The best external hard drive for Mac 2018 has lots of storage capacity among other qualities. Whether you will choose a portable one or prefer a NAS, it is up to you. Best External Hard Drives 2018. There are cheap, affordable and expensive hard drives in our comparison table but you can go through the HDD reviews given below to pick the best hard drive according to your requirements. Find the best external hard drive for your PC or Mac. Welcome to our list of the best external hard drives money can buy in 2018. With the best external hard drives, you never have to.
Mac External Hard Drive Reviews
There are dozens of different affordable external hard drive for mac models in the market, finding the best one really was a challenging task for us. After reviewing all the products we have picked some according to the specific needs of our users. Best Overall Mac External Hard Drive – Runner Up 4.8 / 5 Product Rating With its 1 TB capacity and 5400 RPM speed, this backup drive is a top pick because it provides ample storage and comes in a sleek design.
There’s nothing more awful then losing data on your computer because you didn’t back anything up. Gone are the days where you had to do this on a disc, and thank goodness we have external hard drives to help us sleep soundly at night. You can store a whopping 1TB of info on most Mac drives, and this will also allow you to free up storage space on your device. Most Mac drives are incredibly affordable, and the technology seems to improve every day. Not only that, but most models are incredibly portable and perform routine backups in the background without even having to think about it. The simplest drives have a powerful USB 3.0 as well as Thunderbolt. Often right out of the box you can plug in one wire and everything is taken care of for you. Not only that, but an external drive is really essential when you purchase a new computer and want to safely and efficiently move your data from the old device to the new one.
Jump to
Most Popular Mac External Hard DriveSeagate Slim
Like many external hard drives on the market, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim allows you to choose between two different storage capacities: 500 GB and 1 TB. This device provides automatic backups, and is a good addition to any Cloud backups that you perform, as these can sometimes be insufficient and unsafe on their own. The quality that makes this drive stand out from the rest is its size. Because it’s so slim and lightweight, it’s very easy to take from place to place, even though it perhaps doesn’t offer as much heavy duty storage as other hard drives do. The packing is easy to open and the device is simple in appearance. Other drives allow you to choose fun colors and accents, but this Seagate is pretty spartan in appearance. The small USB cable is just long enough to be at a comfortable distance from your computer, and the plastic body of the device feels good and stable. It’s small enough to fit in your pocket, and has the added benefit of a 2 year warranty.
– Anthony Dawson
Best Overall Mac External Hard DriveWestern Digital
The Passport is great if you’re looking for a lightweight hard drive that is compatible with both OSX and Windows. Format the drive as exFAT to get it to work on both operating systems with ease. The Passport is just about the size of an iPhone, and maybe even a little smaller. The design is sturdy and elegant, and it’s made entirely of durable plastic. Thunderbolt is definitely faster than this hard drive, but the USB 3.0 works with great speed and efficiency nonetheless. Western Digital is famous for their drives being very reliable and long-lasting, so the Passport is great if you’re looking for a device that is going to last you for the long haul. In fact, the Passport really does perform with the best of them, and offers a 3 year warranty that is one year longer than most other drives on the market. The backup is automatic, and there is a lot of built in protection that ensures that your data will be safe at all times.
– Anthony Dawson
Best Budget Mac External Hard DriveTEYADI
The TEYADI is a great Mac external hard drive when you’re looking for a simple way to back up all your data locally as well as on social networks. Right out of the box the TEYADI will start doing its job, and it’s also compatible with Time Machine software. The Save feature is what allows you to back up your content from social media sites automatically. One of the big downsides of taking so many photos on your smartphone is that they’re liable to be lost, because they aren’t constantly backed up and saved, and the TEYADI takes care of all this with simplicity. If a file gets accidentally deleted from your device, then there’s a copy waiting for you on your external hard drive. With HFS+, you’re able to use the drive on both your Mac OS X and your PC. The TEYADI operates so smoothly and intuitively that you really don’t need to even take a look at the Quick Start Guide that comes included.
– Anthony Dawson
Mac External Hard Drive Buying Guide
There are many different kinds of external hard drives for Mac on the market. With a large selection available it can be difficult to know which one to select when shopping. This buying guide for Mac external hard drives is designed to help you narrow down the search and find the one with the features and options that will be best suited to meet your storage needs. We’ve provided the information about what to look for in a Mac external hard drive for whatever your intended purpose. By following a few tips and recommendations you’ll be able to determine just what it is that you need in an external hard drive before you begin shopping.
