Table of Contents
Introduction:
If you're searching for the best external hard drive for your Raspberry Pi 4, you’re in the right place.
After extensive testing of various external USB drives, we’ve curated a list of the most reliable and high-performing options for your Raspberry Pi 4 setup.
Key Factors to Consider:
When selecting a USB external hard drive for your Raspberry Pi 4, there are several important factors to keep in mind:
- Storage Capacity: This will depend on how you plan to use the drive.
- Read and Write Speeds: Consider whether you'll be archiving data or frequently writing to the drive.
- USB Bus Support: The Raspberry Pi 4 supports USB 3.0, offering the fastest data transfer speeds.
- Form Factor: Compact storage might be essential if you're working within limited physical space.
- Budget: Consider how much you're willing to spend.
We've organised our recommendations into categories based on these criteria to help you make the best choice.
Storage Capacity:
If you're planning to store media for Plex or other streaming applications, the size of your external hard drive is crucial. Media files, especially videos, can take up several gigabytes each, quickly eating up your storage space.
Fortunately, with the Raspberry Pi 4, you can easily expand your storage as needed. By using a powered USB hub (check out our guide to the best powered USB hubs for the Raspberry Pi 4), you can add additional USB 3.0 external hard drives whenever your storage needs grow.
However, it's important to note that with multiple USB drives, power consumption and bus bandwidth become factors to consider. The Raspberry Pi 4 can handle data transfers to two or three drives simultaneously without issue. Beyond that, you may start to experience a decline in read and write performance due to bandwidth limitations.
If you’re planning to use your Raspberry Pi 4 as a media or backup server, it’s wise to start off with one of these recommended drives:
Recommended Raspberry Pi 4 external hard drives:
We can really recommend this Western Digital Elements drive as we have fully tested these drives in our lab with various projects. These drives work great as a Plex media storage, backup archives as well as storage of large data pools.
Recommended
WD 20TB Elements External Hard Drive, Desktop HDD storage, USB 3.0 compatible
Recommended Raspberry Pi 4 external hard drives on a budget medium storage needs best Speed:
We love these drives and over 10 of them in production. We have fully tested them on various projects. With our oldest drive being now 12 years old we can really recommend them for their reliability. You may see us using them on our YouTube Channel.
Recommended
Alternative
Conclusion:
After thoroughly testing each of the external drives recommended in this guide, I can confidently say that these are the best options for the Raspberry Pi 4. I've personally used all of these drives in various practical scenarios, and they consistently delivered reliable performance, whether for media storage, backups, or general use.
Throughout my testing, these drives demonstrated excellent read and write speeds, seamless compatibility with the Raspberry Pi 4, and solid overall reliability. Whether you're using them for media servers, backups, or expanding your Pi's storage capacity, these drives stood out in terms of performance and durability.
I’m certain that these recommendations will provide the best balance of speed, capacity, and reliability for your Raspberry Pi 4 projects. You can trust these drives to handle your data needs effectively and efficiently.
Good morning,
How many hard disks can be connected to the Raspberry PI 4 using USB 3.0 hubs etc
Thanks
Roy