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- Best External Hard Drive For Mac Air
An external hard drive is, for many, the best solution. You can offload your data from your MacBook's SSD or your iMac's Fusion drive when it fills up, or keep one plugged in 24/7 as a store for. Discover the world of external hard drives for Mac. Compare portable, USB and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. 13-inch MacBook Air.
Your guide
- Justin Krajeski
After 18 hours of new research and testing, we found that the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is still the best portable hard drive for most people. It’s reliable, it’s one of the lightest, thinnest hard drives we tested, and it was faster than the competition in our backup and file-transfer tests.
Our pick
2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim is reliable, thin, and light, and it offers fast speeds at a reasonable cost.
Buying Options
The Slim has been one of our top picks for the past four years, and it’s the only portable hard drive that we’ve tested that doesn’t sacrifice size, speed, or reliability. Every other 2 TB portable hard drive is significantly larger, performs slower in our tests, or has a failure rate that’s too high to recommend. The Slim has an acceptable 9-percent reported failure rate among nearly 2,701 user reviews. We recommend the 2 TB model because it’s a great value. Seagate includes handy backup software, too.
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Also great
4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable
The 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable is a reliable drive that offers more storage space for less money per terabyte than our pick, but it’s larger and heavier.
Buying Options
If you want more storage and don’t mind a larger, heavier drive, we continue to recommend the 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable, which costs less per terabyte than the 2 TB Backup Plus Slim. It was faster at sequential reading in our HD Tune test, but it was slower in our other testing. It’s twice as thick as our top pick and almost twice as heavy, too. (Make sure not to buy the 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Fast by mistake—that’s a different drive that we do not recommend.)
Everything we recommend
Our pick
2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim is reliable, thin, and light, and it offers fast speeds at a reasonable cost.
Buying Options
Also great
4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable
The 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable is a reliable drive that offers more storage space for less money per terabyte than our pick, but it’s larger and heavier.
Buying Options
The research
Why you should trust us
Wirecutter has researched and recommended hard drives since early 2012, and our PC team has over eight years of combined experience testing hard drives and solid-state drives. I’ve spent the last two years reviewing hard drives and SSDs. We’ve collectively spent nearly 200 hours researching and testing portable hard drives in just the past four years.
Who this is for
If you’re not backing up the important documents and photos on your computer, you should start. Your computer's internal drive will stop working someday, and unless your data is backed up, it'll be gone forever. Fortunately, backing up your data is easy and getting started takes only a few minutes: Read our advice and set up a system that will back up your files automatically both to an external hard drive and the cloud. Just backing up to one or the other isn't enough; having both onsite and cloud backups ensures that your data stays safe from localized threats such as fire, theft, or natural disaster, as well as Internet outages or disruptions to the cloud backup provider. A portable hard drive is a great local backup for a computer you take from your house to the coffee shop, on business trips, or on vacations.
You should consider replacing your backup drives between the third and sixth year of use. If your drive dies and you have a cloud backup, you won’t lose data, but restoring from the cloud will take a very long time. According to statistics from cloud backup service Backblaze, hard drives are most likely to fail either within the first 18 months of use or after three years. About 5 percent of drives fail in the first 18 months of use, and the failure rate lowers to about 1.5 percent for another 18 months. At three years of service, the failure rate jumps to almost 12 percent. At the four year mark, the failure rate is 20 percent. Based on five years of data, Backblaze estimated that more than half of hard drives will last six years.
You should consider replacing your backup drives between the third and sixth year of use.
If you frequently move between different locations and need a drive to keep in your bag and use to back up photos and other data while you’re traveling, you should get a portable external drive like the ones we recommend in this guide. But if you spend most of your time working from one desk, a desktop external drive is the better choice. They’re less expensive per terabyte and a bit faster than portable drives, but desktop external hard drives are bigger and heavier than portable ones and require an additional power adapter. And although one bump can still lead to failure, portable hard drives are designed to withstand a little more abuse than desktop hard drives. If you can afford to pay around three times more for a smaller, lighter, more durable and much faster portable drive with hardware encryption, we recommend a portable solid-state drive.
How we picked
Ideally, a portable hard drive is something you don’t notice much. It should sit on your desk, quietly storing and backing up your data. And if you want to throw it in your bag (carefully), that shouldn’t be a problem. These are the features you should look for in a portable hard drive, in rough order of importance:
- Reliability: Although reliability is the most important factor for any storage device, solid information on reliability can be hard to come by. Only three companies still manufacture hard drives—Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba—and all of them make reliable hard drives. But all hard drives die. While the vast majority of drives from these manufacturers will be fine until you upgrade to a faster, more spacious drive in a few years, it’s still possible to buy a bad egg that will die too soon.
- Build quality: Your portable hard drive should be able to withstand normal wear and tear from being handled and thrown into your bag often. Rugged portable drives are bulkier and more expensive than the portable drives we recommend for most people. (You can read more about rugged drives in the Competition section.)
- Physical size and weight: The smaller and lighter, the better. Your portable hard drive should also draw all the power it needs from the USB port, no power adapter necessary.
- Speed: Even though portable hard drives are generally slower than their desktop brethren, speed is still important. You’re more likely to use a portable drive to transfer large files between different computers, so a faster drive will save you time. We considered only those drives with USB 3.0 connections. Anything faster isn’t necessary for hard drives, because they’re limited by disk speed, not the USB interface.
- Price: We found that most people buy 2 TB and 4 TB drives by looking at Amazon reviews for our top picks. While a higher-capacity drive is more cost-effective per terabyte, 4 TB portable hard drives cost nearly twice as expensive as 2 TB drives and supply more storage than most people need. Since many portable drives nowadays have similar performance, lower-cost options are better.
- Capacity: We recommend getting the largest capacity you can afford right now because you’ll amass more data over time and larger drives generally have a better price-per-terabyte value. We focused on 2 TB drives because of their balance of value and total cost. We also have a 4 TB pick for people who need more portable storage and don’t mind the larger size.
