Quick Answer
The recommended storage capacity for an external hard drive depends on your usage needs. For most home users, a 1TB to 4TB drive is sufficient. Heavy media users may need larger 6TB+ drives. Professionals working with large files like video projects generally use drives 8TB or larger. The average laptop hard drive is around 500GB to 1TB, so an external drive should be at least this size or larger if used for backup.
What Size External Hard Drive Do You Need?
Choosing the right size external hard drive depends on what you plan to use it for. Here are some common storage capacity recommendations based on usage:
Light Use
If you just need an external drive for occasional extra storage or backups, a smaller portable drive from 1TB to 2TB is ample. This range is good for things like:
– Storing personal photos, music and documents
– Backing up your computer’s internal drive
– Transferring files between computers
– Expanding laptop storage for work on the go
In this general use case, look for an external drive in the 1TB to 2TB range from reputable brands like Western Digital, Seagate or Toshiba. The small size makes them very portable for travel and storage needs of home users.
Moderate Use
For more frequent external storage needs, get a larger drive in the 3TB to 5TB range. This capacity is suitable for:
– Saving your full music, photo and video collections
– Backing up multiple computers
– Storing large multimedia libraries
– Caching files locally from the cloud
– Game storage
A 3TB+ mid-sized drive has enough space for most moderate users. Western Digital, Seagate and LaCie offer quality drives at this tier.
Heavy & Frequent Use
If you work with big files like high resolution photos, video editing, animation or game development, consider a larger 6TB+ desktop external HDD. Professional creators and enthusiasts should look for drives with:
– 6TB to 10TB+ capacity
– Durable aluminum casing
– High speed connections like eSATA, Thunderbolt or USB 3.0/3.1 Gen2
Top brands for prosumer external storage needs are Glyph, Lacie, Seagate, Western Digital and G-Technology. These support common RAID configurations for speed, capacity and data protection.
Extreme Use Cases
For the highest capacity external drive needs, like professional media production or enterprise file servers, look to desktop RAID storage solutions in the 10TB+ range. Some key examples of large capacity external storage options include:
– 16TB+ external hard drive arrays
– Desktop RAID drive enclosures scaling up to petabytes
– External solid-state drives up to 100TB for ultra fast transfer speeds
– Private cloud network attached storage (NAS)
– DAS (direct attached storage) with 10GbE, SAS or Fibre Channel
Leading hardware providers include QNAP, Synology, Seagate, LaCie, Dell, HP, Western Digital and Drobo.
Factors in Drive Capacity
Some key considerations when choosing an external hard drive capacity include:
Usage Needs
As outlined above, think about your specific use cases and data storage requirements. For occasional backups and extra storage, start around 1TB. Home media collections and gaming libraries need 3TB+ sizes. Creative pros and performance-intensive uses demand 6TB+ external storage solutions.
Available Hard Drive Sizes
External hard drives commonly come in base sizes of:
– 1TB to 3TB for portable drives
– 3TB to 6TB for desktop drives
– 8TB to 14TB for performance RAID setups
– 16TB+ for max capacity enterprise storage
While you can daisy-chain multiple lower capacity drives for more space using RAID configurations, a single large high capacity external drive is simpler for most home users.
Budget
The cost of external storage has dropped dramatically in recent years. But larger capacity drives still come at a premium. Determine how much you can reasonably spend, and get the largest drive you can afford in your target use range.
Future Storage Needs
It’s smart to think about how your storage needs might grow down the road. While you can always add more external drives later, it’s convenient to get a drive with some room to grow into. Especially for backups, don’t get a drive barely big enough for now, as that will soon fill up too.
Drive Interface Speed
Faster external drive connectivity options like USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, Thunderbolt 3/4 or 10GbE networks enable higher speed transfers, which is especially beneficial with very large files and backups. So consider both capacity and connection speeds supported.
