18TB WD My Book Desktop external hard drive.

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Whether you need a backup tool or you just need more storage space on your laptop or desktop system, adding an external drive is a cheap and effective way to do this.

And while hard disk drives (HDDs) are nowhere near as fast as solid state drives (SSDs), they can be more than fast enough for most applications, and you can pick up massive hard disks for a price that won't break the bank. 

Also: Hardware fails, but I've never lost data thanks to this backup plan

Take this18TB WD My Book Desktop external hard drive , which you can currently pick up on Amazon for an amazing 40% off, bringing the price down from$540 to$330.

$210 off means you're paying a little over$18 per terabyte, which is a good deal indeed. 

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18TB WD My Book Desktop external hard drive

With 18TB of capacity, this drive is perfect as a backup or as a way to add more storage to a laptop or desktop system.

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18TB WD My Book Desktop specs

• Capacity: 18TB
• Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 1
• Drive: 5400 RPM HDD
• Wireless: No
• Encryption: 256-bit AES hardware encryption
• Compatibility: Windows 10+, MacOS 11+
• Warranty: 3-year limited warranty

Note: While this is a WD drive, this is not affected by the wiping bug that's affecting some WD and SanDisk external SSDs.

One feature that I like about the WD My Book Desktop external hard drives is that they have built-in support for 256-bit AES hardware encryption, which means that you can encrypt your data without relying on some third-party software -- it's all handled on the drive.

Just remember, if you forget your password, your data is gone, and nothing will be able to recover it. 

Also: How I recovered 'irreplaceable' photos off an SD card for free

For easy backups, this drive comes with WD Backup software, but it is also compatible with backup tools built into Windows and Mac.

For power efficiency, the drive is designed to go to sleep after about ten minutes of inactivity. For most home users, this is a perfect setting, but it can be customized or disabled using the WD Drive Utilities software. I've had mine set to not go to sleep since day one, and it has no problem with this.

I've got a couple of theseWD My Book Desktop external hard drives that have been in use 24/7 for over a year and they have been flawless in their operation. 

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