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Because Apple is so stingy with storage — you get just 128GB in the entry-level MacBook Air and MacBook Pro — having a good external hard drive for Macs is important for offloading your large video and photo files. Better yet, a good external drive will let you create a full system backup copy of your drive. With dozens of external drive options, how do you find a good external hard drive for Mac?
The hard drive answer starts with two key connectivity options: USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt.
USB 3.0 is a widely-used standard that will let you plug your hard drive into most any Mac or PC with a USB port. USB 3.0 is much faster than USB 2.0 (so avoid USB 2.0 drives).
Thunderbolt is a newer connectivity standard for all Macs, and it’s useful for connecting different kinds of peripherals, including displays — even in a daisy chained way. For professional use, you can get excellent flexibility and speed, but for most people, in most situations, USB 3.0 will work great.
Best External Hard Drive for Macs: Go Portable
Next, I prefer to choose portable external hard drives over desktop versions because they are just so much easier to pack. In addition, I very much prefer bus-powered drives, that is, drives that will run off power from your USB 3.0 port or Thunderbolt port connections. That way you don’t need an external power cord to worry about.
Solid State vs Hard Disk Drives
Solid State Drives (SSD) are much faster than spinning Hard Disk Drives (HDD). SSD drives are usually more durable, too — but SSDs are much more expensive. For example, a 256GB SSD drive might cost close to $300 while a 1TB HDD drive can offer four times as much storage capacity for only $69.
So why choose an SSD external drive? 1) You have the money, and 2) you plan to work with large video and photo files directly from your external drive. (For most people, though, the sheer value of an HDD drive usually wins out.)
Formatting Notes
To get the best performance out of an external drive for a Mac, you’ll want it to be formatted in the Apple HFS+ format, a.k.a. “Mac OS Extended, Journaled.” When you buy, look for HFS+ . . . and you’ll be good to go — just plug it in and start transferring files or backups. If you get a drive that is, say, formatted in FAT32, you can use it with your Mac but you might experience problems with iPhoto or Aperture photo files sometime down the road. If you’re totally Mac-focused, don’t mess with FAT32 and just use Disk Utility on your Mac to reformat the external drive before you use it (and then download an HFS+ driver for your Windows machine if you need to access the drive from Windows). But, you probably bought a Mac because it’s so easy, so just look for HFS+ from the start and save yourself the headache.
Here’s Some Excellent External Hard Drive Options:
Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive for Mac — This USB 3.0 drive is super slim, portable, and you can usually get 1TB of storage at a compelling price point.
WD My Passport for Mac 2TB Portable External Hard Drive — This USB 3.0 drive is portable and available in options up to 2TB of storage.
Seagate Backup Plus 4TB Desktop External Hard Drive for Mac — This whopping 4TB drive is not portable, comes with a separate power cord, but hey, it’s loaded with 4TB of space.
LaCie Porsche Design Slim 120GB SSD Drive — You get 120GB, but it’s super-fast SSD gigabytes. Ships unformatted, so you’ll have to format it first.
LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series 256GB Solid State Drive — Both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt and 256GB of fast SSD speed, all in a portable, rugged enclosure.
Consider the Ease of a USB Flash Drive Instead:
The new USB 3.0 “thumb” drives based on solid state flash storage have grown in capacity while prices have fallen — so much so that they offer a rival option to larger SSD external drives. Plus, their sheer portability should be enough to make any MacBook owner take a closer look.
Check out these two models, both of which are available up to a whopping 256GB.
What About Using Your SDXC Card Slot for More Mac Storage?
If you want more on-board, nearly built-in storage, you have two cool options, both of which are tiny flash-based drives in the shape of camera memory cards. They plug into the SDXC card slot on your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.
The TarDisk Pear system is a tiny drive that you can combine with your built-in drive to create a single “fused” storage system on your MacBook Air or Pro.
For all intents and purposes, the Transcend JetDrive Liteacts like a little USB thumb drive — but it fits flush into the SDXC card slot instead and appears on your Mac like an external drive that is always on, always available. It appears as a separate storage option to your Mac’s operating system. Quite handy.
The TarDisk Pear system, on the other hand, also uses the SDXC card slot but it combines with your built-in storage to form a single “fused” drive. If you want a near-permanent — but easy storage solution for your MacBook Air or Pro, the TarDisk Pear system might be your best bet.
Of course, if you use your SDXC card slot for loading photos, you can pick up a small USB-based card reader like the Kingston Digital MobileLite G4 Card Reader to easily load photos and video off of your SD camera cards through a USB port.
Does this sound similar to you?
You thought you had enough disk space when you originally bought your MacBook Pro, but soon you realized that storage is being filled up quicker than you can clear old files.
Or maybe you already had an external drive to help extend your MacBook’s storage, but now it’s either outdated, too slow, or experiencing issues.
We may be in the age of cloud computing and remotely stored files, but it’s always helpful to have a portable hard drive you can count on both for file backups and to work off as needed.
In this buying guide, we’ll help you pick the best external drive for your MacBook Pro so you can access all your files without sacrificing speed or performance.
Quick Summary
Here’s a brief overview of our recommendations depending on your specific needs and preferences:
- The 10TB G-DRIVE Desktop External Hard Drive will give you enough volume and lightning speed for a traditional drive, and comes pre-formatted for Mac.
- If you need instant cross-platform compatibility, and an array of color choices, you’ll be covered with the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB.
