External storage is booming. Ransomware is personal now. Here's what the trend means for you.
By The Storage Team
EasyDriveCompare.com
Five years ago, backing up to an external drive felt old-fashioned. "The cloud" was supposed to solve everything, right?
Spoiler: it didn't. And now everyone—gamers, photographers, creators, businesses—is rushing to buy external hard drives like they're on sale.
Search trends show a sustained spike in interest for external storage solutions. Sales data reveals seasonal peaks, and consumer sentiment points to one clear driver: people are terrified of losing their stuff.
LockBit, BlackCat, and others aren't just targeting companies anymore. Consumer ransomware is up 340% year-over-year. People lost photos, documents, irreplaceable files. They're not making that mistake twice.
Dropbox account hacked? Ransomware encrypts your synced files instantly. AWS S3 misconfiguration? Your photos are public. An external drive that's unplugged? That hacker can't touch it. Physical security beats digital promises every time.
Even with the 2026 price spike, a 10TB external drive costs around £130 (£160). A year's worth of cloud subscription (£100–180 / $130–220) doesn't feel cheap anymore when you can own a drive for that price.
The market has split into clear tiers.
Students, office workers backing up documents and photos. Price-sensitive. WD Elements and Seagate Backup+ dominate here (£40–80 / $50–100).
Search: "cheap external hard drive," "portable backup"
Video editors, photographers, game collectors. Willing to spend on speed and reliability. Seagate One Touch, LaCie, and external SSDs are trending (£200–450 / $250–570).
Search: "fast external hard drive," "creative storage," "Thunderbolt drive"
Archivist mentality. Buying 2–3 drives. Concerned with reliability, redundancy, and longevity. Willing to invest (£300–700+ / $380–900+).
Search: "reliable external backup," "long-term storage," "cold storage drive"
Stop waiting for prices to drop. (They won't, at least not in 2026.) Stop thinking a cloud subscription is a backup plan. (It isn't.)
Buy an external drive. Now. Here's the simple rule:
People aren't buying external drives because they're trendy. They're buying them because they're scared—and honestly, they should be. Your data is yours. Keep it safe.
Browse External Drives