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The best external hard drives
By Justin Krajeski This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to external hard drives. We've spent hundreds of hours researching and testing external drives to find the best options for any use and budget. If you want a dependable external drive that has plenty of storage space for documents and photos and is easy to take on the go, get the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim. But we also have recommendations if you want more storage space, if you want something more reliable or even faster, or if you need to regularly move large amounts of data from one computer to another with an external drive.
The best SSDs
By Andrew Cunningham This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to SSDs. Whether you're replacing an existing solid-state drive or upgrading from a traditional hard drive to get better performance, almost every SSD you can buy today is great. But some are still better than others. If you need to buy a SATA SSD right now, we think the 500 GB Crucial MX500 is the best option for most people. The MX500 isn't the fastest SATA SSD you can get, but it comes close, and it has the best combination of price, performance, endurance, and capacity of any drive you can buy. The Crucial MX500 is just a little slower than Samsung's more expensive SATA SSDs in most benchmarks, but most people wouldn't notice the difference. It's as good as or better than the rest of the competition and it performs better when full or near-full than its predecessor, the MX300. It supports full-disk encryption and it comes in both 2.5-inch and M.2 SATA versions, but not the (older, less common) mSATA. Crucial offers a five-year warranty on the drive for more peace of mind (three years is typical), The Samsung 860 Evo replaces the 850 Evo, which was our top SSD pick for nearly three years. Compared with both its predecessor and the Crucial MX500, the 860 Evo is a little faster and offers much better durability. And in addition to the 2.5-inch and M.2 versions, it's available as an mSATA drive, unlike the MX500 and most other modern SSDs. But it's usually more expensive than the MX500, and you won't notice the difference between the two in day-to-day use. The MX500 is the drive to get as long as it's cheaper. Any good SATA SSD will help your PC boot quickly, speed up app launches and load times for games, and generally make your computer more responsive; most people, including gamers, don't need anything faster. But serious video and photo editors, server admins, CAD designers, software developers, and other people with workstation-style demands—anyone who frequently loads and saves large files—may benefit from a faster drive. If that describes you, choose the PCIe Samsung 970 Evo Plus, which can be four or five times faster than the fastest SATA drives. It's more expensive—typically $50 or $60 more than a good SATA drive for 500 GB and around $120 more for 1 TB—and you'll need a desktop or an M.2 PCIe–equipped laptop to use it. Just remember that the difference between a SATA SSD and a PCIe SSD isn't as noticeable as the difference between a SATA SSD and a spinning hard drive. Western Digital's WD Blue SN500 is a budget M.2 PCI Express SSD that's faster than (and around the same price as) the SATA-based MX500 or 860 Evo. It's the best option if you're building a new desktop computer, configuring a barebones mini PC, or upgrading a one- or two-year-old laptop that you bought with a smaller SSD and you want a fast drive for a lot less money than the 970 Evo. But most people will be just fine with a SATA drive (and you also shouldn't upgrade to the SN500 from a SATA SSD of an equal or greater capacity). The SN500 performs well for the price and comes with a solid five-year warranty from a reliable company. But it comes in only 250 and 500 GB capacities, it doesn't support hardware encryption acceleration, and like all M.2 PCIe drives it will work in only newer PCs.
The era of 1TB microSD cards has begun
While processors can no longer keep up with Moore's law, memory manufacturers keep cramming more storage into ever-smaller spaces. Micron and Western Digital have both unveiled 1TB microSD memory cards that will let you significantly ramp up your smartphone storage, for a price. The products are arriving not long after Lexar started selling the first-ever 1TB SDXC memory cards.
The best mobile and computer accessory gifts
If there's someone in your life who spends most of their time with a phone in their hand or at a computer, we've got you covered for gift ideas with our holiday gift guide. We've shortlisted 11 great phone and computer accessories that are sure to brighten up their holiday. We mean that literally with the LuMee Duo smartphone case, which has built-in lighting for perfect selfies. Meanwhile, we also threw in a pair of gadgets that can keep their phone battery topped up.
Toshiba's flash chips could boost SSD capacity by 500 percent
Toshiba has started building prototype sample flash memory with the highest capacity yet, 1.33 terabits (166GB) per chip. The 96-layer 3D NAND flash chips have four bits per cell, as compared to its current-gen three-bit tech, which allowed for chips with "only" 32GB. A typical package for flash storage, containing 16 of the chips, would have an astonishing 2.66 TB capacity, opening up new possibilities for faster, higher density SSDs and memory cards.
Western Digital unveils its new 4K-ready NVME gaming SSD
While it tries to craft a microwave-assisted 40TB hard drive by 2025, Western Digital is releasing storage solutions for the nearer future. The company introduced the Black 3D NVMe, an SSD designed to run 4K and Ultra HD graphics quickly and seamlessly, which should suit gamers and high-end video producers.
Sandisk's super-fast 400GB microSD is ready for 4K HDR video
It's great that Sony's new Xperia XZ2 smartphone can record 4K HDR video footage, but the bandwidth and storage requirements are bound to be, er, extreme. That's where SanDisk's new 400GB Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card comes in, delivering 160 MB/s read and 90 MB/s write speeds while maintaining compatibility with most devices. It also conforms to the A2 specification (4000 IOPS read and 2000 IPS write), meaning it'll let you launch apps more quickly.
The best portable SSD
By Justin Krajeski This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. After researching 28 external solid-state drives and testing the four most promising contenders in 2017, we found that the best portable SSD is the 500 GB Samsung T5 Portable SSD. Samsung's solid-state drives work reliably, and the T5 was consistently speedier than the competition in our benchmark tests. It supports faster USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds, too.