- Warranty and customer service: A good warranty is important in case you get a lemon. While the majority of portable hard drives we tested have two-year warranties, a couple have three-year warranties. Responsive customer service is important, too, in case you have trouble backing up your data.
- Backup software: While backup software is a nice perk, you can find lots of free alternatives and other great options for online backup services. If you don’t need the extra features provided by the software, it’s not worth the time and effort to set it up on every computer you use. Dragging and dropping files works just fine for manual backups, and your OS’s built-in backup utility suffices for automatic ones.
How we tested
For our 2018 update, we narrowed down our list of contenders by price and capacity and tested six 2 TB models and one 4 TB model. For each portable hard drive, we ran HD Tune Pro, a benchmarking program that tests sequential transfer speeds and random access time across the entire disk. You can read a more in-depth explanation of the program at the HD Tune website. We also timed the file transfer of a 45.5 GB rip of a Blu-ray movie from start to finish, running each transfer three times and determining the average to rule out performance hiccups. Finally, we timed how long it took each external hard drive to back up 38.5 GB to Time Machine on a 2016 MacBook Pro.
To spot any widespread reliability issues, we read through Amazon reviews for each of the drives we tested and counted the number of reported drive failures. This method has shortcomings. For one, people are more likely to post a review when they have a problem. Also, because of the limited information available in some reviews, it can be hard to differentiate between hardware failures and software issues or user errors that could cause problems with a drive. But this approach is the best we have for now.
We also looked at Backblaze’s hard drive reliability ratings from 2017, which are based on more than 90,000 drives used in its cloud backup servers. Backup servers are a very different environment than a box on your desk—bare drives in servers are accessed more often and are subject to more vibrations and more heat; drives in enclosures have more potential points of failure between the USB connector and the USB-to-SATA logic board. The hard drives Backblaze uses are desktop hard drives, not portable hard drives, with some drives pulled from external enclosures. Even so, the Backblaze study is the largest, most recent sample of hard drive failures we have access to, and it’s always a fascinating read.
Our pick: 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim
Our pick
2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim is reliable, thin, and light, and it offers fast speeds at a reasonable cost.
Buying Options
The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is the best portable hard drive for most people because it’s reliable. It’s lighter and smaller than most of the other hard drives we tested, was consistently faster than most of the competition in our tests, and is one of the least expensive drives per terabyte we tested. The Slim also comes with handy backup software.
The Slim has been one of our picks since April 2014 because it continues to be the most reliable drive (based on the largest sample of Amazon reviews) while still providing fast performance. In May 2018, we recorded 249 failure reports out of 2,701 user reviews for the 2 TB model, giving the Slim a 9-percent reported failure rate—that’s pretty good for a drive that’s been around for four years, since drive failure rates start going up after three. During our years of testing, we’ve found that reported failure rates below 10 percent aren't cause for concern.
The Slim (bottom) is just barely thicker than the thinnest drive we’ve tested, the Ultra Slim (top). Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald
The Slim (top) is much thinner than most of the other drives we tested, like the WD Elements Portable (bottom).Photo: Rozette Rago
The Slim (bottom) is just barely thicker than the thinnest drive we’ve tested, the Ultra Slim (top). Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald
The Slim (top) is much thinner than most of the other drives we tested, like the WD Elements Portable (bottom).Photo: Rozette Rago
Multiple Wirecutter staffers have been using the Seagate Backup Plus Slim for all kinds of things with few to no issues. Lead editor Kimber Streams has been using the drive “to store and transfer personal files, work photos, and test data for about four years,” and has “never used the included software or the app,” but notes that “the drive still works great!” Staff writer Thorin Klosowski has been using the drive with a PlayStation 4 for about a year to store games and data, “and it’s ticking along just fine, even though the PS4 has a knack for requiring a database rebuild if you don’t power it down right.” And senior staff writer Joel Santo Domingo has been using the drive for Time Machine backups and other data storage for two years. He writes, “it’s fast enough to use on a day-to-day basis, and in that time, I’ve yet to fill it up.”
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim is one of the thinnest and lightest portable hard drives we tested. It’s less than half an inch thick—0.48 inches, to be exact—and it weighs just 5.6 ounces, making it easy to throw into a bag when you’re on the go. It’s 4.47 inches long and 2.99 inches wide. Most drives we tested were similarly speedy but were much thicker, which is why the Slim is our pick over anything else. The only 2 TB drive that’s lighter and thinner than the Slim is the Ultra Slim, which we discuss more in the Competition section.
The Toshiba models had the fastest speeds in our Blu-ray transfer test, but the Seagate Backup Plus, our pick, was not far behind. Shorter bars indicate better performance.
The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim was one of the fastest portable hard drives we tested at creating a backup with Time Machine. Shorter bars indicate better performance.
The Slim was roughly as fast as the competition at reading and writing Blu-ray video, and it was even faster in our Time Machine testing. It was firmly in the middle of the pack for our Blu-ray testing, reading and writing our files in 6 minutes and 33 seconds, and it measured as one of the fastest portable hard drives we tested with Time Machine, writing 38.5 GB to our MacBook Pro in 24 minutes and 9 seconds.
The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim gave us the best combination of HD Tune read and write speeds. The Toshiba models we tested had faster read speeds, but their write speeds were low and their performance inconsistent. Longer bars indicate better performance.
In HD Tune write testing, the Slim was the fastest portable hard drive we tested, measuring 86.4 MB/s, although its margin of victory fell within the margin of error of our measurements of other portable hard drives’ speeds. Its HD Tune read speed, 88.1 MB/s, was one of the fastest speeds we tested.
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim’s sturdy plastic case doesn’t flex or creak under pressure like many other drives do. It also stands up well to light scratches from keys—only the glossy black sides dinged up in our tests. Although our pick will hold up well to normal bag friction, it isn’t rated to survive any significant shocks.
