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Best external drives
(Updated May 22, 2013 2:55 AM PDT)
Dong Ngo
Senior associate editor
An external hard drive has three main purposes: to expand your computer's storage capacity, to back up your data, and to share data between computers. It's also easy to use. Most of the time, you just need to plug it into the computer and use it as an internal hard drive. Desktop external hard drives are based on the 3.5-inch internal hard drives, and laptop (or portable) external hard drives are based on the 2.5-inch internal hard drives.
Here's a current list of the top external drives.
Buffalo DriveStation DDR (3TB)
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.
Price: $177.99 - $191.99 (check prices)
4 stars
Read full review 
LaCie 5big Thunderbolt (20GB)
Though it lacks RAID 5, the speedy 5big Thunderbolt is still worth the hefty investment, and is a better buy than competing devices.
Price: $1,984.94 - $2,199.95 (check prices)
4 stars Read full review
IoSafe Solo G3 (3 TB)
The ioSafe Solo G3 makes an excellent backup solution for those who need to make sure their important data survives even the worst disasters.
Price: $419.76 - $454.97 (check prices)
4 stars Read full review
Promise Pegasus R6 (12TB, SATA II)
If you have a Thunderbolt-enabled computer, the Promise Pegasus R6's storage capacity, its features, and especially its performance are worth the hefty investment for those who demand fast external storage.
Price: $2,291.56 - $2,499.99 (check prices)
4 stars Read full review
Promise Pegasus J4 (2TB)
The Pegasus J4 is currently the only good choice on the market if you're looking for a compact four-bay Thunderbolt storage device.
Price: $699.00 - $880.99 (check prices)
4 stars Read full review