The Best External Thunderbolt Hard Drive

Best image of external thunderbolt hard drives
Photo: Western Digital 8TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 external hard drive for plug-and-play storage - Western DigitalBWLG0080HBK-NESN, Black
UPDATED DECEMBER 16, 2025

To help you find the perfect external thunderbolt hard drive, we continuously put forth the effort to update and expand our list of recommendable external thunderbolt hard drives. Our team collects, edits and publishes new information, in order to present it to you in an accurate, significant and neatly arranged way.

Best image of external thunderbolt hard drives
Photo: Western Digital 8TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 external hard drive for plug-and-play storage - Western DigitalBWLG0080HBK-NESN, Black

Our Picks

LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive image
LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive
Protect what matters with Rugged Secure’s AES-256 government-grade hardware e...
SEAGATE LaCie Rugged USB-C image
SEAGATE LaCie Rugged USB-C
Quickly and easily connect to the latest Windows and Mac computers with Rugge...
SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD image
SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD
Get NVMe solid state performance with up to 1050MB/s read and 1000MB/s write ...
Our Choice
LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive image
LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive
Protect what matters with Rugged Secure’s AES-256 government-grade hardware e...
SEAGATE LaCie Rugged USB-C image
SEAGATE LaCie Rugged USB-C
Quickly and easily connect to the latest Windows and Mac computers with Rugge...
Low Price
SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD image
SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD
Get NVMe solid state performance with up to 1050MB/s read and 1000MB/s write ...

8 More External Thunderbolt Hard Drive Alternatives

SanDisk Professional 4TB PRO-G40 SSD image
SanDisk Professional 4TB PRO-G40 SSD

Super-fast speeds up to 3000MB/s(1) read and 2500MB/s(1) write with Thunderbolt 3 (40Gb...

Dual-mode compatibility with both Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps) and USB-C (10Gbps)

Ultra-rugged design with high-level IP68 dust/water resistance, 4000lb crush resistance...

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SanDisk Professional 6TB G-Drive image
SanDisk Professional 6TB G-Drive

Up to 6TB of space to back up and save your valuable project work. (1TB = 1 trillion by...

Ultra-reliable 7200RPM Ultrastar enterprise-class hard drive inside for long-term stora...

PRO-BLADE SSD Mag slot (10Gbps) to easily add SSD capacity and performance for fast tra...

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SanDisk Professional 5TB G-Drive image
SanDisk Professional 5TB G-Drive

USB-C (5Gbps) drive for quick file backup and storage

Works with macOS right out of the box, and Windows via reformat.

Transfer rates of up to 130MB/s read (1 MB/s = 1 million bytes per second. Based on int...

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SanDisk 4TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD image
SanDisk 4TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD

Save time storing and transferring data with powerful NVMe solid state performance feat...

A forged aluminum chassis acts as a heatsink to deliver higher sustained speeds in a po...

Travel worry-free with a 5-year limited warranty(2) and a forged aluminum chassis-silic...

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SAMSUNG T9 Portable SSD 4TB image
SAMSUNG T9 Portable SSD 4TB

NONSTOP SPEED: Race through projects with our fastest SSD for creators; Load, edit and ...

DYNAMIC THERMAL GUARD: When you’re elbow-deep in a passion project, the T9 Portable SSD...

ADAPTS TO EVERY NEED: Whether you’re using a desktop, camera or a gaming console3, coun...

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Seagate Expansion 20TB Drive image
Seagate Expansion 20TB Drive

Easy-to-use desktop hard drive—simply plug in the power adapter and USB cable

USB 3.0 allows fast file transfers for efficient data management

Drag-and-drop file saving right out of the box

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SanDisk Professional 52TB G-RAID Project 2 image
SanDisk Professional 52TB G-RAID Project 2

(1) 1GB = 1 billion bytes and 1TB = 1 trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less ...

Up to 52TB of max capacity on two 7200RPM Ultrastar Enterprise-class hard drives inside

Ships in RAID 0 for improved performance with transfer speeds up to 520MB/s read and 51...