We recommend the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim because it’s less expensive per terabyte than the 1 TB model and it’s the highest capacity option the Slim has. (If you need more space, consider the 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable.) Even if you have only a terabyte of data right now, your needs will expand over the drive’s lifespan, and having room to grow is better than buying multiple drives and spending more in the long run. The Backup Plus Slim was on the cheaper end of the portable hard drives we tested; while the WD My Passport and WD Elements cost about the same, everything else cost at least $2.50 more per TB.
The user-friendly Seagate Dashboard interface lets you back up your PC, mobile devices, and social media, or it can restore from an existing backup. The Seagate Mobile Backup app for iOS and Android also backs up contacts, messages, photos, and other data from your smartphone to your hard drive via Wi-Fi or your phone’s data connection as long as the drive is plugged into a computer running the Dashboard software.
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim hasn’t been reviewed recently, but CNET and StorageReview both praised its performance and value when the drive was released in 2014. It has a 4.1-star rating on Amazon out of 15,892 reviews—a larger pool of reviews than any other portable hard drive we’ve tested.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
As PCSTATS notes, the Backup Plus Slim’s USB port wobbles up and down when pressure is applied to the cable more than with other drives. Always disconnect the cable before stashing the drive in a drawer or bag. The USB connection is the weakest point in the external drive, and if you break the port, you won’t be able to access your data until you find a new enclosure.
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim comes with a two-year warranty—Western Digital, Seagate’s biggest competitor, usually provides three-year warranties—and our perusal of Amazon reviews turned up more complaints about Seagate’s customer service than about WD’s. However, a two-year warranty should be sufficient, and several drives we’ve tested have only one-year warranties, so we don’t think this is a dealbreaker.
Seagate also sells two- and three-year data recovery plans, but we’ve seen several reviewers complain about long waits and a lack of communication from Seagate customer service. Instead, we recommend taking 15 minutes to set up an automatic backup that sends your files to an external drive and encrypted cloud storage without any regular action from you. Data recovery plans never guarantee success, and a thorough backup system is the only way to prevent data loss.
Our pick doesn’t have encryption to protect your data from prying eyes. While the option to encrypt would be nice, it isn’t a dealbreaker for most people. If you really need encryption, use an encryption utility like Veracrypt (or Bitlocker) or consider a portable solid-state drive.
More storage, less portability: 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable
Also great
4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable
The 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable is a reliable drive that offers more storage space for less money per terabyte than our pick, but it’s larger and heavier.
Buying Options
If you care more about price and storage space than size, you should get the 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable. It costs less per terabyte than the 2 TB Backup Plus Slim, and it was about as fast when reading and writing HD Tune transfer tests. The 4 TB model was slower in our other tests though, and it’s much thicker and heavier than the Slim. (But don’t buy the 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Fast by mistake. We don’t recommend that drive, because with two 2 TB drives inside, it has higher potential to fail.)
Seagate sells a 5 TB model that’s the same dimensions and weight as the 4 TB version, and we found the larger capacity to be about 5 percent faster in our 2016 tests. It’s about the same price per terabyte right now, so you should buy it if you need the extra space in a portable drive. But if you want the fastest, most cost-effective drive and don’t care about portability, take a look at our desktop hard drive pick instead. It’s cheaper per terabyte and faster than the Backup Plus Portable, though it requires an AC adapter.
The 4 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable was nearly as reliable as our top pick: We found a 10-percent failure rate out of 1,477 Amazon reviews. It costs around $40 more than the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim, making it considerably cheaper per terabyte, too.
The Backup Plus Portable was a little faster than the Backup Plus Slim in the HD Tune benchmark, achieving results of 101.1 MB/s read and 88.1 MB/s write—13 MB/s and 1.7 MB/s faster, respectively, than the Slim. (Its write speed is not fast enough to separate it from the Slim, though.) The Portable performed respectably in our Blu-ray and Time Machine tests, but the Slim made better time. Both models are fast and reliable, and you should expect to see similar everyday performance from these drives.
The Portable’s USB port can wobble like the Backup Plus Slim’s can. Don’t store the drive with the cord attached.Photo: Daniela Gorny
The Backup Plus Portable (bottom) is thicker and heavier than the Backup Plus Slim (top).Photo: Daniela Gorny
The Portable’s USB port can wobble like the Backup Plus Slim’s can. Don’t store the drive with the cord attached.Photo: Daniela Gorny
The Backup Plus Portable (bottom) is thicker and heavier than the Backup Plus Slim (top).Photo: Daniela Gorny
The extra capacity comes with a minor downside: The Portable is larger and heavier than the Slim. Measuring 4.51 by 3.07 by 0.81 inches and weighing 8.6 ounces, the Portable is almost twice as thick and heavy as the Slim. Otherwise the Portable’s build quality is identical to the Slim’s, down to the slightly wobbly USB port.
The Backup Plus Portable comes with the exact same software as the Slim, and you can read our thoughts on that in the section above.
![Hard Hard](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126172828/302237812.jpg)
PCMag gave the Portable an Editors’ Choice awardin January 2016, and AnandTech called it “one of the most cost-effective and easily portable storage media” in August 2015. The 2 TB and 4 TB Slim models share a review pool on Amazon; they have a 4.1 star rating out of 15,892 reviews.
What about wireless portable hard drives?
We don’t think wireless portable hard drives are useful for most people, but the WD My Passport Wireless Pro 2 TB is our pick for professional photographers on the move. The drive’s SD card slot (a feature other wireless hard drives lack) can automatically copy the contents of a memory card to its internal hard disk, and built-in Wi-Fi makes the images available to devices running iOS, Android, macOS, or Windows. It’s also available in a 3 TB capacity.
