You can load, edit and save 4K video directly on the T7, something that can be painfully slow with a USB hard disk. You can also use password protection if you prefer. The built-in fingerprint scanner backed up with AES 265-bit encryption, and once you set that up, nobody except you will be able to access your files. And the Samsung T7 Touch is a great value option, with the added bonus of fingerprint security (this is the difference from the standard Samsung T7) They're more expensive, but a lot faster. That's when an SSD is the smart option over an external hard drive. Speed can be of the essence if you have gigabytes of big image or video files and don't want to be stuck watching the progress bar crawl along at a glacial pace.

If you're looking for more accessories, you might also want to take a look at our pick of the best power banks and the best internal hard drives.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for a device specifically for gaming, see our guide to the best SSD for PS5, and remember you can also back up files with the best cloud storage. See how we test and review for more on our process. Based on our own experience and thousands of customer reviews, as well as reputation, we whittled the options down to these stellar choices. When choosing the products to feature in this list, we considered storage capacity, upload speed and connectivity – crucial specs for hard drives and SSDs. If you're not sure how to choose between them, skip down the page to our section on how to choose the best external hard drives. If you are heading back to college or university, and to make it easier for you to pick the best external hard drive or the best external SSDs for you, we've chosen a selection of our favourite options for both PCs and Macs. And the best external hard drive and best external SSDs can provide peace of mind, safely securing your files should the worst happens. The truth is, your computer could be stolen, damaged, or simply fail. It's true that the value of creatives' work lie in its creativity and design skills, but all that comes to nothing if they can't store, share, transfer and back up files and assets easily, efficiently and safely.

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