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OWC 4TB Envoy Ultra 5 Portable SSD Enclosure Drive image
OWC 4TB Envoy Ultra 5 Portable SSD Enclosure Drive

Ultra-Fast: Over 6000MB/s...up to 2x faster than Thunderbolt 4 and USB4

Ultra Maximizer: Gets the most speed possible from Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and US...

Ultra Ready: Easily handle daily data needs to pro level creative projects while matchi...

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Table of Contents

Buying Guide

Top Rated External Thunderbolt Hard Drives

If you're looking into finding the best rated external thunderbolt hard drive, you should probable check out the LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive. We looked at various sources of reviews and found this one to have the best mix between review count and average rating stars.

LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive

The Lowest Price We Could Find

Often, going for the best price is a simple but good option. With a price of $129.99 (last checked this morning), we do not list any other external thunderbolt hard drives cheaper than the LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive. Just remember that it's not always the best option to go for the cheapest one.

The External Thunderbolt Hard Drive With the Most Reviews

With at least 0 reviews and counting, the LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive might be another option to consider. This large amount of reviews signalizes that many people are using it, with most of them beeing satisfied.

High Quality External Thunderbolt Hard Drives

It's quite rare that the saying "You get what you pay for" turns out incorrect. If you have the money on the sideline, feel free to choose the most expensive item from our list: The SanDisk Professional 52TB G-RAID Project 2 currently sells for $1580.55.

SanDisk Professional 52TB G-RAID Project 2

The External Thunderbolt Hard Drive With the Most Clicks

If you trust us and our users, feel free to check out the LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive. Our statistics say that it is the most favorite External Thunderbolt Hard Drive from the list above.

Our Bestseller

If you're still undecided, I would recommend that you go with the masses and choose the top selling external thunderbolt hard drive: The LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB Drive is the hottest bestseller in this category right now.

External Thunderbolt Hard Drive Reviews

There are no reviews on external thunderbolt hard drives, yet.
Be the first to write a review, or check for additional reviews in the Further Reading section below.

Further Reading on External Thunderbolt Hard Drives

New: Our editorial list of additional articles. We decided to gather informartion all around the internet and present you a list of helpful, external links to interesting reads about reviews, pros & cons and similar products.
Best External Hard Drives 2018 - Lab Tested Reviews ...
PCMag has been testing external hard drives since before consumer it's suited mainly to well-heeled content-creation pros using late-model Macs. Cons: While a comparable good per-gigabyte value, the drive itself is expensive. .. As... ...
0 persons liked this post.
Source: www.pcmag.com
helpful or not helpful
Best External Hard Drives 2018 - Lab Tested Reviews ...
The Best External Hard Drives for 2019. Best for General Backup. Western Digital MyBook. Excellent. Best Rugged Drive. CalDigit Tuff. Excellent. Best for Speedy Transfers. Samsung Portable SSD T5. Excellent. Best for Mac Creative Work. S... ...
0 persons liked this post.
Source: www.pcmag.com
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LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt review: Hard drive is tough...
An update to LaCie's iconic ruggedized portable drive gives it a captive At first glance, LaCie's new Rugged Thunderbolt drive doesn't look . Pros. Captive Thunderbolt cable; Good shock and dust protection; Consistant and f... ...
0 persons liked this post.
Source: www.macworld.com
helpful or not helpful
18 Pros and Cons of External Hard Drives - BackupChain
In this detailed article we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of external hard drives, connected via USB, eSATA, or Firewire. With the advent of USB 3,  ...
0 persons liked this post.
Source: backupchain.com
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Recommended External Hard Drives for Photo, Video, a...
That can only be a good thing. G-Technology 6TB G-DRIVE G1 USB 3.0 Hard Drive. G-Technology G-SPEED Q 16TB (4 x 4TB) 4-Bay RAID Array. LaCie 12big 120TB 12-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array. LaCie 2TB Bolt 3 Thunderbolt 3 External SSD. LaCie ... ...
0 persons liked this post.
Source: www.bhphotovideo.com
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How to achieve the best transfer speeds with externa...
You can use a M.2 module or a PCIe drive in one of our Thunderbolt 2 or Thunderbolt 3 PCIe expansion Drive, Bottleneck, Pros, Cons. ...
0 persons liked this post.
Source: www.akitio.com
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