What to look forward to
Seagate released new versions of the Backup Plus Slim (STHN2000) and Backup Plus Portable (STHP4000), as well as the all-new Backup Plus Ultra Touch (STHH2000), which includes hardware encryption and a USB-C dongle. The new Plus Slim (STHN2000) and new Plus Portable (STHP4000) both performed slightly better than the current picks in this guide. The new Plus Slim (STHN2000) averaged 5 percent faster in read speeds and 9 percent faster in write speeds than the previous Plus Slim (STDR2000). We had similar results with the 4 TB Plus Portable, with the new Plus Portable (STHP4000) averaging 8 percent faster in read speeds than the old Plus Portable (STDR4000), but the two had nearly identical write speeds.
However, our current picks have far more Amazon reviews at this writing—think thousands compared to tens—which gives us a much better idea of a drive’s failure rate. Until we have more reliability data, we still recommend the older versions. If speed is the most important factor for you, pick up a portable SSD instead.
Toshiba has also released a new Canvio Slim. We have not tested the 2 TB model yet, but it has the same small-review-pool problem as the Seagate models. We’ll take a look at it again once it has more reviews.
The competition
The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim was briefly our top pick from November 2016 to late January 2017 because it was the lightest, thinnest, fastest portable hard drive we’d tested, and it had a reported failure rate of just 4.2 percent. Since then, however, the failure rate has gone way up: In early May 2018, we calculated a rate of 18.5 percent based on Amazon reviews. Anything above 10 percent is cause for concern, and we can’t recommend it based on that failure rate.
The 2 TB Western Digital My Passport and 2 TB WD Elements are bigger than the Slim by 0.2 inches wide and nearly 0.4 inches thick, and they’re heftier by around 3 ounces. They were slower in most of our file transfer tests, too, although they were about as fast as our top pick in Time Machine testing.
Like the other WD drives we tested, the 2 TB Easystore was bigger than the Slim. It fell behind the Seagate Backup Plus Slim in HD Tune write tests by about 4 MB/s, and it was a little slower in Blu-ray tests, although its differences fell within normal variability. It was as quick as the Slim in Time Machine testing, too. But it’s only available only at Best Buy, and the price fluctuates more than we’d like.
The 2 TB Toshiba Canvio Premium and 2 TB Toshiba Canvio Advance are both as thin as our top pick, but their speeds were wildly inconsistent in our tests—both gave us some of the best Blu-ray scores and the very worst Time Machine speeds—and we have serious concerns about the drives’ performance.
The Seagate Expansion is a decent choice if you want to expand your gaming console’s storage or don’t need software, but in our tests, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim was faster and costs the same per terabyte. Plus, the Expansion is larger and heavier than the Slim, and it comes with a short one-year warranty.
We haven’t tested the Seagate Game Drive for Xbox, but it’s frequently more expensive than the Seagate Backup Plus Slim, it’s a little bigger on all sides, and it weighs about an ounce heavier, too. It has a 10-percent reported failure rate. We don’t love its bright green color scheme for most people, but we’ll look into testing it for our next update.
Transcend’s 2 TB StoreJet 25M3 is larger, heavier, and more expensive per terabyte than our top pick, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim.
WD’s My Passport X is a gaming-focused drive with a short, one-year warranty and no software. Of all the drives we tested in 2015, it had the slowest HD Tune reads and writes—82.5 MB/s and 77.4 MB/s, respectively—and it’s larger and heavier than our picks.
The Toshiba Canvio Basics has a one-year warranty, no software, and a bulkier design than the Slim.
Seagate External Hard Drive
At the end of 2016, we tested three promising, affordable rugged hard drives: the Silicon Power Armor A80, Silicon Power Armor A65, and Silicon Power Armor A85. All three drives are rated to survive going up to 1 meter (about 3.3 feet) underwater for up to 30 minutes, and rated to survive 26 drops on their various surfaces from 4 feet, but none of them survived these conditions in our real-world testing. We don’t recommend paying extra money for a bulkier, heavier drive that doesn’t protect your information like it says it will. We eliminated 10 other rugged drives in our previous update that lack both water and drop protection, which left us with the G-Technology G-Drive ev ATC, the ioSafe Rugged Portable, and the LaCie Rugged RAID, all of which cost too much for most people.
LaCie’s Rugged Triple and Mini are both too expensive to compete with our top pick, and they lack the water protection necessary to consider them for a rugged option. The LaCie Rugged USB-C fails to qualify for a rugged pick on the same grounds.
Footnotes
- In late 2016, the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim beat out the Slim as our top pick, and the Slim became our runner-up. But three months later, when the Ultra Slim’s reported failure rate skyrocketed, we restored the Slim as our top pick.Jump back.
Sources
- Max Page, Seagate Backup Plus Slim External USB 3.0 2TB Hard Drive Review, PCSTATS, September 21, 2016
- Dong Ngo, Seagate Backup Plus/Slim portable drive review: A fast portable drive with massive storage space, CNET, March 21, 2014
- Lyle Smith, Seagate Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive Review, StorageReview.com, March 21, 2014
- Joel Santo Domingo, Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive, PCMag, January 21, 2016
- Ganesh T S, Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4 TB USB 3.0 Drive Review, AnandTech, August 4, 2015
- Alan Henry, Windows Encryption Showdown: VeraCrypt vs Bitlocker, Lifehacker, May 22, 2016
External hard drives are used to backup large amounts of information outside of your Mac’s internal hard drive. Anyone who’s ever lost all of their data after a computer crash can understand how important that is. But there are other reasons to buy an external hard drive for your Mac.
Best External Hard Drive for Mac
Maybe you want to have all of your data available for when you get a new Mac. Or if you work with gigantic files that need more space than what your Mac’s internal hard drive has to offer. No matter what reason propels you to buy an external hard drive, we’ve compiled some of the best external hard drives for Mac the market has to offer to help you make an informed choice.
What is the difference between an internal and external hard drive?
It’s basically what the names suggest. An internal hard drive is the hard drive that comes inside your Mac or store-bought Windows system. While new internal hard drives have a ton of space compared to older ones (now measured in terabytes instead of gigabytes as in years past), it’s a good idea to have a backup of your work.