- Known for being rough on your electronics? The Silicon Power 1TB Drive is rugged and durable, with water resistance in addition to quick read and write speeds.
- If you prefer a modern speedy solid-state drive, the Glyph Atom RAID 1TB SSD is sure to meet expectations in terms of speed and durability.
Do I Need An External Drive for My Mac?
External drives are a worthwhile investment for more than just power users, but it can be hard to determine if you need one or not. Consider this:
- Do you regularly work with large files such as videos and edited images, or run other creative files such as video games?
- Is your MacBook Pro running slower due to being overburdened with files?
- Have you ever wanted to backup your Mac just in case of any data disaster?
- Are you using a cloud storage or online backup service but fear of security and reliability issues from the provider?
- Are old files being stored on your computer because you occasionally reference them but can’t completely delete them?
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Answering yes to any of the above scenario questions is a fairly good indicator that an external hard drive would benefit you.
On the other hand, an external hard drive is probably not the best option for for those of you who only have a small volume of unimportant files to save, which might be better served by using a cloud storage program like Dropbox or Google Drive or by offloading their old files onto a large USB flash drive.
Best External Drive for MacBook: What to Look For?
Storage Capacity
If you’re purchasing an external hard drive, it’s because you need the space on your MacBook, so it doesn’t make sense to cut corners on how much exterior space you purchase. However, it’s still important to consider exactly how much space you need. Consider how quickly you create large files (such as photo imports) and if you plan on keeping them in a long or short term to decide your actual need.
Formatting
While many newer drives come formatted to work on both Mac and PC, it’s best not to choose one that is single-system compatible as it will limit the drive’s versatility (though you could manually format an external drive for both PC and Mac compatibility, it’s an extra effort and requires you to be a bit geeky). For added convenience, you should look for drives that come pre-formatted for Mac, which means you don’t have to install a special program and do it yourself.
HDD or SSD
There are several kinds of external drives based on the electronics that make them work. An HDD is the traditional spinning disk of data, whereas an SSD is newer technology that has no moving parts and store information inside the electronic components. An HHD, or Hybrid Hard Drive, uses a combination of these methods. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to speed, durability, price, and information safety, so make sure you know which you prefer.
The Best External Drives for MacBook Pro in 2019: Our Picks
Kindly note that the products chosen below are mainly based on our personal preferences and the guidelines as shown above. They are by no means made in the order below.
1. G-Technology 10TB G-DRIVE USB-C Desktop External Hard Drive
This speedy HDD drive offers a huge chunk of storage at an uncommonly high RPM. It will stand up to daily use in editing and media programs and connects to your computer via USB-C so you can take full advantage of its specs.
Pros:
- If you have set up Apple Time Machine, this drive will be ready for easy file backup so you won’t be waiting for your files to read or write. Also, it comes with a great amount of storage space.
Cons:
- The disk is pre-formatted for Mac, you won’t be able to use your files on a secondary computer such as a Windows PC unless you reformat it to NTFS file system.
2. Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB
Available in four different sizes, this hard drive from trusted brand Seagate comes in several colors. Approximately the size of your phone, it packs a punch for its size and is very portable.
Pros:
- It can be used on both Mac and PC without reformatting. Also, it offers fast connection via USB and weighs about 5 ounces.
Cons:
- Largest TB size option is not compatible with Mac.
3. Silicon Power 1TB Rugged Armor A60
An extremely versatile and sturdy drive, this model is compatible with more than just your MacBook. It’s water resistant, with read and write speeds at the standard 120 mbps.
Pros:
- It can be used with several gaming consoles and Apple Time Machine in addition to your Mac.
- It’s also durable and available with the modern USB-C which is especially useful if you’re using the newest MacBook Pro.
Cons:
- It appears somewhat unprofessional, also the drive is a bit on the heavy side as it weighs around 8 ounces.
4. Glyph Atom RAID 1TB External Solid State Drive
Available with USB and USB-C connections and pre-formatted for Mac, this SSD from well-known brand Glyph provides extremely fast speeds that will support your casual and power use. It looks clean and functions beautifully.
Pros:
- It comes pre-formatted for Mac with easy reformats for PC or cross-platform compatibility, significantly faster than comparable drives from Samsung and other brands, available in several colors and two connection types.
Cons:
- It’s the heaviest drive on our list at 11 ounces, and a bit on the pricey side as well.
![External Drives For Mac Best Buy External Drives For Mac Best Buy](/uploads/1/2/4/3/124392415/675868494.jpg)
Useful Tips & Resources
Picking a hard drive can be difficult, especially if you aren’t sure whether you need one. One way to help decide is to try a cloud storage platform such as Google Drive or Dropbox before you decide to buy an external drive. Both platforms are free to start with and they offer terabyte storage options for paying customers and using one may help you decide if you need more constant access to your files or simply a place to store them.
If you know you want an external drive but aren’t sure what storage type you need (HDD or SSD), perhaps this guide from PCWorld will help you decide which best fits your requirements.
Also, It’s worth noting that some external drives available on the market are formatted for PC only, but you can reformat it to Mac OS Extended, or for cross-platform compatibility (with NTFS) if you need to use your external drive for your MacBook Pro and a PC as well. This tutorial is definitely worth checking out:
Final Words
Regardless of your final choice of external drive, having one will definitely improve your workflow and computer performance. You’ll be able to use your files more effectively and improve your MacBook’s performance. Which external drive have you used in the past or are considering purchasing? Let us know.