Western Digital VS Seagate: A Detailed Comparison Guide

Tracy King updated on Apr 22, 2024 to Partition Manager | How-to Articles

Western Digital and Seagate are the top storage manufacturers, but what's the exact difference between their storage devices? Who makes the most affordable and reliable hard drives? Find a perfect answer to all these questions in this detailed comparison guide of Western Digital VS Seagate!

Western Digital and Seagate are the top storage manufacturers, but what's the exact difference between their storage devices? Who makes the most affordable and reliable hard drives?

Part 1. About Western Digital
Part 2. About Seagate
Part 3. WD VS Seagate Internal Hard Drive
Part 4. WD VS Seagate External Hard Drive
Part 5. Clone Hard Drive with EaseUS Partition Master

Part 1. About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation, also known as WD, is a famous American computer Hard Disk manufacturer that offers multiple data storage solutions. WD manufactures, develops, and offers data center systems, storage devices, and cloud storage devices to solve the emerging needs of the IT industry.

Like Seagate Technology PLC, WD becomes one of the top manufacturers of large computer Hard Disks that later resulted in the successful acquisition of multiple enterprises. In 2012, Western Digital acquired Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. This acquisition had an enormous influence on the Hard Disk market because it made Western Digital the world's largest Hard Disk manufacturer.

Later in May 2016, WD acquired the storage chip manufacturer SanDisk. In 2017, it received Upthere, a cloud storage provider, to build enhanced cloud storage features. In September 2017, WD acquired a flash storage array manufacturer Tegile Systems.

This was all about the first player in the comparison between Western Digital VS Seagate. Now, let's get an insight into a brief introduction of Seagate!

Part 2. About Seagate

Seagate Technology PLC is an American-based Data Storage Company that was founded in 1978. Initially, it was founded as Shugart Technology, but later the company changed its name to Seagate Technology PLC. Since 2010, Seagate has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, with its headquarters in Cupertino, California, USA.

In 1980, the company developed the first 5.25 inch Hard Disk Drive and later in the 1980s, Seagate became the top supplier of microcomputers. Today, Seagate Technologies PLC and its competitor Western Digital rule the entire Hard Disk market. Their main products are Laptop HDD, Desktop HDD, Archive HDD, Enterprise HDD, SSD, and much more.

Seagate's growth was highly achieved by acquiring its competitors. In 1989, Seagate acquired the Imprimis division of Control Data Corporation, which was engaged in making HDD products. In 1996, it received Corner Peripherals, and in 2006, Seagate acquired Maxtor. Later in 2011, Seagate acquired the hard disk business of Samsung.

From all these acquisitions, it is pretty clear that Seagate is now a global leader in data storage solutions. With years of experience, Seagate develops excellent storage devices that allow home and business users worldwide to share, create and save their critical data.

In today's date, Western Digital and Seagate are the leading Hard Disk manufacturers, indicating that the Hard Disk industry has now entered into a new era of oligarchy, which has confused people regarding which is better - Western Digital VS Seagate!

Next, we will discuss more information about the two drives and compare their pros and cons. If you think this page is helpful, you can click the button below to share with your friends.

 

Part 3. WD VS Seagate Internal Hard Drive

An Internal Hard Disk Drive is the primary storage drive located inside a computer system. This drive generally consists of pre-installed software and applications, the Operating System, and other files. Most desktop computers have multiple Internal Hard Drives, thus allowing them to offer excellent data storage capacity.

Now, when choosing the best Internal Hard Drive for the computer system, most users are confused between the top brands, i.e., Western Digital VS Seagate. So, let's have a look at how WD Internal Hard Drive differs from Seagate Internal Hard Drive with the help of a comparison table!

Basis of Comparison

Western Digital Internal Hard Drive

Seagate Internal Hard Drive

Storage Capacity

Limited up to 6 TB

Limited up to 14 TB

Read/Write Speed

Slower

Faster

Price

Expensive

Cheaper

As you can see, Seagate Internal Hard Drive is much better than Western Digital Internal Hard Drive in all terms. So, whether it's price, speed, or storage capacity, Seagate Internal Hard Drive will deliver better results by being cheaper and affordable than Western Digital Internal Hard Drive.

To know more about Seagate and Western Digital Internal Hard Drive, have a look at the related pros and cons below!

Pros and Cons of WD Internal Hard Drive

Pros:

  • Multiple storage options.
  • Great value.
  • Comes with warranty.
  • Reliable.

Cons:

  • More expensive than Seagate.
  • Some trouble reported with the warranty.
  • It can get loud sometimes.

Pros and Cons of Seagate Internal Hard Drive

 Pros:

  • Incredible value.
  • A handful of storage options.
  • Usually, a quiet drive.
  • Comes with warranty.

Cons:

  • Flash acceleration results don't always appear instantly

Part 4. WD VS Seagate External Hard Drive

An External Hard Drive can be attached to a computer system easily via a USB cable. These drives have high storage capacities and are usually used to back up the computer data or serve as a network drive. The External Hard Drives operates on a plug-and-play basis and can be used as an emergency backup drive.

