The WD 5TB Elements and the Seagate 5TB Expansion are the cheapest portable hard drives per terabyte right now; they both cost $99.99 for an unformatted capacity of 5TB, which equates to just under $20 per TB.You wont find anything cheaper anywhere although we can see that prices have been down to as little as $89.99 recently.Both utilise 2.5-inch hard disk drives with five platters and encased in a plastic enclosure.
Both also offer a flat USB 3.0 port and lack features found on more expensive models; backup software, password protection, hardware encryption or Type-C connectivity.That said, if your needs are simple, that is, you only need a backup device for your files or or a backup drive for your gaming console, then they should be great purchases.
Note that both portable hard drives spin at 5400RPM and come with a one-year warranty.As always, we recommend that you get a cloud storage solution to backup your files as well as a hard drive protection plan and a data recovery service for external hard drives.
These may add up to the price of the drives but like insurance, it is better to be safe than sorry.