There are several Hard Drive brands that are very popular currently. Amongst them, there is one brand that is widely recommended for new(starters/newbies/beginners) people coming into the storage space. The most popular hard drive brand per our survey happens to be Western Digital.
This data comes from our survey of a huge subreddit known as Data Hoarders. The subreddit is filled with data storage enthusiasts who have used hard drives to store all sorts of data. There are many popular posts every week discussing the terabytes of data some of their members have managed to save.
It doesn’t matter if you need this storage for your computers Operating System or you plan to use this to preserve rare content. Most people (we surveyed almost 200), prefer the Western Digital brand rather than the Toshiba or the Seagate.
Some members of Reddit have commented that the brands don’t matter as much. All three of these brands provide similar quality product and it’s the storage space versus pricing that should really be taken into consideration. While this is in fact true, the overall consensus has chosen to crown Western Digital as the most starter/newbie friendly Hard Drive. With that being said, QuickHardDrive has also decided to crown Western Digital as the most newbie friendly hard drive of 2021.
However, our survey on reddit did not take into consideration of the type of hard drive. As some people may know, there are hard disc drives (HDD) and solid state drives (SSD). All three of these manufacturers make both types of these hard drives. Alas, this may be worth a survey at a later date as SSDs become more prevalent and popular.
For now, the cost per storage space favors hard disc drives (HDD) and for that we recommend the following Western Digital drives for beginner hobbyists, newbies, and starters.
| WD 2TB Elements Portable | USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 Compatibility Fast data transfers Improve PC Performance High Capacity; Compatibility Formatted NTFS for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7; Reformatting may be required for other operating systems; Compatibility may vary depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system 2 year manufacturer’s limited warranty | PRICE: $62.99 |
| WD 2TB My Passport | Slim design Automatic backup – easy to use Password protection + 256-bit AES hardware encryption WD Discovery software for WD Backup, password protection and drive management SuperSpeed USB port; USB 2.0 compatible | PRICE: $64.99 |
| Western Digital 2TB WD Blue | Reliable everyday computing WD quality and reliability Free acronis true image WD edition cloning software Massive capacity up to 6TB 2 year manufacturer’s limited warranty | PRICE: $49.99 |