When it comes to choosing the correct External Hard Drive for your computer, Western Digital VS Seagate is the biggest confusion! So, here's a comparison table between Western Digital VS Seagate External Hard Drive that will help you make a better decision!

Basis of Comparison

Western Digital External Hard Drive

Seagate External Hard Drive

Storage Capacity

High

Low

Lifespan

Good battery life

Average battery life

Price

Cheaper (for similar capacity as of Seagate)

Expensive (for similar capacity as of WD)

Speed

Slow data transfer speed

Fast data transfer speed

Data Security

WD Passport SSD, with a maximum capacity of 2 TB, can easily be encrypted with 256-bit AES by using WD’s security software

Seagate's SATA drives can be encrypted, but its faster SSDs can’t be encrypted

The table above shows that though Western Digital External hard Drive supports slow data transfer speed, it is much better than Seagate External Hard Drive in all other terms that involve Storage capacity, price, data security, etc.

So, if speed matters for you, then you can go for Seagate External Hard Drive; otherwise, WD is also not a bad option to consider!

To make a better choice between Western Digital VS Seagate External Hard Drive, have a look at their relative pros and cons below!

Pros and Cons of WD External Hard Drive

Pros:

  • Outstanding and fast performance.
  • Very easy to use with plug-and-play technology.
  • The size of the hard disk is perfect, about 2.5 inches.
  • Modern, stylish, and attractive design.

Cons:

  • The small size of the drive makes it susceptible to falls or shocks.
  • Plastic design makes it less shock-resistant.
  • The device is heated with long-term use.

Pros and Cons of Seagate External Hard Drive

 Pros:

  • The portable hard drive is easy to set up.
  • Light and compact in size.
  • Windows recognizes the drive automatically.

Cons:

  • Short warranty.
  • Drive does not come with backup software.
  • If the drive fails, you will have to shell out money to recover the data.

You can now decide whether Western Digital is good to go option than Seagate or not! Consider the pricing, storage capacity, read/write speed, data security of each of these manufacturers, and then decide which one is better as per your requirements. But if you ask us, then we will suggest you go for Seagate Internal Hard Drive and Western Digital External Hard Drive!

Part 5. Clone Hard Drive with EaseUS Partition Master

There are times when you need to clone the Hard Drive. The Disk Clone is basically the process of creating a full copy of the content of a Hard Disk. The need for Hard Drive cloning arises when you want to create a backup image to protect the data from a Hard Drive failure, upgrade the Hard Drive for enhanced computer performance or migrate the Operating System to SSD without re-installing the applications and OS.

There are multiple Hard Drive cloning tools available out there, but no one performs as flawlessly as EaseUS Partition Master. Here's more about EaseUS Partition Master!

Clone Internal/External Hard Drive with EaseUS Partition Master

EaseUS Partition Master is an excellent tool for cloning Hard Drive. You can use EaseUS Partition Master to clone HDD to SDD or HDD painlessly without any hassle. The cloning feature of this tool enables the users to clone a Hard Disk for data backup or a Hard Drive upgrade.

With plenty of features, EaseUS Partition Master offers the most reliable disk clone options to help you clone either a single partition or entire disk to another destination drive, even if it is smaller in storage than the source destination.

Functions of EaseUS Partition Master:

  • Resize/ Move Partitions
  • Merge Partitions
  • Clear/Delete/Format Partitions
  • Wipe Data
  • Check for errors on selected partitions
  • Clone partitions
  • Change partition label

Guide to Use EaseUS Partition Master:

Here's how to use EaseUS Partition Master to clone Hard Drive!

Step 1. Select the source disk.

  • Click the "Clone" from the left menu. Select the "Clone OS Disk" or "Clone Data Disk"  and click "Next".
  • Choose the source disk and click "Next".

Step 2. Select the target disk.

  • Choose the wanted HDD/SSD as your destination and click "Next" to continue.
  • Read Warning message and confirm "Yes" button.

Step 3. View the disk layout and edit the target disk partition size. 

Then click "Continue" when the program warns it will wipe out all data on the target disk. (If you have valuable data on the target disk, back up it in advance.)

You can select "Autofit the disk", "Clone as the source" or "Edit disk layout" to customize your disk layout. (Select the last one if you want to leave more space for C drive.)

Step 4. Click "Start" to start the disk cloning process.

It was this simple to clone Hard Drive with EaseUS Partition Master Tool!!

Part 6. Conclusion

This was all about Western Digital vs Seagate! Both these manufacturers are two big names in the field of storage drive solutions, and choosing the best between them can be quite challenging. But with the help of this article, you can easily compare the two and choose the correct Hard Drive for your computer. Apart from this, our bonus tip on cloning Hard Drive with EaseUS Partition Master will also prove to be useful for you as this is a top-notch tool that delivers excellent results when it comes to managing the Hard Drives of your PCs.