SOME PEOPLE RELY ON THE CLOUD—AND THAT’S FINE—BUT AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE IS A GREAT OPTION FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO KEEP THEIR FILES CLOSER TO HOME WITHOUT RELYING ON A CLOUD SERVICE.
External hard drives work on your computer by connecting to it. You can transfer files off of your internal hard drive and put it on your external one. Likewise, you can view and transfer files from your external hard drive and put them back on your internal hard drive.
In a day and age when space is measured in terabytes, and file sizes are growing larger with advances in an array of technologies, it’s important to ensure you have the space you need to save your precious work and priceless media library; external hard drives were made for that.
How do external hard drives for Mac work?
External hard drives for Mac work pretty much the same as they do for a PC. The best external hard drives for Mac tend to connect to Macs via Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 cables. This allows for the fastest connectivity, generally speaking. Once connected, you can automatically or manually back up your files, depending on your preference. https://energytechnology154.weebly.com/best-screen-recording-for-mac.html.
Many hard drives work for both Mac and Windows operating systems. Some of these require no particular reconfiguration or installation (some are simply plug-and-play), though others require you to reconfigure for Windows usage or vice versa for Mac usage.
DRIVES THAT PLAY WELL WITH BOTH OPERATING SYSTEMS ARE CRUCIAL FOR FAMILIES, OFFICES, AND CLASSROOMS WHERE PEOPLE MIGHT BE ON DIFFERENT OPERATING SYSTEMS AND CONNECTING TO A SINGLE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE.
The best external hard drive for Mac even feature automatic backups, so you don’t have to worry about doing something wrong manually. Furthermore, the better external hard drives tend to work with Mac’s Time Machine feature, which further simplifies and streamlines things.
How to keep your external hard drive running smoothly
Let’s face it: There’s nothing more terrifying to a computer user than hard drive failure, and that’s why people buy external hard drives—as a backup for “just in case.” But here’s the thing: If you don’t properly maintain your external hard drive, you could inadvertently cause it to fail and lose everything you worked so hard to save.
Here are a few simple steps to keep your external hard drive healthy:
- Make sure the device you’re plugging your hard drive into is connected to a surge protector. Even short power surges can have lasting effects on electronics, so this is like computer basics — and super important.
- Always store your external hard drive in the position it was designed to be in: Some external hard drives can be placed either horizontally or vertically. However, many are just meant to be placed either one way or the other. Turning your hard disk the wrong way puts unnecessary strain on it which could ultimately lead to failure.
- Don’t expose it to static: This is also a computer 101 thing; while modern devices including hard drives seem so much sturdier than their older counterparts (and are in many ways), it’s always best to be safe rather than sorry.
The benefits of buying Mac external hard drive
The number one benefit of buying an external hard drive for Mac is that you will have a backup of your files that are trusted and in your care, a backup you always have access to without having to depend on a cloud, a backup you can access when offline. These alone are colossal benefits to buying an external hard drive for your Mac, but there are other considerations.
Macbook Air External Hard Drive
ANYONE WHO HAS A LOT OF HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO FILES ON THEIR COMPUTER KNOWS HOW MUCH SPACE THAT EATS UP ON THEIR HARD DRIVE.
Best External Hard Drive For Macbook Air
For professional video editors as well as hobbyists, who will probably have more HD vids on their Mac than anyone else, it’s crucial to have an external hard drive so you can back up your work without compromising the space on your Mac’s internal hard drive. The same goes for anyone who works with a lot of large files and needs to keep a backup that’s trusted and not in the cloud.
External hard drives are more versatile than you think
Aside from all the above-listed benefits, you can swap out your internal hard drive for your external hard drive. It may sound dodgy but think about it: Chances are, nice, new external hard drives are going to be better than what came with your current computer. Some people put in the nicer, newer external hard drive and use their internal hard drive as their backup plan.
What to consider when buying an external hard drive for Mac?
You probably think the number one thing you need to a new external hard drive is space. However, lack of space isn’t such a problem nowadays when it comes to external hard drives as many options have more space on them than your computer itself has. Instead, the number one factor to consider when buying an external hard drive for Mac is reliability.
Consider this: You buy a new hard drive, it looks fresh and has a lot of space, and you’re happy—for two years. And then it fails. Why did it fail?
Because it wasn’t reliable. So, all that data that you backed up, all of those home movies of your kids, everything is just…gone. Poof.
THAT IS WHY RELIABILITY HAS TO BE YOUR NUMBER ONE CONSIDERATION WHEN IT COMES TO CHOOSING THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE OF YOUR DREAMS, BUT IT’S NOT THE ONLY THING TO CONSIDER.
How fast you can transfer data is also something you’re going to want to think about. Do you want a file that is X gigs in size to take Y amount of time while transferring or do you want it to take double Y amount of time while transferring?
- Connectivity also comes into play when it comes to speed, such as how well the drive works with your device and other components.
And then, of course, there is the ever-important aesthetic appeal. Some hard disk designs just look better than others. It shouldn’t be your first consideration, but it’s always something to think about when narrowing down your top choices.
How to choose the best external hard drive for Mac for your needs
When choosing the best external hard drive for your needs, consider what your needs are. For instance, when it comes to capacity, are you someone who has a need for the largest capacity hard drive on the market? People who need such great capacity tend to have large video libraries, for instance.
Also, think about how long you want your hard drive to live for. Inferior models may only last a year or so. Hard drive failure is a very real threat and the more issues a hard drive has, the more likely it is to fail. So, if safety and longevity are your primary concern when it comes to hard drives, put that above everything else.
Portability is also something to consider
After all, since external hard drives are only temporarily attached to your Mac, you can take them around with you to places such as to work or school. If portability is a factor in your decision making, go for a hard drive that is designed to be lightweight and portable without compromising integrity, function, and capacity.
And, of course, looks are something to consider. If you’re going to be taking your hard drive to school or something, you probably want it to look nice. Again, that shouldn’t be your primary driving decision factor, but it’s a nice plus if it looks good.
