Mapping a network drive — also known as “mounting” a drive — allows you to create an easy access point to specific data on a network server using your own computer.
- From desktop hard drives to NAS to portable solid-state drives, we’ve spent hundreds of hours finding the best external drives. Here’s what we recommend.
- The best NAS devices are network attached storage – these devices are basically external hard drives that connect to your network, rather than your PC. This lets you access the NAS through.
After a new round of research and testing, the 64 GB Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2 is our new top pick.
Your guide
Thorin Klosowski
After 40 hours researching and testing 11 flash drives, we found that the 64 GB Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2 is the one to get. It is fast, reliable, and inexpensive, and has a textured metal case that makes it easier to insert or remove from your USB port than the slippery plastic cases of most flash drives.
Our pick
64 GB Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2
The fastest, most consistent 64 GB drive we tested; it's also reasonably priced and has a sturdy black metal casing and a five-year warranty.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $32.
The 64 GB Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2 was the fastest, most consistent flash drive we tested, and it usually costs less than $30, around the same price as other similarly sized models. The metal casing has excellent build quality, but it’s not so large it’ll block any USB ports on your laptop. It also has a five-year warranty and a blinking blue LED indicator that lets you know when the drive is active. But its small, untethered cap is easy to misplace.
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Also great
128 GB Samsung Fit Plus
This one is tiny enough that you can leave it plugged into your laptop for extra storage, but its slower write speeds aren’t ideal for shuttling files between devices.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $25.
If you need a tiny flash drive to keep on a keyring, or plugged into a laptop as semi-permanent storage, we recommend the thumbnail-sized 128 GB Samsung Fit Plus. It had some of the fastest read speeds of all the drives we tested, but its small file write speeds were about 30 percent slower and its large file write speeds almost 50 percent slower than the DataTraveler Elite G2 in our tests. Its fast read speeds are ideal for expanded storage, but its slow write speeds mean transferring files to the Fit Plus takes considerably longer than to our other picks—which is fine if you're just using it as extra storage for your laptop. Like most drives of this size, the Fit Plus lacks an indicator light. It comes with a five-year warranty.
Upgrade pick
128 GB SanDisk Extreme Go
This 128 GB drive, which is nearly as fast as the 64 GB Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2, is for people who often move large files between computers.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $47.
Western Digital
Best Network Hard Drive For Time Machine
If you frequently move large files between computers and need more storage, the 128 GB SanDisk Extreme Go is the best high-capacity flash drive we tested. (Though if you’re moving large files daily, you may be better off spending more for a portable SSD, which is almost eight times faster at writing files.) The Extreme Go had the fastest write speeds of the 128 GB drives we tested and quick read speeds, plus it costs about as much as its closest competition. The Extreme Go’s plug retracts into its case, so unlike the Kingston, there’s no small cap to lose. But its durable plastic case is chunky enough to block nearby ports on some laptops, and its indicator light “breathes” constantly when the drive is inactive. SanDisk’s lifetime warranty is the best around, beating out Samsung’s and Kingston’s five-year warranties.
Why not USB-C?
While we would have liked to recommend an option that works with USB-C without needing a USB-C to USB-A adapter, every USB-C flash drive we’ve tested to date has been slow or poorly made. We will update as soon as we find one worth recommending.
Iomega
The Best Portable SSD
After testing five external solid-state drives in 2019, we found that the Samsung T5 Portable SSD has the best balance of speed, size, price, and reliability.