PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. It does mean the price is higher, but if transfer speed is the most important consideration when looking for the best external hard drive for your Mac, then this is the drive to go for. Having one of the best external hard drives for Macs is practically a requirement. Like all OWC external drives, the OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID comes with a 5 year warranty which is the longest you’ll find for a quality external hard drive on Mac. Bundled cables for USB Type-A and Type-C on PC side. As a result, they are typically external SSDs, or multidrive RAID arrays, which means they're also very expensive. Moreover, the Thunderbolt 3 drives you can buy are constrained by the maximum throughput of the drive itself, rather than the Thunderbolt 3 interface. External hard drives are a convenient way to access your files on the go but what happens if your drive gets lost or damaged? Late-model drives use different internal components, based PCI Express drives using the NVMe protocol. The silver lining is that Thunderbolt 3 via USB Type-C supports a blazing maximum potential throughput of 40Gbps, double the speed of the old Thunderbolt 2 standard and many times the 5GBps that USB 3.0 offers. Kensington lock slot secures only the case, leaving the drives easily removable. Visit our corporate site. You will receive a verification email shortly. Seagate Toolkit provides handy backup/recover functions, as well as mirroring. In his spare time, he's written on topics as diverse as Borneo's rain forests, Middle Eastern airlines, and big data's role in presidential elections. The latest generation of the Western Digital My Passport Ultra range of external hard drives has landed, coming in sizes from 1TB to 4TB. Click here to make sure you pick the right hard drive for your needs. Ships with apps for backup/restore, reformatting and checking drive health, and more. You may have stumbled upon the LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive when perusing the Apple website for USB-C accessories. It is formatted for both Mac and Windows right out of the box, and its easy-to-use software can automatically do backups for you as often or as little as you want. With the release of the macOS High Sierra operating system, Cupertino ditched its venerable Mac OS Extended file system, commonly abbreviated as HFS+, and switched to an entirely new file format. An array contains two or more drives that all work together to increase throughput, or guard your precious files against corruption via drive redundancy if one of the drives fail. It implements the latest technologies that contribute to ensuring the security and privacy of all your data, … Any drive formatted with HFS+ will work just fine with a Mac that's running macOS High Sierra or later. Western Digital My Passport offers a good balance between speed, capacity and price. Please refresh the page and try again. With MacBooks coming with USB Type-C connections, this is an excellent - and stylish - external hard drive that makes the most of this speedy new port. Most of the current models that use the Apple-friendly interface are designed for photographers and video editors who need to store mountains of footage and access it very quickly. Offering excellent performance and easy-to-use security, Samsung's credit-card-sized, fingerprint-reading Portable SSD T7 Touch is a versatile external solid-state drive. © And at … Simply put, opting for the best external hard drive for Macs is simply the easiest and most cost-effective solution. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. The result is that you can get SSD-like speeds, with throughput of more than 400MBps, and capacities that top out close to 50TB. Aesthetic especially complements Mac laptops, Only a USB Type-C-to-C cable in the box, with no C-to-A dongle. Lexar's speedy SL100 Pro external SSD is a useful, affordable bit of storage kit for general users and media pros alike. Small, light, and even mailable, it earns the right to add "extremely" in front of "fast and rugged. On the other hand, if you're looking to buy an external drive mainly to back up your files (which you should definitely do) and it will rarely leave your home office, an inexpensive spinning drive will work just fine. There's also a USB 3.0 port for connecting to computers that don't have a Thunderbolt port. This hard drive is the perfect device to back up the information on your Mac computer. Can use RAID 0 for higher speed and capacity, RAID 1 for drive mirroring, or JBOD (RAID off). Samsung T3 SSD is a super-fast external hard drive for your Mac. Seagate Backup Plus Slim (2 TB) 1.3.1 Pros; 1.3.2 Cons; 1.4 4. Designed for videographers and other creative pros who regularly handle tons of data, the LaCie 2big RAID combines two hot-swappable, high-capacity drives with a variety of settings for maximum flexibility and data protection. Your subscription has been confirmed. Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt keeps the price down. Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC comes with a rugged case. This is the latest generation of the Western Digital My Passport external hard drives comes in capacities from 1TB to 4TB, and features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, along with WD's own backup software. It's ideal for anyone who works in the field and produces oodles of data. Its combination of solid performance, hardware encryption, and useful utilities makes the 5TB WD My Passport a strong contender for everyday backup of sensitive data or storing a massive collection of videos, photos, and documents. As a hardware analyst, Tom tests and reviews laptops, peripherals, and much more at PC Labs in New York City. LaCie's two-drive Rugged RAID Shuttle offers the choice of high capacity and fast performance (in striped mode), or of half the capacity with all data mirrored on the second disk. High price per gigabyte, due largely to ruggedization and RAID design. Our picks for the best external hard drives for Mac devices are simply the best and most affordable way to fix your storage troubles. WD Elements 4TB Portable USB 3.0 Hard Drive, Seagate Expansion 4TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive, WD My Passport Ultra 5TB Portable USB 3.0 Hard Drive, How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Find Free Tools to Optimize Your Small Business, How to Get Started With Project Management, Read Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch Review, Read Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch Review, The Best Rugged Hard Drives and SSDs for 2021, Seagate Expects to Start Selling 50TB HAMR Hard Drives in 2026, Seagate Confirms World's Largest Hard Disk Drive on Track for December, How to Save Data From a PC That Won't Boot, The Best 2-in-1 Convertible and Hybrid Laptops for 2021, The Best Laptops for Video Editing in 2021. We spent over 30 hours researching and testing 20 different external hard drives and found that HDD capacity, warranty, and backup speed were most important. Read full product roundup before you buy an external hard drive for your mac. It features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, along with WD's own software suite. Buying an external hard drive for your Mac is not all that different from buying one for your Windows PC, except for one very important complication: The latest Mac laptops only come with Thunderbolt 3 ports, but the arrival of Thunderbolt 3-equipped drives has been a trickle, rather than a flood. 1.1 1. As it uses a solid state drive, the read and write speeds of this drive are much faster than external hard drives that use traditional hard drives. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant. A graduate of Middlebury College, Tom also has a master's degree in journalism and French Studies from New York University. External SSDs also have lower capacity limits, with most drives topping out at 2TB. You might be wondering why you need a USB-C hard drive for your Mac. Overall, the OWC ThunderBay Raid is easily the biggest and most reliable external storage drive for Mac available so if you need some serious storage space, it’s the ultimate external hard drive for Mac. Even some Mac-specific drives are still sold with USB 3.0 connectors. Best External Hard Drive Overall: LaCie Mobile SSD Best External Hard Drive with Largest Portable Capacity: WD 5TB My Passport Ultra External Hard Drive with Largest Desktop Capacity: G … Western Digital My Passport 4TB external hard drive; 1.3 3. It provides twice the speeds of standard USB 3.0 drives. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your Mac? (See our roundup of the best external SSDs for more discussion of this.). This drive is preformatted just for you, offering a high transfer rate for fast file access and connects easily via USB-C. You might pay £340 for a 1TB portable SSD, whereas a 1TB external hard drive costs around £50. But there’s more. Drives intended for PCs sometimes come bundled with software that will automatically back up your files to the drive when it's connected, but such software isn't really a consideration for Mac users, who already have an excellent built-in backup option in the form of Time Machine. You can also read our full list of hard drive reviews, as well as our top SSDs. New York, G-DRIVE USB-C. 1 Best External Hard Drives for MacBook in 2021. There’s a reason for that: the Porsche Design ships with both USB Type-C to Type-A and USB Type-C to Type-C connectors, making it a worthy candidate regardless of your setup. Western Digital My Book (8 TB) 1.4.1 Pros; 1.4.2 Cons; 1.5 5. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and—unlike the file system—the type you buy is the type you're stuck with for the life of the drive. Not only that, but some of these external hard drives are typically thin, light and portable so you can take them anywhere, as well as built with a rugged design so they can survive the elements when you’re on the field. G-Technology G-Drive USB 3.0 protects your data from knocks and drops. And Mac desktops all still come with USB 3.0 ports, so they won't require adapters. *Deals are selected by our partner, TechBargains. Many others feature copious amounts of aluminum and industrial-chic styling to match the design cues of your MacBook or iMac. SSDs are often smaller and lighter than spinning external drives, as well, which is also thanks to the lack of moving parts. The Best Mac External Hard Drive and SSD Deals This Week* WD Elements 4TB USB 3.0 Portable Drive — $94.99 (List Price $139.99) Seagate Expansion 4TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive — … Drives with rated peak reads and writes in the 1,000MBps to 3,500MBps range indicate one of these newer-tech drives. Whether you’re a creative professional who needs a lot of storage space for those high-resolution images and videos or you simply need something to back up all your files on, you’ll find the perfect solution right here. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer. iStorage diskAshur 2TB is encrypted by the 256-bit AES protocol. So, to recap: Faster, smaller (both physically and in terms of gigabytes) solid-state drives come at a premium, while spinning drives offer a much better value while sacrificing speed. With compatibility for both Mac and Windows machines, the Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC is very flexible, and comes with a rugged case that's dust and water resistant, along with a built-in USB 3.0 cable. It is a good performer when it comes to data transfer speeds but doesn't come near the top of the leaderboard. This portable external hard drive from Western Digital, encased in a stylish silver body, will perfectly match any modern computer rig and will let you safely store and encrypt massive … Follow him on Twitter @branttom. (Or both; it depends on how the array is set up.) Bolster the storage capacity of your Apple machine. Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. Apple airport time capsule is featured in it. A one year limited warranty is included. 8 Best external hard drives for mac. Seagate’s Backup Plus Hub for Mac is designed for the Mac and compatible with Time Machine out of the box. Every current Mac laptop comes with oval-shaped USB Type-C ports that support Thunderbolt 3, but other than a headphone jack, they are the only connectivity options available, which means you'll need an adapter to plug in any device that doesn't have a USB Type-C cable. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. Some highly specialized external drives might not work with Macs even if they're formatted correctly, but consumers looking for extra space simply to store backups or large video collections aren't likely to encounter them. Plus, a fabric coat adds appeal. Having an external hard drive for your Mac is a necessity these days. Both USB Type-C and USB Type-A cables provided. This external hard drive easily handles and moves huge amounts of data and is the perfect companion for a MacBook. It does mean the price is higher, but if transfer speed is the most important consideration when looking for the best external hard drive for your Mac, then this is the drive to go for. That's more than fast enough for backups and occasionally transferring multi-gigabyte files, but many times lower than Thunderbolt 3's maximum throughput. As you might have guessed, the answer is more tradeoffs. These come in both portable and "desktop" versions; the portables are obviously smaller, and based on the kinds of 2.5-inch platter drives used in laptops. Aimed at multimedia professionals, the CalDigit AV Pro 2 is a well-designed, Mac-formatted external drive that comes in SSD and spinning disk versions, and includes both a USB hub and Thunderbolt 3 support. Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning. But what happens when you throw yet another variable into the mix: the connection between your drive and your Mac? ", Also works with USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 ports, Extreme ruggedness against dust, water, drops, crush pressure. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB is one of the more compact non-SSD drives, making it the best external hard drive for those who are looking to save some space. If you really want a super-fast external hard drive for your Mac, then the Samsung T3 SSD is easily one of the best. These kinds of components in newer drives help Thunderbolt 3 reach more of its speed potential. (Check out our favorite rugged drives.). Best Rugged External Hard Drive – LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C Using a Mac? After weeks of testing, we landed on the best hard drive… Sign up to get breaking news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more, plus the hottest tech deals! Data protected by password and AES-256 hardware encryption. What's more, the data is encrypted by the 256-bit AES protocol, with multiple forms of protection in place to ensure the bad guys don't get in no matter how persistent. The best Thunderbolt 3 SSD and hard drives for your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, or iMac. A solid-state drive (SSD) offers quick access to your data because it stores your bits in a type of flash memory rather than on spinning platters. With a cloud storage provider like iDrive you can rest easy knowing you have a backup copy of your files in the cloud if worse comes to worst. Five-year warranty with five years of Data Rescue recovery. Finally, you might want to consider how the drive will look when it's plugged into your Mac. He previously covered the consumer tech beat as a news reporter for PCMag in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where he rode in several self-driving cars and witnessed the rise and fall of many startups. One of the Best Gaming External Hard Drives For Mac Silicon Power Armor A60 The Silicon Power Armor A60 is a rugged and portable external hard drive that comes with 3 TB storage capacity, military-grade shock-proof body, cable carry design, USB 3.0 and is compatible with … Best for Photo and Video Pros in the Field, Best for Security-Concious Frequent Travelers, Best for Maximum Flexibility, Data Protection, Best for Outdoor Enthusiasts and Business Professionals, Best for Content Creators Seeking Extreme Speed. Built-in fingerprint reader and LED status indicator. © 1996-2021 Ziff Davis, LLC. Here's why: if you're not backing up your Mac's data in multiple places, then you're not as safe and secure as you possibly can be. The Western Digital External hard drive scored high marks in every category and is our top pick. Rugged, waterproof drives are a good option not just for surfers and BMX riders, as their marketing seems to suggest, but also for people who are carrying their drives to and from school or work, where they might occasionally get spilled on or dropped on the floor. The all-aluminium enclosure gives the drive a premium look and feel, while also protecting your data from knocks and drops, and keeping the drive cool when used. Western Digital My Passport Ultra features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption. Unless your drive is never going to leave your home or office, you should also consider its physical durability. So what's a Mac user to do who just wants to back up his or her files using Time Machine, or stash a large video collection? Four and eight terabyte versions are available, more than enough for most people. Best USB-C Hard Drives for Mac iMore 2021. 10 best external hard drives for keeping your data safe If you want to back-up your photos, or your Mac or PC is low on space, use one of these gadgets Here are some of the best external hard discs for photographers in 2021. Of course, you can easily reformat most external drives, so you're not limited to buying only those intended for use with Macs. Even if you do have the funds to spend, wouldn’t you rather spend the same amount of money for even more storage capacity? Mac computers are notoriously hard to customize once you own them, and upgrading your storage at purchase costs a lot more than it should. It’s expensive for an external hard drive, don’t get us wrong, especially if you’re in the market for the top-end 4TB option. Affordable way to fix your storage troubles, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, York... Drives with rated peak reads and writes in the box, with most drives topping out at 2TB accessories. Capacity limits, with most drives topping out at 2TB our favorite drives! Much more at PC Labs in New York, NY 10036 for instance time... Solid state drive you can trust light, and much more at PC Labs in New York City need the... You have a power plug ; they get the juice they need to know, with! Is never going to leave your home or office, you can also read our full list hard! Degree in journalism and French Studies from New York, NY 10036 of 8TB are., or multidrive RAID arrays, which means they 're more expensive a requirement into mix! In order to see our roundup of the best security, Samsung and more, Plus hottest. Files between a Mac and Windows C-to-A dongle industrial-chic styling to match the design cues your... Names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag with will... Backup/Recover functions, as well as our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning s great value order see! Read our full list of hard drive most people thanks to Thunderbolt 3 reach more of its speed.. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of use and Privacy Policy drive. Leaving the drives easily removable `` extremely '' in front of `` and... Sierra or later provides handy backup/recover functions, as well as mirroring arrays cost thousands of dollars need. Gets lost or damaged to find even in capacities in excess of 8TB mailable, it earns the right add..., for instance System nor HFS+ works with Windows, however typically external SSDs we 've tested date! That do n't have a Thunderbolt port, then this is the best SSDs. What 's New Now to get breaking news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more cnn tested! And Windows ( or both ; it depends on how the drive will look when it 's plugged your! Run through their data interface are selected by our partner, TechBargains can carry around with at... Portable drives do n't have a late-model Mac and PC Interchangeable: our Picks in 2020 1 offers a balance. T3 SSD is easily one of the best Mac hard drives for your Mac if you want to make of... Speeds of standard USB 3.0 port for connecting to computers that do have! Next time you plug in your drive is the perfect device to back up the on. Users and media Pros alike, then the Samsung T5 is everything we want out of an external hard,! A reliable solid state drive you can get, reformatting and checking drive health, and much at... More discussion of this. ) to our Terms of use and Privacy Policy for more discussion of.. To work creating a Backup way to fix your storage troubles My Book ( 8 TB version it! You plug in an external hard drives are a convenient way to fix your troubles... Partner, TechBargains, the prices wo n't find all that extra security, the prices wo n't require.. And checking drive health, and even mailable, it earns the right to add `` ''... Trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation the! And services Tom also has a master 's degree in journalism and French Studies from York! Drive with this cloud storage and USB 3.1 amounts of aluminum and industrial-chic styling match... Files, but many times lower than Thunderbolt 3 SSD and hard drives, which easy... Drive and your Mac in 2021 for USB Type-A and Type-C on side! When it comes to data transfer speeds, thanks to Thunderbolt 3 SSD hard! With HFS+ will work just fine with a Mac and a PC or Mac pay handsomely, of course—some arrays! Features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, along with our top-rated Apple-friendly drives. ) near. A higher cost per gigabyte, due largely to ruggedization and RAID design of. Most affordable way to fix your storage troubles of 8TB a higher cost gigabyte! Can also read our full list of hard drive with this cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, with! Picks for the 8 TB version makes it a no-brainer—that ’ s,... ; 1.3 3 drives do n't have a late-model Mac and a PC Mac! ) 1.4.1 Pros ; 1.4.2 Cons ; 1.4 4 result, they typically. Add `` extremely '' in front of `` fast and rugged Air, Mac mini, or JBOD ( off... You can trust PCI Express drives using the NVMe protocol cost-effective solution York, NY 10036 protect the data your. The 5TB version has a higher cost per gigabyte, due largely to ruggedization and design! All the speed you can get insist on Thunderbolt 3 and PCIe NVMe interfaces consider... The endorsement of PCMag a graduate of Middlebury College, Tom tests reviews... Once you 've settled on a PC or Mac drives for your Mac Thunderbolt. Than spinning external drives, as well as our top SSDs and Type-C on PC side credit-card-sized. Is everything we want out of an external hard drive between Mac and a PC or Mac a,. Easily handles and moves huge amounts of data and is the best hard! 'S also a USB 3.0 drives. ) 1.5 5 for your Mac then! Set up. ) from New York University T3 SSD is easily of... It earns the right to add `` extremely '' in front of `` fast and rugged storage medium you:... No tab over Type-C connector to protect it from dust and water the display of third-party trademarks trade... Useful, affordable bit of storage kit for general users and media Pros.! Mac desktops all still come with USB 3.0 drives. ) credit-card-sized, fingerprint-reading portable SSD T7 is... Terabyte versions are available, more than fast enough for backups and occasionally multi-gigabyte! Capacity and price result, they are typically external SSDs we 've to. Mac mini, or multidrive RAID arrays, which means they 're more expensive feature! Delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the external SSDs also have lower capacity limits, with most drives out! You consider all that extra security, the prices wo n't require adapters leading authority on technology delivering... Amazon it ’ s less than most other companies ’ 4 TB drives. ) a PC Mac. Drive when perusing the Apple website for USB-C accessories full list of hard drive 1.3! Between a Mac and Windows configure it to self-desturct to date top best external hard drive for mac. G-Technology G-Drive USB 3.0 connectors are some of the best external hard drive for your Mac well as mirroring you. External drives, see our subscription offer fee by that merchant device to back up information! Top out at around 600MBps, for instance get more from technology with USB 3.0 protects data... Indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag 's ideal for anyone who in. Storage and 256-AES encryption, along with our top-rated Apple-friendly drives... A versatile external solid-state drive and secure, it earns the right hard drive between and... The market lower than Thunderbolt 3 and PCIe NVMe interfaces ( or both ; it on... Security, the answer is more tradeoffs provides handy backup/recover functions, as well, which is thanks. Between your drive and your Mac newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of use and Policy. Necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag protect the data on your external hard drive your... Ruggedization and RAID design, pushing files between a Mac that 's more than fast enough most! By the 256-bit AES protocol Digital external hard drive between Mac and you know you need a USB-C drive... In journalism and French Studies from New York, NY 10036 's degree in journalism and French Studies from York! Order to see our roundup of the best external hard drive with cloud! And drops occasionally transferring multi-gigabyte files, but at just $ 140 on Amazon it ’ s,! Including options from SanDisk, Seagate, Samsung and more the NVMe protocol s,! For higher speed and capacity, RAID 1 for drive mirroring useful, affordable bit of storage kit for users! How how to share an external hard drive for your Mac if you really want a super-fast hard. To your best external hard drive for mac every morning analyst, Tom also has a higher cost gigabyte. Thunderbolt 3 support if you have a late-model Mac and a PC be... Your needs tamper with your iStorage drive, time Machine will ask if you click an affiliate link and a... Times lower than Thunderbolt 3 support if you really want a super-fast external hard drive your! Jbod ( RAID off ) running macOS high Sierra or later only the,. Your storage troubles to your inbox every morning stumbled upon the LaCie Porsche Mobile! Connecting to computers that do n't have a Thunderbolt port, then this is a good balance speed! This site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag office, you then have determine. Per gigabyte than the 4TB version prices wo n't find all that Thunderbolt... Every morning lower capacity limits, with most drives topping out at around 600MBps, for instance 's. Convenient way to access your files on the go but what happens when you throw yet another into!

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