Global External Hard Drive Market Report and Forecast 2024-2032

External Hard Drive Market Size

The global external hard drive market reached approximately USD 9.98 billion in 2023. The market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.80% between 2024 and 2032, reaching a value of around USD 15.37 billion by 2032.

External Hard Drive Market Outlook

• As per the industry reports in January 2024, the largest hard disk drive has a capacity of 30 TB.

• The biggest portable hard disk drive possesses a capacity of 5 TB.

• Sandisk announced the launch of its external hard drive, SanDisk Desk Drive, on May 2024, which uses solid-state storage and comes in capacities of 4TB and 8TB.

External Hard Drive Market Growth

Growing demand for data storage, the rising popularity of SSDs and the growth of the gaming sector are some of the crucial factors boosting the market growth. With the proliferation of high-quality images and videos as well as the installation of games with large storage capacity, there has been an increased demand for hard drives with large data storage. Moreover, external SSDs are gaining popularity as they electronically store data and do not pose any risk of mechanical failure due to the lack of moving parts.

The gaming culture has become even more prevalent in recent years due to the rising trend of live-streaming games on Twitch and YouTube. This directly influences the gaming market and leads to the development of large-size games, which necessitates the requirement of more storage space for game libraries and downloadable content (DLC). External hard drives provide the optimal solution for storage expansion without affecting the performance of the game.

The rising adoption of Thunderbolt and USB 4 connectivity standards which is supporting the development of external hard drives with superior performance and blazing-fast speed is a prominent trend increasing the external hard drive market share. There is also a high demand for rugged external hard drives which offer maximum protection against water, dust, and shock, making them preferable for people working in harsh or outdoor fieldworks.

The launch of innovative hard drives with superior capabilities is witnessing an upward trajectory. For example, Toshiba announced the launch of MG10F, a 22 TB hard drive, on September 27th, 2023, which offers a 512 MB cache along with a 5-year warranty.

External Hard Drive Industry Segmentation

“External Hard Drive Market Report and Forecast 2024-2032” offers a detailed analysis of the market based on the following segments:

Market Breakup by Storage Capacity

• Below 1 TB 

• 1 TB To 4 TB

• Above 4 TB

Market Breakup by Application

• Enterprises 

• Personal 

Market Breakup by Distribution Channel

• Online 

• Offline

Market Breakup by Region

• North America

• Europe

• Asia Pacific

• Latin America

• Middle East and Africa

Leading Companies in External Hard Drive Market

The market players are offering large storage space to gain a competitive edge in the market.

• Seagate Technology Holdings PLC 

• Western Digital Corporation 

• Toshiba Corporation 

• Sony Corp. 

• Transcend Information, Inc. 

• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 

• Lenovo Group Limited 

• Kingston Technology Company, Inc. 

• ADATA Technology Co., Ltd. 

• HP Inc

• Buffalo Americas Inc. 

• Others

Key Highlights of the Report