Best External Hard Drive for Mac

Rank Name Rating Details
1 Western Digital Essential
2 Iomega eGo 500
3 Oyen Digital 500GB
4 Verbatim Acclaim 1 TB

WD My Passport Essential The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

The WD My Passport Essential External Hard Drive

This is the only external hard drive for mac that we’ve actually given 5 stars to. Yep that’s right. 5/5, top rank, number one numero uno – this is probably the best external hard drive for Mac and you’d be astounded at the price. It’s also the #1 rated external hard drive on Amazon and it’s not to see why.

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Designed Specifically for Mac

hard drive for Mac

The Hard Drive Made for Mac

  • Designed specifically for the Apple Mac
  • Easy to use pre-formatted for Mac
  • Compatible with Apple Time Machine ®
  • Password protection and encryption

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Biggest External Hard Drive for Mac

big external hard drive for Mac

Western Digital My Book for Mac

  •  Made for Apple Mac
  • Huge 1TB – 3TB Capacity
  • Perfect for Apple Time-Machine
  • Password Protection
  • Automatic Backups

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Best Value External Hard Drive for Mac

value external hard drive for mac

Best Value External Hard Drive for Mac

  • LOW price
  • 500 GB
  • USB 3.0/2.0
  • Portable
  • Easy to use

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Best External Hard Drive

the best external hard drive

The Best External Hard Drive

This one isn’t just the best external hard drive for Mac, it’s the best external hard drive for any system or format that we’ve seen. It’s hugely popular, great stats and a really low price. You can have a look at our full review or pick it up on Amazon for a steal – either way you’ll like this drive.

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Iomega eGo Best External Hard Drive for Mac?

Iomega eGo external hard drive

Is the Iomega eGo the Best External Hard Drive for Mac?

We’ve reviewed a lot of hard drives in the search for the best external hard drive for mac and it’s possible we’ve actually found it with the Iomega eGo Mac Edition. Great price with some great features and it’s been designed specifically for the Mac (more…)

Seagate for Mac

Seagate for Mac

The Seagate for Mac

Looking for reviews on the best external hard drive for Mac we couldn’t help but stumble across the seagate for Mac. And really, I don’t mean this in a good way. It’s become a pretty popular external hard drive and it’s considered a ‘breakout’ by Google in terms of popularity but honestly we can’t understand why. Take a look at our full review on the Seagate Mac external hard drive if or you can have a look at the hard drive itself if you prefer.

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Most Portable External Hard Drive for Mac

Most Portable External Hard Drive for Mac

The Most Portable External Hard Drive for Mac

We do a lot of portable external hard drive reviews but we’ve never really looked for the most portable external hard drive for Mac before. Every external hard drive is portable of course but we’re talking real portability like “keep your hard drive in your back pocket” kind of portable. If you’ve ever had the urge to carry a hard drive around in your pocket take a look at our most portable external hard drive for Mac.

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Wireless External Hard Drive for Mac

apple wireless external hard drive for mac

Wireless External Hard Drive for Mac

Most of the technology we use these days is wireless and external hard drives are no different. A wireless external hard drive for Mac is just as the name implies. It’s an external hard drive, for Mac and it’s wireless. Is there anything more to say?
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Best External Hard Drives For Mac

best external hard drives for mac

One Of the Best External Hard Drives For Mac?

In the hunt for the best external hard drives for mac I stumbled across something pretty fun. The Iomega eGo BlackBelt Mac Edition (oh what a name)! It’s easily one of the more expensive external hard drives we’ve reviewed but it’s built to last and it’s perfect if you like to travel with your external hard drive without worrying about it breaking.

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Best External Hard Drive for Mac

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

best external hard drive for macWhether you want to keep an external backup of important work files or you just need some additional room to store videos or games, finding the best external hard drive for mac can be a pain with everyone producing external hard drives these days.

Luckily we keep an updated list with the best external hard drives for mac and you can see our updated list of best prices and best quality on the right hand side, you can also see our individual product reviews further down on the page.

