower than other forms of storage, such as solid-state drives. Additionally, it is more prone to failure due to its moving parts.

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About Piers Anthony

Piers Anthony

Piers Anthony is a freelance writer and computer expert who enjoys helping others get the most out of their technology. He has written extensively about laptops, soundbars, and other computer-related topics, and he currently serves as the editor of The Audio Insights website. When he's not writing or tinkering with his gadgets, Piers can be found spending time with his wife and family.