Desktop size (3.5 inch) high capacity external hard drives for Mac
Available Capacities | Warranty |
---|---|
Apple AirPort Time Capsule 3TB | WiFi and USB 2.0 |
G-Technology G-DRIVE 4TB | USB 3.0 |
WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo 4TB | Thunderbolt |
Buffalo DriveStation Axis Velocity | USB 3.0 |
CalDigit T4 Thunderbolt 2 Professional | Thunderbolt |
1. Apple AirPort Time Capsule 3TB Review
Model number: ME182LL/A
Features: Overall the best external hard drive for Mac
This hard drive provides you with up to 3TB (terabytes) of space; this means that it’s got more space on it than a lot of computers on the market today. Therefore, it’d be a great option to backup old computers, so you have access to them after you upgrade.
Easy to use
The Apple Time Capsule is fully compatible with OS X’s Time Machine feature so that all you have to do is plug it in and backing up files suddenly becomes super easy.
Improved Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi on the new Apple AirPort Time Capsule is greatly improved over the older model. The Wi-Fi base station comes with 802.11ac technology, and its higher design improves Wi-Fi signal dispersal.
With 802.11ac and Apple’s beamforming technology, you’re now transmitting at both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz at the same time with targeted signaling. This allows Time Capsule to select the best band for the device you’re connecting to for ultimate strength, speed, and quality of connectivity.
It’s not just for Macs
Not every household is strictly Mac or strictly PC. More and more families are mixing operating systems in their households. And that’s part of the brilliance with the Time Capsule: It can connect to your PC as well as Wi-Fi devices such as your iPad and Apple TV, among others. No longer do your Mac and PC have to have their separate external hard drives. They can now share, which is very cost-effective, as well as convenient.
Gigabit Ethernet
The Time Capsule AirPort Extreme Base Station includes three Gigabit Ethernet ports, enabling fast wired connections to other devices.
- Great improvement in Wi-Fi over the previous model
- Works with OS X Leopard or later
- Easy to setup
- Easy to use
- Wireless access
- 3TB (terabytes) of space ample storage capacity
- Ability to connect to PCs as well as other iOS devices, printers, and hard drives, allowing for maximum connectivity and sharing capability in your home, school or office
- Better dimensions than the previous model; the new taller Time Capsule takes up less of a footprint on your desk while maximizing your Wi-Fi signal, thanks to the new six-antenna array stored at the top.
- This version of Time Capsule isn’t compatible with operating systems older than OS X Leopard. However, this isn’t that big of a deal, because Leopard came out in 2007, so many users will have upgraded their devices in the decade since.
2. G-Technology G-DRIVE 4TB External Hard Drive Review
Model number: 0G03594
Features – Great external drive fro Mac users
4TB storage
The G-Drive USB 3.0 has a 4TB capacity. With that kind of storage, you’re sure to be able to store practically anything you need to.
The G-Drive USB 3.0 has a 4TB capacity. With that kind of storage, you’re sure to be able to store practically anything you need to.
Compatibility
The G-Drive uses USB 3.0 for ultimate compatibility. Furthermore, it’s compatible with Apple’s Time Machine, so backing up files is a breeze.
Versatility
Mac installation is as easy as plug-and-play. However, this hard drive can also be reformatted for Windows usage, making it ideal for families or individuals who have more than one operating system in the household.
Durable and fast
The case is made out of 100% aluminum, ensuring durability over extended usage. Meanwhile, the fast USB 3.0 connection combined with the hard drive spinning at 7200RPM, makes for speedy file saving.
- 3-year limited warranty
- Uses USB 3.0
- 4TB space ensures you have more than enough room to store years of multimedia content
- Aluminum casing adds durability
- Ability to work with both Mac and Windows
- Supports Mac OS 10.7+ and Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 operating systems
![Hard Hard](https://www.thecrazybuyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Transcend-External-Hard-Drive.jpg)
- There have been a few reports of users receiving this product either dead on arrival or saying it fails quickly. However, the majority are very pleased. This discrepancy probably indicates that the failing drives are damaged during shipping, or something similar.
- Thanks to the 3-year warranty, you can easily get your product replaced for a perfectly functioning model. This can be an issue no matter which hard drives you choose because factory errors or shipping accidents can damage any computer component, no matter the type or where you buy it from online.
- And, again, it’s important to remember that shipping accidents and the like have no bearing on how the properly functioning model works; this hard drive is very well-liked, after all. This isn’t a con about the product itself, but more of an issue report and how toremedy it.
- This drive doesn’t have a fan, which could potentially make it run hotter than some other models. However, there are cooling options on the market that can easily mitigate this small issue.
3. WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo 4TB External Dual Hard Drive Storage with RAID Review
Model number: WDBUPB0040JSL-NESN
Features: Ideal for video and graphics professionals and hobbyists
Thunderbolt’s bidirectional technology allows for multitasking while doing graphics-intensive projects. While this may not make that much of a difference in the daily lives of those who occasionally touchup personal photos, graphics professionals, and game modders will see a big benefit from Thunderbolt’s multitasking capabilities.
User-selective functionality
One of the most interesting things about the Thunderbolt Duo is its different operational modes that can be user selected. The RAID 0 setting is a great idea for graphics-intensive work while the RAID 1 setting makes storage safer by making an automatic backup copy of your data. The JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) feature allows users to use each drive individually, for the ultimate customized functionality.
Speed
The Thunderbolt tech enables bidirectional data transfer channels that can go up to 10GB/s of bandwidth. According to the manufacturer, with this technology, Thunderbolt can transfer a full-length HD movie in 30 seconds. This kind of speed is what makes this hard drive ideal for professionals and hardcore graphics and video hobbyists.
Easy to service
If you manage to fill up the hard disk, all you have to do is take the old one out of the case and put a new one in. It doesn’t get easier than that.
- Optimized for users who are running the Windows OS on a Mac computer
4TB of space, ideal for large files - Enables the user to daisy-chain up to seven devices or peripherals, providing for extreme productivity as well as convenience
- It’s easy for the user to change the way the hard drive functions to suit their personal needs, which maximizes workflow.
