Whether you're adding a hard drive to your desktop or laptop, increasing your gaming PC capabilities, connecting Network Attached Storage (NAS) to your system, or picking a backup drive, finding the best solution comes down to two fundamental factors: capacity and speed.

Capacity is the amount of space available on your computer’s hard disk drive (HDD). If want to load programs like video editing software onto the hard drive, run video games off the drive or store numerous photo or video files, you will need a large amount of capacity. Estimating whether your capacity requirements can be satisfied by a 1TB hard drive, a 2TB hard drive or something much larger is essential to choosing the best hard drive for you.

Speed determines how long it takes to open or upload files. Playing PC games, editing videos or photos, and running regressions to analyze data within spreadsheets all require excellent read and write speeds to reduce lag. For NAS drives, you will also want to optimize your Wi-Fi network to enjoy the greatest access speeds.

You have a choice between an HDD hard disk drive or a solid-state drive (SSD) for both internal and external hard drives. Hard disks are the traditional hard drive design and usually cost less than SSD drives for equivalent storage and speed. However, they are heavier and larger because they rely on a rotating disc to access information. The moving parts can make them more prone to wear and tear over time. This means that you will want to be more mindful of how you transport and handle external HDDs.

As solid-state drives become more dominant in the market, they have come down significantly in price since they first appeared. Though they are faster on average than hard disk drives, they still have a range of speed options, influenced by the interface or connector choice as well as other computer components. Meanwhile, flash drives provide highly portable storage for secure transfer between devices.

Finally, when choosing your hard drives, pay attention to compatibility. There can be differences between hard drives for PC storage and hard drives that work with Macs. Another factor is how portability. If you are gaming at friends’ houses, then a portable hard drive is an ideal choice.