Recommendation for Purchases
How You Plan To Use Your External Hard Drive for Mac
Before actually making a purchase, it’s important to establish what the drive will be used for. This will help you to know which size and capacity you will need. For example, will you be using the external hard drive for backup of your important system files? Perhaps you need additional storage space for videos or music files. How much space will you need for your external hard drive? Will you need a full sized drive or a portable one? Finally, how much speed will you require from the drive? This is a big one for gamers who will be storing game data on the external drive. Once you determine the intended uses and approximately how much storage you will need, it’s time to look at which features you will want the drive to have.
Different Types of External Hard Drives for Mac Outlook 2019 preview for mac.
There are of course several different brands and models of external hard drives available for Mac. These types of additional storage are usually connected to your Mac through a USB connection or Firewire. The smaller 2.5 inch portable models obtain their power through this connection and are easy to unplug and carry with you to other locations. The larger 3.5 inch drives require a power supply that is plugged into a wall outlet.
Features of External Hard Drives for Macs
The storage capacities for external HDDs for Mac range from 160 gigabytes to 3 terabytes. Pricing goes up for the maximum storage units and this is one of the reasons why the 1 terabyte drives are so popular. Most external HDDs for Mac are compatible with Time Machine, but it’s wise to double check and make sure prior to purchase.
What to Look For In an External Hard Drive for Mac
While storage space is an important aspect of an external hard drive, it is by no means the only consideration to be made. The data transfer rate and access speed of the hard drive are what make the difference between a more useful and time saving drive or one that is frustrating and a waste of time with slower speeds for performing functions.
Many of the available drives feature multiple connection ports such as USB, FireWire, eSATA or Thunderbolt, but some only offer one. If you need a variety of options then make sure that the model you select is versatile. This is particularly important if you will be connecting the drive to different machines.
Thunderbolt is an extremely fast interface type, but not all Macs have the ability to support this option. If your Mac does not support Thunderbolt, you cannot use this type of drive.
Check System Requirements
Prior to purchasing an external hard drive for Mac, check the system requirements to ensure that the drive is compatible with your current system. You will benefit from using some of the faster interface formats such as Thunderbolt or eSATA or even Firewire over USB. If your Mac does not support eSATA, it can be added by using an ExpressCard/34.
Speed
Speed can be an important factor, particularly if you are storing gaming applications for use in your external HDD. Higher rpm drives provide better performance for most activities and gaming is no exception. For example, most Mac notebooks come with 5400 rpm drives, but the addition of an external drive which operates at 7200 rpm can improve your gaming or downloading experience with faster access and load time. This is particularly important when heavy graphics are involved. To gain optimal performance, high performance drives that run with 10,000 to 15000 rpm are available, however; the downside is that the often require a SCSI connection and they offer less storage capacity.
Pros and Cons of External Hard Drives
External hard drives can be used to back up important system data in case of a crash or other type of system failure. This can help to ensure that your information is not lost and it could help to get you back up and running with less hassle and expense. The prices are less expensive for external desktop hard drives than for the portable versions. These drives have transfer speeds that are faster than CDs or DVDs and they are easy to use.
2018 Best External Hard Drive For Mac
The downside is that larger capacity drives can be expensive and tend to be priced on a per gigabyte basis. Also, the most common connection option is USB which is much slower than some of the other options.
Conclusion
External hard drives for Mac come in a variety of sizes, models and storage capacities. The best drive for you is solely dependent upon your individual needs. Some are designed for providing lots of storage space for back up of your system and other files while others feature fast access and transfer speeds which enhance the experience of gaming and transferring files from one location to the other. Smaller portable units may be more expensive, but they offer a better option for those who are on the go. By knowing up front what you will need to use an external hard drive for, how much storage capacity and what rates of speed you will need, you are prepared to choose a unit that will meet your storage needs. You are prepared to look for the features that will enhance the activities that the drive will be used for in a new external hard drive. Following a few simple tips and recommendations can be helpful in avoiding making the wrong choice.
We like to complain about how much space photos take up on a phone, but as a photographer, they’re going to take up even more storage on your computer.