- It’s fast, further recommending its capabilities to professionals and those who take data transfer and storage seriously.
- You can put a new hard drive in the case whenever you fill one up, so you don’t have to worry about needing a lot of technical know-how.
- This hard drive is formatted only for Mac, so if you try to run it on Windows, you may get varying results. However, this hard drive was designed to keep in mind those users who run Windows on a Mac device, so it does make accommodations. For more specific questions about whether your setup will work perfectly with the Thunderbolt Duo, contact the manufacturer for more information.
- Copying an entire drive (such as backing up an old hard drive) can take a while. However, this can be a problem with any hard drive you buy. Because the more data you transfer, the longer it will take, and backing up another hard drive is one of the most intensive tasks you can ask an external hard drive to do. Even the best external hard drives for Mac would take a while doing this.
4. Buffalo DriveStation Axis Velocity USB 3.0 4 TB High Speed 7200 RPM External Hard Drive Review
Model number: HD-LX4.0TU3
Features: Extreme compatibility
The DriveStation Axis Velocity is a USB 3.0 storage device; however, it features USB 2.0 backward compatibility. On top of that, it works for both Mac and Windows. All of this combined make for one of the best external hard drives for Mac when it comes to versatility—perfect for multi-operating system households, as well as some older systems.
Backing up files is easy
With the Buffalo backup utility, you can schedule backups for ultimate safety. Moreover, it works with Time Machine, and you can schedule backups that way too. It’s really up to you.
Speed
The hard drive spins at 7200RPM; combined with the USB 3.0 feature, the result is extremely fast file transfers for excellent productivity.
Visual and functional appeal
Best External Hard Drive For Mac Air
The design is sleek and modern, making it blend perfectly into your work station. Meanwhile, the chassis is designed so that you can lay it horizontally or vertically to fit your style and work area. This is perfect for those where space is a concern.
- 2-year warranty with free 24/7 US tech support
- Fast at 7200RPM
- Supports both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0
- Works for Mac and Windows
- Visually appealing design
- Ability to position horizontally or vertically for when space is a concern
- Scheduled backups make things safer
- The 256-bit AES hardware encryption is optional; however, many external hard drives don’t even feature this, so the fact that it is an option at all is a bonus.
- Some customers find the installation is a bit more complicated than some of its competitors. However, this has no bearing on how well the device functions while it’s operating, so that should be the first consideration.
5. CalDigit T4 Thunderbolt 2 Professional External Hard Drive Review
Model number: T4R-12000-US-150
Features: Four-bay storage offers extreme storage capacity up to 24TB
One of the top features of the T4 is the fact that it has four storage bays. Each one can hold a 4TB hard drive, making for 16TB of storage. Storage capacity doesn’t get much bigger than this, making this a great option for video and 3D rendering professionals who have a lot of important work to store and need the most space. The four-bay design also gives users the benefit of having two RAID units in one.
Fast
The T4 dual Thunderbolt 2 ports allow for transfers up to 1300MB/s, making for extremely fast data transfers. Anyone who routinely works with large files will consider this a blessing.
RAID 5
RAID 5 support increases productivity and reduces the risk of data loss. If one drive fails, the other drives will continue to operate, keeping your data safe and minimizing the risk of future loss.
RAID 0 and RAID 1 support
The T4’s RAID 0 support allows users to optimize their multitasking while working with big files while RAID 1 provides security during data transfer. It’s the perfect mix of multitasking and safety.
- 5-year warranty
- Four 4TB storage bays make for 16TB storage capacity
- Supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5 for a great mix of performance, multitasking and data safety
- High-speed Thunderbolt ports allow transfers up to 1300 MB/s
- Replacing the drives has been a spot of trouble for some users due to lack of compatibility or the RAID 5 feature ceasing function. To solve this, contact CalDigit’s customer service for solutions. Once this issue is resolved, the device will perform as advertised. And it’s important to point out that this problem doesn’t happen to everybody because not everybody has a need to swap out the drives. (After all, each one is 4TB.)
Available Capacities | Warranty |
---|---|
Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim 2TB | USB 3.0 |
LaCie 1TB Rugged Thunderbolt | Thunderbolt / USB 3.0 |
G-Technology GDrive EV ATC | USB 3.0 |
WD My Passport Studio 2TB | FireWire 800 / USB 2.0 |
Seagate Seven 500GB | USB 3.0 |
Best slide show app for mac. 6. Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim 2TB Portable External Hard Drive Review
Model number: STEH2000100
Features – Ultra Slim and reliable portable external HDD for Mac
Seagate Dashboard Software
A unique feature with Seagate’s Ultra Slim is its included Seagate Dashboard Software. With this software, the user can create customized backup plans. This is great for those who require versatility in their backup storage options.
Lyve app
The Lyve app allows for additional backup features, furthering the Seagate’s versatility. With Lyve, you can easily share and manage your multimedia, and back it all up to various outlets like Facebook, Google Drive, DropBox and more.
Free OneDrive Storage available
If you register your new Backup Ultra Slim, you can receive two years of free 200MB cloud storage from One-Drive. This is great for someone who doesn’t currently have cloud access or requires more cloud access.
Fast plug-and-play
The support of both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 allows rapid file transfers as soon as you plug it in.
Aesthetic appeal
The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim comes in platinum and gold. The body is ultra slim (as the name suggests) and the surface is textured in a very modern, attractive way. For those who care about the aesthetics on their devices, the Seagate Ultra Slim’s appearance is something to consider when trying to narrow down between it and another option you like.
- Portability: Small enough to easily fit into your backpack or purse.
- Attractive design
- USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 support
- The option to receive two years of 200MB of One-Drive for free upon registration of device is an incredible bonus to an already nice package.
- The Seagate Dashboard Software and Lyve app are great additional features that come with the storage device.
