The only case with hard drives where the USB standard matters much is if you connect a drive to an old-style, low-bandwidth USB 2.0 port, which is better reserved for items like keyboards and mice.

A hard drive or solid state drive (SSD) that resides outside the computer's case, typically connecting via USB or eSATA. A USB flash drive is also external storage. See portable drive and USB drive.

Also, if you have a PS5, then you may consider expanding that storage too with these PS5 SSD deals. Another great option for a rugged external hard drive is the Samsung T7 Shield, which takes the ...

It wasn't all that long ago when external hard drives used ... and offer masses of storage for very little money. The WD My Passport is the best overall external HDD drive we've tested so far ...

And, of course, you should always have an external drive available for making Time Machine backups in case ... Hard drives are slower than SSDs, but if you need lots of storage for your important ...

Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio ...