Computer storage is one of those things that you know you need but, let’s face it, you probably put it off because it’s not the most exciting purchase. However, it’s also something you don’t want to put off until you run out of space or suffer through a drive failure and then pay full price for a drive (and with Memorial Day sales going this weekend, there are lower prices right now).
Of course, preventing a catastrophe isn’t the only reason to pick up a new internal or external hard drive or solid-state drive. Maybe you want to speed up your desktop or laptop performance, give yourself more room for your PC, Xbox, PlayStation or Switch game library, add a portable drive to your bag for on-the-go file transfers or increase how many photos and videos you can capture with your camera. Even those with the best cloud storage service will still want a good external drive with gigabytes to hold your files, music, movies, photos and games.
Keep in mind that Prime Day is coming in June: That event usually prompts across-the-board price drops in this category, at Amazon and elsewhere. But for those of you who can’t wait, we’ve pulled together some of the best deals on flash drives, SSDs and SD cards that are available right now. Check them out below.
Samsung Fit Plus 128GB USB 3.1 flash drive: $23
Save $22
Samsung
Samsung designed this tiny flash drive to plug into a USB-A port on your laptop, tablet, TV or game console and stay there. It has a read speed up to 400MB per second so data access and transfers happen fast. The drive is even waterproof and backed with a five-year warranty.
WD Easystore 4TB portable external hard drive: $95
Save $55
WD
This little drive, available only at Best Buy, puts 4TB of storage in your bag. It’ll work with Windows or Mac (you’ll need to reformat for MacOS, which is a snap to do) and draws power from your computer so you don’t have to worry about an extra power adapter. It just uses one USB 3.0 cable for power and data transfers. WD also includes backup software and utilities to configure, manage and diagnose the drive.
SanDisk 128GB Extreme Pro SDXC card: $30
Save $50
SanDisk
This card is fast enough to let you capture 4K video with your camera as well as shoot raw and burst photography without slowing you down. Depending on your device’s capabilities, this SanDisk card has a max write speed of up to 90MB per second, but it is also guaranteed to record at a minimum of 30MB per second. It comes in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities and all of them are currently on sale.
WD Black Gaming 4TB internal 3.5-inch hard drive: $150
Save $45
WD
PC games aren’t getting any smaller, so you might as well pick up an extra terabyte or four when the prices are good. Slot this 3.5-inch SATA III hard drive into your desktop and you’re good to go. It’s not as fast as an SSD, but it is a 7,200rpm drive, which is fast enough for gaming and other tasks like video editing that are better with faster drive speeds.
Samsung 870 Evo 1TB 2.5-inch SATA III internal SSD: $115
Save $15
Samsung
A great option to reliably speed up your desktop or laptop performance or you can put it in an enclosure and use it as an external drive. Samsung includes software to make transferring your files from an old drive to this new speedy SSD a snap as well as utilities to help manage the drive.
SanDisk Ultra 3D 2TB 2.5-inch SATA III internal SSD: $210
Save $110
SanDisk
Here’s another SSD option to put in your PC. It’s a SATA III drive and supports similar transfer speeds to the Samsung 870. And with 2TB of storage, you’re likely giving yourself a boost in capacity and performance.
SanDisk Extreme 500GB rugged portable USB-C NVMe drive: $90
Save $60
SanDisk
SanDisk updated its pocket-size rugged external drive with a faster NVMe solid-state drive that about twice the speed of the last-gen version. The enclosure gives the drive drop protection as well as dust and water and shock resistance.