From RAW files to edits and uncompressed high definition shots, images are almost certainly taking a chunk out of your machine’s capacity. This is undesirable for more than a few reasons.
All the photos will force your computer to run slower, make it harder to install the programs you need and be stuck in one place.
Alternatively, you can move your photos to an external drive. This drive is just like the one in your computer, except that it’s portable and expands your available storage.
From traditional HDDs (hard disk drives) to modern SSDs (solid-state drives), a little storage to a lot, there’s definitely something to meet your needs.
In this article, we’ll list the best external drives for photos to save you time exploring. Keep reading for more!
Quick Summary
Hard Drive: Western Digital 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive
SSD: Samsung T5 Portable SSD
SSD: VectoTech Rapid External SSD
Who Should Get This?
If you are a photographer who takes a lot of pictures (or videos), you’re eventually going to run out of options for storing them. You could burn them to CDs, and keep the discs in a massive binder. You could buy an entirely new computer to store them on. Game applications for mac. You could attempt to upload them to a cloud site and end up with compressed files.
Or, you could start with an external drive that will keep them safe in one place, make them easily portable, and easy to organize. An external drive is an absolute necessity for a serious photographer.
If you don’t take many pictures or aren’t too concerned with your computer’s storage, you could always try a cloud backup system or a flash drive, but be aware your space will be limited with either option.
External Drive for Photos: What to Consider?
HDD vs. SSD
When you think of a hard drive, you probably picture the physical spinning disk that has traditionally been used and is common in many computers. This is called an HDD, but there is another type of drive, the SSD, that is available. SSDs use flash storage (like on small jump drives) and have no moving parts, making them more reliable. However, they tend to be more expensive.
Formatting
If you purchase an HDD, it will be formatted for either macOS or PC use (a few drives are formatted to work on both, but this is uncommon). You can always reformat the drive, but this will erase all of its content, so if you go this route please make sure you plan on using the drive on only one type of operating system. An SSD is usually cross-compatible, so this is the better choice if you plan to access your photos from a variety of places.
See also: How to format a flash drive for Mac and PC compatibility
Storage Capacity
![]()
Your number one concern should be how much space your drive of choice offers. Too little space and you’ll be forced to go through lengthy upgrades/files transfers or to buy new drives. Too much space (for example, if you intend to use separate drives each year) and you’re paying unnecessarily for storage you won’t use. 1GB of space is roughly 500 images at a standard resolution taken with a phone camera — but this number goes down when you use multiple file versions per image, higher resolutions, and better cameras. You’ll want at least 500 GB of space, if not more.
Best External Drive for Photographers in 2019: Our Picks1. Western Digital 2TB Elements Portable External Hard DriveAvailable from 1TB to 4TB in size, this drive comes preformatted for Windows and has plug-n-play functionality (you won’t have to install any software to use it). It uses USB 3.0 to connect to your computer and spins at 5400 RPM.
Pros:
Best Portable Hard Drives For Mac
Cons:
2. Samsung T5 Portable SSDThe T5 is an SSD drive that knows how to score all the points. It features the rising USB-C port as well as a USB-C to USB-A (classic) cable in case your computer doesn’t feature this new port. Reads and writes at about 540 MB/s.
Pros:
Cons:
3. VectoTech Rapid External SSDIf you want fast speeds and plenty of space, VectoTech’s drive is the best choice. It offers up to 4TB of SSD storage (or as little as 250GB, if you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum). The read/write speeds are more than satisfactory at 450 MB/s.
Pros:
Cons:
Additional Tips & Tricks
If you’re having a hard time deciding between HDD & SSD drives, here are a few pointers:
HDD:
SSD:
You can also check out PCWorld’s guide on the matter if you’re still unsure.
Conclusion
An external drive is absolutely necessary for a photographer. Your images take up space — perhaps not physically as a roll of film would, but certainly digitally in the form of originally shoots, edits, and more.
No one wants to delete old photos unnecessarily, and the solution is simple. Whether you choose HDD or SSD, 500GB or 3TB, you’ll be set up for a compact and effective storage system that will keep your images safe for years to come.
Of course, keeping them all organized is a different matter, but if you have a method for doing so or a drive recommendation, drop us a comment below!
Chris is a computer geek for a decade. He loved talking to computers via codes, and now he finds it more interesting communicating with the real people. He now writes everything related to computer issues and loves helping people solve problems.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |