Add storage space to your Mac with this 1TB Western Digital hard drive. Integrated 256-bit AES encryption keeps sensitive information safe from unauthorized. Right now, we think the overall best external hard drive for Mac and PC is the Western Digital My Passport 4TB. It offers the best balance of speed, reliability, portability and price. It offers the best balance of speed, reliability, portability and price.
Jump straight to the section you want with these quick links: -If you're looking for the best external hard drive for your Mac or PC, then you've come to the right place. In this list, we've collected the top external drives that can easily expand your storage, and our price comparison tool can ensure you get the very best prices as well. Buying the best external hard drive for your needs is an important process for digital creatives, as it doesn't take long for creative files to start filling up the internal hard drive of your machine. You need to make sure you pick something that will reliably store your important files, while also offering plenty of space, speed and value for money. This means there are a number of considerations to make before pulling out your wallet. First, a quick recap of the basics.
An external hard drive or SSD (which stands for Solid State Drive) is a device that can be easily plugged into your machine, giving you almost-instant storage space, without having to prise open your computer and make complicated upgrades. Jump to: Not only does an HDD or SSD give you more capacity for large files, but because the devices are portable, they can be taken with you on the go and plugged into different machines – handy if you swap between PCs and Macs regularly. Also, in the event that something bad happens to your machine, your files will still be safe and accessible.
Right now, we think the overall best external hard drive for Mac and PC is the Western Digital My Passport 4TB. It offers the best balance of speed, reliability, portability and price. But there are many options out there – scroll down to see our full list of recommendations, and the best external hard drive prices too. Storage considerations There are a number of things to consider when looking for an external hard drive or SSD for your Mac or PC. First, is storage. You'll want to make sure you buy an external storage device that has enough capacity for your needs – without paying for high capacities you'll never use. Around 500GB is a good sweet-spot for external storage, though you can buy smaller capacities, as well as larger ones at 1TB or greater.
Hard drive vs SSD: which is best? Another consideration is whether to get an external storage device that uses a traditional hard drive, or one with an SSD. Usually, external hard drives with traditional drives are more affordable and come in larger capacities.
There are external SSDs that come with large capacities – but these can be expensive. SSDs are much faster than traditional hard drives, and because they don't have any mechanical or moving parts, they're generally more robust and smaller in physical size as well.
So, if you want to store huge amounts of data while keeping prices low, an external hard drive is the way to go. But if speed is your top priority – for example, if you move a lot of large files, or want to run programs off the drive – then choose an SSD. The right connections The connection between the external hard drive and your Mac or PC is also important. The first generation rectangular USB-A ports are slowly being superseded by the newer, smaller reversible USB-C ports. These are now found on all modern PCs, and Macs. Some high end PC and Macs, such as the new iMac and, come with USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 3.
This is the fastest external storage connection there is, and it provides very fast data transfer speeds, though Thunderbolt storage is considerably more expensive than plain old USB. Best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC 01. Western Digital My Passport 4TB.
WD backup software is basic This is the latest generation of the Western Digital My Passport range of external hard drives to have landed, coming in sizes from 1TB to 4TB. It features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, along with WD's own backup software.
It also offers very good data transfer speeds. And while it doesn't quite offer a similar speed to solid state drive devices, the Western Digital My Passport range finds a great balance between high storage capacities and quick file transfers. Samsung Portable SSD T5.
Expensive The Samsung T5 SSD is a great performing storage device, reaching speeds up to 550 MB/sec, making the most of the USB 3.1 specification. It plugs directly into PCs and Macs with either a newer USB-C port or USB-A, is roughly the size of a matchbox and being a flash storage device, contains no moving parts, so can survive being dropped. External SSDs may cost considerably more than hard disks, but the extra money and faster speeds go a long way. You’ll be able to easily load edit and save 4K video directly on the T5, which can be very slow with a USB hard disk, you can install applications onto it, or even run an entire alternative operating system off it at full speed, if you’re so inclined.
The downside is the pricing. SSDs give you less capacity for more money, so we don’t recommend the T5 for backup. It’s better to have a bigger hard disk for that and use the T5 in more specialised situations that need all that lovely performance 03. G-Technology G-RAID with Thunderbolt 3. High price G-Technology has long been a favourite of Mac creative professionals, and no small part of this is the clever use of silver aluminium that perfectly matches Apple’s iMac casing, keeping desktop areas with a uniform appearance. The latest incarnation of its G-RAID dual hard disk Thunderbolt product isn’t just a start performer, capable of 440 MB/sec transfer rates in RAID 0, which is pretty incredible for hard disks, but it also gives you a few extras.
There's an HDMI 2.2 port on the back, which routes a video signal for an external display over the G-RAID’s Thunderbolt 3 cable, which has plenty of bandwidth to spare even with the hard disk going at full speed. It also has a USB-C port to connect to Macs or PCs that lack Thunderbolt. Expect to pay a small fortune for the largest capacities, but thanks to the easy drive removal system, you could always buy a cheaper, lower capacity G-RAID and upgrade it with off-the-shelf hard disks yourself. Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt. Limited hard disk performance If you want to make use of your Thunderbolt port, then this Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt is a great option, as it provides twice the speeds of standard USB 3.0 drives.
It's also not especially expensive compared to other Thunderbolt drives. This is mainly down to the fact that it's a traditional hard drive, not an SSD, which means it's not quite as fast as it could be – though it will still give you an upgrade to your transfer speeds. Helpfully, the Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt also comes with a USB 3.0 port for connecting to computers that don't have a Thunderbolt port.
LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive 4TB. You need USB-C ports to take advantage of speed The LaCie Porsche Design is one of the best external hard drives for Macs on sale today, and comes with both USB Type-C to Type-A and USB Type-C to Type-C connectors, making it a versatile way to expand the storage space of your Mac, regardless of what ports it has. This is also one of the most stylishly-designed external hard drives on this list, and it comes with a large 4TB capacity (with other sizes available as well), and it performs brilliantly. Adata SD700 External SSD. No USB Type-C The Adata SD700 will suit those looking for a rugged storage device that can provide ample capacity without costing too much. It performs superbly well and remains the only SSD we’ve seen that's IP68 rated. Thanks to the solid state drive that resides in this external hard drive, it's a lot faster than external drives that use traditional spinning hard drives – so you're getting great transfer speeds as well as rugged protection.
It also comes in capacities up to 1TB, so you don't have to worry about missing out on storage space just because it uses an SSD. This Adata drive really does hit all the right notes. WD My Book Duo. Limited performance compared with Thunderbolt drives If you're looking for the absolute largest capacity external USB hard drive, then the WD My Book Duo Is the one to get, as it now goes all the way to 20TB. If you don't mind sacrificing some of the ample storage space you can set the drives up in a RAID 1 array, so you have file backups of your files should one of the drives die. This is an excellent feature if you're going to use this device to back up irreplaceable data, such as your creative work, as it adds a level of protection in case things go wrong.
It provides two additional USB ports on the rear, so you can easily insert flash sticks. The device, which comes with two-year warranty, has 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and automatic backup software (WD SmartWare Pro).
It's also worth noting that the enclosure used is fully serviceable and that WD ships the drive already pre-formatted for Windows users (NTFS), so you'll want to reformat it to work with your Mac. Read TechRadar's review. LaCie Rugged USB-C. Ugly orange casing Lacie’s rugged hard disk series is instantly recognisable from its orange casing, which is a rubber enclosure that keeps the disk safe from even medium-height drops up to 1.2m, along with your precious data.
According to Lacie it can apparently withstand the pressure of a one-ton car, and is resistant to rain. That makes it a great choice for content creation when you’re out and about, whether you’re participating in daredevil sports, travelling the world, just a bit paranoid or simply clumsy.
Thank you Paul-nz, but no, it doesn't show up under Disk Utility. I had a similar problem several months ago with a WD My Book that I was using as my Time Machine backup. It took it several hours to appear on my desktop, but finally did and I was able to copy off my files onto this new WD My Passport, then run Disk Utility on the My Book and now it is working just fine. I bought the My Passport to copy my files from the My Book. So all my work for several years is on this My Passport. Now I can't get the My Passport to mount even when I leave it connected to my computer overnight. I don't know how to access the files on this My Passport so I can back them up and reformat the drive.
Historically, the problem has been that many USB-powered drives can't get enough power from a USB port after they begin to age. The Passport is bus-powered, getting all its power from a USB port. Not the best solution for a desktop computer. To get such a drive going again, you need one of two workabouts: 1) a powered USB hub (has its own power supply to make up the shortfall) that goes between the external drive and the computer. 2) use a 'Y' USB cable to get power from two USB ports simultaneously (such as ) Also, WD uses an odd proprietary formatting scheme that is of itself a problem area. WD makes very good bare drives but the enclosures into which they put them to make an external drive are not very good and not particually Mac-Friendly.
The formatting makes them harder to use. Once you get the files you need off the external, consider erasing and reformating it to Mac Extended Journaled using Disk Utility. That often makes the drive more reliable without having to revert to USB hubs or special cables.
It gets rid of the proprietary formatting that seem to contribute to the problems. I have three external drives. All have WD bare drives inside but none are in WD encosures.
By far the best enclosures for Mac external drives are those from OWC: I have two of the desktop model shown and one of its portable version for my MacBook Pro. All three have given me superb service and zero problems. Jan 6, 2015 12:23 PM HI, I have a some what similar problem.
I am afraid the drive is in big trouble. In the middle of copying files, I accidentally unplugged it. Now it WILL NOT MOUNT! It shows up in disk utility and passes verification and repair with flying colors. BUT it won't mount. ( I tried both the disk and its indented partition) the partition remains grayed out and I get an error when I click on the mount button. What's worse it wont mount on my other macbook pro or even my sony vaio.
On the sony it does not show up but under disk management it 'volume appears to be OK' and I dont get a chance to repair it. So am I screwed? I need the data but balk at 1000 dollar softwares that 'may' fix it. Any suggestion?
I took a look at the upgrade (I have Data Rescue 3). When you go to check out in the purchase process, you find a Data Rescue 4 flash drive ('Bootwell') added to your 'basket' for an additional $15. Any thoughts on the benefit of having the flash drive, as opposed to just running Data Rescue from another hard drive?
I turned a spare 2.5' HD into a rescue drive a while back, with partitions for four OS versions, with my preferred disk utilities installed in each. Can't see any reason to get the flash drive. The description is rather skimpy. 'Introducing Data Rescue's NEW BootWell™ Technology.
BootWell™ allows you to create a special secondary startup drive that can be used to recover files from your main startup hard drive. While being booted into BootWell™ it allows you to unmount your internal hard drive and get into a booted environment so you can recover files from your main startup hard drive and avoid the added steps of creating your own bootable copy of Data Rescue.' As discussed in this discussion, the problem is that even Disk Utility will not mount the drive.
Your solution is to be able to write to an NTFS formatted drive, not to mount a drive. A NTFS formatted drive will mount on a Mac and a Mac can natively read the drive but not write to it. Dev Sebastian wrote: I found a solution for this problem after having it myself and than doing some research. Here's the link to the solution: #1: Just download the 10 day free trial and see if it'll bring back your External Hard drives. #2: If it does bring your Externals back consider buying it, I'm going to wait until my 10 day trial is over before considering to buy it.
That way during the 10 days Apple might come out with an update for Ei Capitan fixing this issue. Best, Sebastian.
When I installed the Paragon NTFS for Mac and restarted my macbook the WD Passport drive seemed to mount and appeared for just a moment after logging back in and then it disappeared. Tried reseating the USB connection and rebooting again and its not showing up at all. Initially the drive mounted fine out of the box. First thing I did was reformat it in disk utility with the mac journaling and I did a full back up.
When the backup was done I couldn't unmount the drive. I had also waited for the encryption feature to finish. From what I could tell everything was done but the macbook wouldn't eject it. So I just unplugged it. Now when I plug it in it won't mount but I do get a light on the drive. It stays solid for some number of minutes and then it goes to blinking.
I've also tried using a USB hub with its own power and that made no difference. It shouldn't be a power problem if it was working before out of the box.
So at the moment I don't know what to do. I just bought this thing, I did a full backup, and now it its useless. Apple Footer. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site.
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