- Requires reformatting for Mac usage; however, it comes with a handy guide. Most users will find the reformatting easy to accomplish, so this is only a minor thing.
- There have been instances of failure after a relatively short time of usage; however, the manufacturer is easily contacted and can resolve the issue. It’s important to remember that this isn’t a common problem and that hard drive failures have been known to happen with almost every seemingly normal hard drive on the market.
- While that may sound scary, it’s also part of why manufacturers tend to be very accommodating about replacements and repairs when it comes to hard drives, and why so many come with warranties that guarantee protection under a variety of potential circumstances.
7. LaCie 1TB Rugged Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Review
Model number: LAC9000488
Features – Rugged external hard drive for Mac
Safe for all-terrain use
The Rugged Thunderbolt is shock resistant, capable of surviving a five-foot fall, and can be used on any terrain thanks to its water-resistance. This kind of durability would make this a great hard drive for a film professional who has to do editing out in the field.
Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interfaces
The Rugged Thunderbolt’s USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces provide for excellent transfer speeds, with the ability to reach 387MB/s.
High compatibility
The Rugged Thunderbolt’s support of both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces make it easily connectable to both Macs and PCs, while the backward compatible USB 3.0 furthers the Rugged Thunderbolt’s versatility in that regard.
Safety features
You can download LaCie’s Private-Public software which allows you to password protect your files and keep them secure. Meanwhile, automatic backups are an excellent failsafe.
- Ability to resist damage in a variety of settings, making it all-terrain suitable and great for professionals and hobbyists on the go.
- Works for both Mac and PC
- Automatic backup
- Upgradable warranty for further device protection
- Doesn’t support Thunderbolt 2. However, this isn’t a problem for most users, who find Thunderbolt 1 more than capable of meeting their needs.
- Some people have found that the device works better with USB connections; this isn’t that much of a con since USB 3.0 is a great way to connect your device to the hard drive, but some users may find it a mild annoyance.
8. G-Technology GDrive EV ATC USB Portable Hard Drive Review
Features – External Mac hard drive with its own rugged enclosure
Extremely durable
The GDrive EV is probably one of the most durable portable hard drives on the market today. It’s shock resistant, capable of surviving being dropped from over six-and-a-half feet in the air. It’s also water, pressure and dust resistant while having the ability to float on water, thanks to its hard-plastic construction. All in all, this is the ultimate all-terrain portable hard drive option, and professionals on the go will certainly want to take note of that.
Works with both Mac and PC
This is ideal for Mac users as well as PC users, though PC users will have to reformat the device. However, the instructions are pretty simple, and most people find it an easy switch to make.
Fast
The hard drive spins at 7200RPM making it on par with some of the non-portable options out there, which is great for a product of this type. Backing up photos is simple.
Plug-and-play
Thanks to the USB 3.0 and 2.0 support, you can simply plug it in, and the device sets up super easy. You can begin backing up your files within minutes.
- One of the most durable portable hard drives on the market today
- Works with both Mac and PC
- USB 3.0 and 2.0 compatible
- High-speed transfers
- It only has 1TB of storage capacity, however, when it comes to portable hard drives, that’s not that bad at all. In fact, some competitors store less.
- Though it works with both Mac and PC, you will have to reformat it to work with PC. However, it’s important to add that reformatting is a piece of cake, so this is only a minor annoyance.
9. WD My Passport Studio 2TB Mac Portable External Hard Drive with FireWire Review
Features – Durable external hard drive for Mac
The all-metal construction of this hard drive ensures its durability. You won’t have to worry about the case, denting or wearing down easily.
Secure
The My Passport Studio has excellent security features. With hardware encryption and password protection, you’ll rest assured that your privacy is intact and your files are safe. These features do not usually come standard on external hard drives either portable or standard, so this is something to take note of, for those who find security to be paramount in their decision making.
Dual Firewire 800 ports
The two Firewire 800 ports allow for extreme speed during file transfers and backups. However, you can also use USB just file.
Speed
The Firewire connection allows for even faster speed than the USB 2.0 connection, so you can quickly transfer the files you need and move on in your work without waiting around for a slow transfer to complete.
- 2TB storage puts it at twice the storage capacity of some of its competitors
- You can use Firewire or USB to connect to your device
- Password protection
- Hardware encryption
- Fast
- Durable
- While it could work for a Windows based system, it would have to be reformatted. This isn’t that big of an issue. Most users who already own this device for their Mac but want to switch it to their PC would be happy to reformat it over buying an additional hard drive.
10. Seagate Seven 500GB Portable External Hard Drive Review
Model number: STDZ500400
Features: Sleek design and strong construction
It’s billed as the thinnest 500GB portable external hard drive on the market, and that may have you wondering if it’s tough enough. Don’t let its sleek looks and slender frame fool you; it’s made from steel and can stand up to the rigors of daily usage.
DON’T BELIEVE HOW SLEEK IT IS? FUN FACT: ITS NAME WAS INSPIRED BY THE FACT THAT IT’S 7MM THICK. YOU CAN’T GET A MUCH SLEEKER DESIGN THAN THAT—ESPECIALLY IN THE WORLD OF HARD DRIVES.
USB 3.0 support
The Seagate Seven’s USB 3.0 interface allows for both speedy transfers as well as plug-and-play capability, so you get a very hassle free option with this hard drive.
Automatic backup
Automatic backup software for both your computer and your mobile device keeps your files safe and current.
Preloaded with Seagate Dashboard
Seagate Dashboard makes backing up your files easier, and the fact that it’s preloaded further ups its hassle-free factor.
- 3-year limited warranty
- Plug-and-play
- USB 3.0 with the ability to use USB 2.0 as well
- Sleek, attractive design
- Bills itself as thinnest option of its type on the market
- Preloaded software for hassle-free use
- Only stores up to 500GB. However, this is more than adequate for most users. The only ones who might be affected by the 500GB capacity are professionals who do a lot of film editing and 3D modeling. Typical users backing up their multimedia library will have more than enough space this drive.