Choosing the Right Portable External Hard Drive Capacity
For portable external storage drives, here are some general guidelines on recommended capacities based on common usage scenarios:
| Use Case | Recommended Portable External HDD Capacity |
|---|---|
| Basic extra storage for non-essential files | 1TB to 2TB |
| Backup drive for one computer | 2TB to 4TB |
| Backup drive for multiple computers | 4TB to 6TB |
| Storage for a large photo library | 4TB to 6TB |
| Storage for a sizable media collection | 4TB to 8TB |
| Game library storage | 2TB to 8TB |
| Travel drive for work files | 1TB to 2TB SSD |
For most home users, a portable external HDD in the 2TB to 4TB range will offer ample capacity. Professional photographers, videographers and DJs working in the field may need portable drives up to 8TB. An SSD is recommended if the external drive will be frequently transported and subject to vibration or shocks.
Choosing the Right Desktop External Hard Drive Capacity
For desktop external storage, here are some general capacity guidelines based on typical use cases:
| Use Case | Recommended Desktop External HDD Capacity |
|---|---|
| Media library storage | 4TB to 10TB |
| Drive for video editing and production | 8TB to 12TB |
| Photo library for creative work | 8TB to 16TB |
| Backups for multiple computers | 8TB to 16TB |
| Game collection storage | 4TB to 12TB |
| Home media server storage | 12TB to 24TB |
For desktop external storage, capacities of 8TB and above are recommended for power users. Prosumers, creative professionals and businesses dealing in large files need 12TB or more. For home office backups and multimedia storage, 8TB to 12TB provides ample room.
Typical File and Backup Size Estimates
To determine the right external hard drive capacity, it helps to estimate the average file sizes and total storage needed for common file types:
Photos
| Photo Type | Average Size Per File |
|---|---|
| Smartphone JPEG | 2MB to 10MB |
| Point & Shoot Camera JPEG | 3MB to 8MB |
| DSLR Camera JPEG | 10MB to 20MB |
| Raw DSLR Files | 25MB to 50MB |
| Scanned Photos as JPEGs | 25MB to 100MB |
So for a photo library of:
– 10,000 smartphone photos = ~100GB
– 10,000 DSLR JPEG photos = ~500GB
– 10,000 DSLR RAW photos = ~2TB
Videos
| Video Type | Average Size Per Minute |
|---|---|
| Smartphone or Web Video | 10MB to 30MB |
| 1080P Video | 100MB to 300MB |
| 4K Video | 250MB to 500MB |
| Broadcast Quality HD | 600MB to 5GB |
So for a video library of:
– 100 hours smartphone video = ~250GB
– 100 hours 1080p video = ~30TB
– 100 hours 4K video = ~60TB
Music
| File Type | Average Size Per Song |
|---|---|
| MP3 Audio | 5MB to 10MB |
| Uncompressed WAV | 50MB to 100MB |
| FLAC Lossless | 25MB to 60MB |
So for a music library of:
– 10,000 MP3 songs = ~80GB
– 10,000 WAV songs = ~750GB
– 10,000 FLAC songs = ~400GB
Documents
| File Type | Average Size Per File |
|---|---|
| Word Doc | 50KB to 100KB |
| PowerPoint | 5MB to 25MB |
| Excel Sheet | 50KB to 100KB |
| PDF Document | 100KB to 300KB |
So for collections of:
– 10,000 Word docs = ~500MB
– 10,000 PDFs = ~2GB
– 10,000 PPTs = ~200GB
Backups
Typical full computer backups range from:
– 50GB to 500GB for backing up documents, system files, settings
– 200GB to 2TB for a laptop or desktop hard drive backups
– 500GB to 5TB+ for imaging desktop workstations with large programs & files
Incremental backup sets are much smaller, from a few megabytes to 100GB depending on how much has changed since the last backup.
Conclusion
When choosing the right external hard drive capacity, the key considerations are your usage requirements, budget, and future needs. For most home users, a portable drive from 1TB to 4TB is recommended, while desktop drives from 4TB to 10TB have ample capacity for full media libraries and backups. Creative professionals working with very large photo, video and graphics files need 12TB+ external storage solutions. For enterprise and specialized uses, RAID arrays and NAS with 10TB+ provide virtually unlimited capacity. Understanding typical file sizes in your collections helps estimate the total storage volume required when selecting your ideal external hard drive size.