LAST CHANCE: these PS5 external hard drive Prime Day deals end at midnight!

Get a PS5 external hard drive to store your games library from just £40 in the Prime Day sales, and make your life that much easier

Prime Day deals PS5 external drive
(Image credit: WD, Samsung)
Matthew Bolton
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last updated

We know that lots of people are looking for gaming bargains in among the best Prime Day deals, and though it's not the sexiest upgrade in the world, I think you should look at getting yourself an external hard drive to use with your console. That applies to both the PS5 and Xbox Series X, and actually to the PS4 and Xbox One models too – and the drives on this page will work with both, which is really useful for reasons I'll explain in a minute.

The PS5 comes with around 660GB of available space on its ultra-fast internal storage. The Xbox Series X comes with around 800GB available. Both will fill up pretty damn quick with new ultra-detailed high-end games – especially if you've also got your library of games from the previous generation you want to play on them, which will eat up so much of the storage themselves.

Prime Day UK external hard drive deals

Prime Day US external hard drive deals

Don't worry, though: both consoles support external hard drives for the storage of previous-generation games. These can be any old hard drives from any manufacturer, which means you can add a lot of space to your console for not a lot of money, as long as you use it to store previous-generation games, keeping your internal space clear for the new stuff. You can just play the games right from the hard drive, and it's totally seamless. (On Xbox, you can store new-gen games on an external drive too, but you can't play them from it – you have to transfer over to the console's storage, which is still much faster than re-downloading it.)

I mentioned that these are ideal for previous consoles too, because there the effectively just expand how much storage you have. Even better, if you use an external SSD instead of a traditional hard drive, they'll load faster – much faster, in some cases.

And if you have a PS4/Xbox One now, but are planning to get a new-gen console in the future, you can use these external drives to transfer all your games and save files over to the new consoles instantly, if things are already stored there.

Because the whole point is to free up capacity, I'd recommend choosing a drive of at least 1TB. And I'd also recommend an SSD because of the faster loading times – it really makes a difference! I've been using a 1TB SSD with my PS5 since day one, and I think I'd be tearing my hair out playing storage Tetris if I didn't have it. However, your budget might not stretch to an SSD, and regular external storage is still worth getting.

So here are the Prime Day deals on external storage that I think are the best buys, all should work perfectly with your consoles.

Samsung T5 1TB USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD | Was: £149.99 | Now: £90.99 | Save: £59 (39%) at Amazon UK
Best PS5 drive ove...

Samsung T5 1TB USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD | Was: £149.99 | Now: £90.99 | Save: £59 (39%) at Amazon UK
Samsung's T-series SSDs have been favourites for years, and for good reason: they're damn fast, reliable, and well-priced. This gives you the 1TB of storage we're looking for, and supports the 10GB/s maximum speed of the PS5's USB ports, so it'll load your games as quickly as the console can handle. (The Xbox Series X tops out at 5GB/s, so the SSD is good for that, too.) It comes with USB-A and USB-C cables, so you can use any port type you want.

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WD 1TB My Passport Portable Hard Drive | RRP: £49.99 | Now: £39.99 | Save: £10 (20%) at Amazon UK

WD 1TB My Passport Portable Hard Drive | RRP: £49.99 | Now: £39.99 | Save: £10 (20%) at Amazon UK
This is a great amount of storage for the price from a reliable company, and it's a small drive that's easy to hide behind your console. If you want an instant storage upgrade for a minimal price, this is the Prime Day deal for you. It's not an SSD, though, so won't load any quicker than regular PS4 storage.

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Crucial CT2000X8SSD9 2TB Portable SSD | RRP: £247.19 | Now: £162.99 | Save: £84.20 (34%) at Amazon UK

Crucial CT2000X8SSD9 2TB Portable SSD | RRP: £247.19 | Now: £162.99 | Save: £84.20 (34%) at Amazon UK
This is the best-value 2TB SSD available now, and from a name synonymous with excellent storage and RAM. Again, this supports 10GB/s speeds, so is perfect for PS5. It also promises to be drop-proof, though if it's just sitting behind your console, hopefully that won't come up…

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Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive | RRP: £74.99 | Now: £53.99 | Save: £21 (28%) at Amazon UK

Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive | RRP: £74.99 | Now: £53.99 | Save: £21 (28%) at Amazon UK
Want more space than the WD above? You only need to spend a little more to double your fun. This is what I'd choose, if you can't go for a 1TB SSD – you can store a big ol' load of previous-gen games on here without having to think or worry about it.

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Amazon Prime Day alternative sales – UK

Matthew Bolton
Matthew Bolton

Matt is T3's former AV and Smart Home Editor (UK), master of all things audiovisual, overseeing our TV, speakers and headphones coverage. He also covered smart home products and large appliances, as well as our toys and games articles. He's can explain both what Dolby Vision IQ is and why the Lego you're building doesn't fit together the way the instructions say, so is truly invaluable. Matt has worked for tech publications for over 10 years, in print and online, including running T3's print magazine and launching its most recent redesign. He's also contributed to a huge number of tech and gaming titles over the years. Say hello if you see him roaming the halls at CES, IFA or Toy Fair. Matt now works for our sister title TechRadar.