WD is developing 40TB hard drives powered by microwaves
Western Digital (WD) may have lost a bid to buy Toshiba's flash memory technology, but is still hard at work on its bread-and-butter hard drives. The company has unveiled a breakthrough called microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) that will allow ever-higher disk capacities, up to 40TB by the year 2025. "Commercialization of MAMR technology will pave the way to higher recording densities and lower cost per terabyte hard disk drives," said VP of research John Rydning in a statement.
SanDisk’s 'Industrial' SD cards can withstand extreme temperatures
Western Digital is working on a new line of SanDisk memory cards that can withstand a wide range of temperatures, from the extremely hot to the extremely cold, AnandTech reports. The lineup includes an Automotive SD meant for vehicles like cars and drones and three Industrial cards -- Industrial SD, Industrial microSD and Industrial XI -- intended for more mainstream industrial applications.
Nintendo and Western Digital bring branded SD cards to Switch
Nintendo has partnered with Western Digital on a line of officially official SanDisk microSDXC cards for its Switch console. What makes them so different? Well, Mario and Link are on the packaging and the 64-and-128 gigabyte cards have Nintendo branding printed on them. Nope, no 400GB cards featuring Wario just yet. And that's the extent of it. The cards will be available starting next month at "select retail outlets." If anything, this will make it easier for parents and family members to grab the right storage card when buying gifts come the holiday season.
SanDisk crams 400GB into a microSD card
SanDisk just unveiled a 400GB microSD card, which it claims is the world's biggest. Really, it was only a matter of time until something of this stature arrived. Especially, now that we're capturing every aspect of our daily lives in glorious 4K, in 360-degrees, and from drones way up high. All those high-res images are taking up a lot of space on our devices. Therefore, storage providers had to step it up, which brings us to this miniature marvel.
Western Digital's wireless drives get a makeover
Western Digital's wireless backup drives have had a makeover. The new My Cloud Home (opposed to the previous 'My Cloud') is sleeker, more angular and comes with a textured bottom half, perfect for those who'd rather their living room didn't look like a server farm. According to Western Digital, people spread their data across an average of 14 different devices, totalling around 4.5TB of data per household in the US. My Cloud Home lets users dump all of their stuff in one central place, then access it from anywhere with an internet connection.
Engadget giveaway: Win a 1TB My Passport SSD courtesy of Western Digital!
A bit like bulky luggage, large file sizes can cramp your style when you're trying to shuffle them around the place. Luckily, external SSDs are here to help out. Western Digital's My Passport series now offers the fastest speeds of a WD-branded portable drive to date, with its My Passport SSD providing transfer rates of up to 515MB/s over USB-C (while supporting the USB 3.1 standard and more). These speedy little drives work with both Mac and PC platforms and offer 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption to help provide some security as you jet around with your data. On top of all that, they happen to look nice too. WD has provided us with two of its 1TB My Passport SSDs for a pair of lucky readers this week. Head down to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances to win! Winners: Congratulations to Travis K. of Edmonds, WA and Jonathan D. of Orangeburg, NY!
Toshiba's latest SSD tech squeezes 128GB onto a tinier chip
Toshiba and (we think) its partner WD have just unveiled the next generation of rapidly evolving flash memory technology. Its 96-layer NAND tech will arrive in 2018 in 3-bit, 32GB (256 gigabit) chip sizes. That will allow for SSDs and other flash products with 40 percent more storage than 64-layer NAND (which WD and Toshiba started manufacturing last month), reducing consumer prices. Furthermore, WD says that the tech is capable of 64GB all the way up to one terabit (125GB) per chip using 4-bit-per-cell technology.
WD's next-gen SSDs add even more speed and capacity
Hard disk specialist Western Digital (WD) acquired SSD maker SanDisk last year for a colossal $19 billion, and now we're getting some idea as to its strategy. The company unveiled two new lineups -- branded under each company's names -- that feature the first SSDs to use 64-layer 3D NAND chips developed by SanDisk. The new, higher capacity chips will allow for "lower power consumption and higher performance, endurance and capacities," Western Digital wrote in its press release.
Western Digital unveils its first portable SSD
Western Digital only just started accepting that SSDs are ready for the mainstream, but it's making up for that lost time by launching its first portable SSD just months after unveiling a desktop drive. The simply-named My Passport SSD gives you 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of flash storage in a pocketable and ever-so-slightly fashionable design. While it's not the absolute fastest drive we've seen with a peak 515MB/s sequential read speed (it's a bit faster than Samsung's T3), the new drive is definitely keeping up with the Joneses. It's designed for USB-C (there's a USB-A adapter in the box), touts 256-bit hardware encryption and is tough enough to survive a 6.5ft drop.
The best external desktop hard drive
By Justin Krajeski This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. After 20 hours of new research and testing, we found the best external desktop hard drive for most people is Seagate's 4 TB Backup Plus Desktop Drive. The Backup Plus has a great balance of speed and price and enough space for your future storage needs.
Your WD networked drive is vulnerable to remote attacks
If you have one of Western Digital's My Cloud nstorage drives, you might be particularly vulnerable to internet attacks. Exploitee.rs has discovered a number of unpatched security flaws in most My Cloud models that let remote intruders bypass the login, insert their own commands and upload files without permission. In numerous cases, it's a matter of poorly implemented scripts. Also, every command exectued through the web interface has full access to the operating system -- an attacker would have the keys to the kingdom.
Western Digital finally offers a consumer SSD
Western Digital has enjoyed a long run supplying data drives for all markets, but had stubbornly resisted releasing solid-state ones for consumers. This was an odd position back in 2008 when the technology began entering the mainstream and it's only become a more glaring omission in the interim. But today, WD is finally offering its first SATA SSDs for personal computers.