If you’re just looking for the best external hard drive at the moment and want our best pick:

Click here to Check Out One of the Best External hard Drive for Mac

Picking the best external hard drive for mac for you

Deciding on what makes the best external hard drive for mac depends on what features you’re really looking for.

No matter how big of a hard drive you get, as files become bigger over the next few years you’ll need a bigger and bigger external hard drive so you’re better aiming higher than you might need at the moment.

The main things you’re looking for in an external hard drive for mac is size, connection and system compatibility.

You want something large enough to hold all your files, you want something that will connection with your computer and/or laptop and you might want something which is compatible with more than just a mac if you want to share files with another computer at work or perhaps a friend, so you might want to look for an external hard drive for mac and pc.

We suggest the Iomega as the best external hard drive for mac because it’s actually built with macs in mind. It’s fast with both USB and Firewire ports and a fast RPM speed on the drive itself. It has a full 1TB capacity which is plenty of room for all of your music, pictures, movies and anything else you want to store. It’s probably the best external hard drive for mac on the market at the moment and it’s cheaper than a lot of smaller and slower alternatives. Anytime people ask me for a suggestion on the best external hard drive for mac I suggest this one since it has everything you could possibly want from it.

There is a lot of poor quality external hard drives on the market these days and if you want to make sure you get the best external hard drive for Mac then you want to go with a trusted brand to avoid getting something which will fail on you. Going with a trusted brand can really help you find the best external hard drive for mac.

USB or Firewire External Hard Drive Mac

One of the main things people look at when trying to pick an external hard drive is the connectivity. No matter how great your new external hard drive is, it’s no use if you can’t actually connect it to your Mac. The main connectivity is either through Firewire or USB and the better quality ones usually have both. FireWire was originally a much faster but since there’s a new version of USB the usb hard drive have become the more popular choice. Most people already use USB connections for their other devices like MP3 players, cameras, webcams, keyboards etc…

When you’re trying to pick an external hard drive you need to make sure you at least have the connections to use it. Most desktops and laptops these days have a FireWire and several USB ports. If you plan to have your external drive plugged in frequently you might want to make sure you have an open port but if you’re limited (such as an older NetBook) you can always swap around your devices and FireWire is used less frequently and faster on older computers it’ll give you a faster transfer speed anyway.

A fast external hard drive is really a different thing for a lot of people. If you’re not transferring frequently then it doesn’t really matter and you can focus on finding a cheap external hard drive or a reliable one, but if you move a lot of files often then you’ll want to save as much time as possible with a fast transfer speed. The read and write time on the hard drive itself affects this but you also want to make sure you have a fast connection. With a newer computer you can use USB 3.0 for the best speeds while, with an older one, you’re better with FireWire if upgrading is not an option.

Compare External Hard Drives

Trying to find the right external hard drive for Mac means you have a lot of choice to pick between. There are a lot of companies making drives but it’s really just the same hard drives being packaged within different enclosures. So comparing external hard drives means looking at various brands and models and the main thing we like to look at is the reviews and feedback people give the drive. It’s one thing for one person to tell you how great an external hard drive is, but it’s another if several hundred say they’ve had great results with it.

There’s a few smaller factors some might want to consider as well. If you travel a lot for example you’ll want to look for higher durability and protection while you might want a higher capacity or included software for backups if your goal is mainly to store data safely. We try to find the best external hd for Mac overall but you can also see our individual reviews made to suit specific needs such as backups or gaming.

1TB Portable Hard Drive

One of the main things people always look at first when trying to find the best external hard drive for Mac is the capacity, as in how much you can store on it. Obviously this is a factor to consider, especially if you plan on storing a lot. As a general rule of thumb we tend to use a general average of a 1TB portable hard drive. Most of the drives we review, especially the better ones, give you an option you can choose from. Most range from around 500GB to 2.5 TB but some go as small as 250 or 500GB and others go as large 4TB (there’s probably some out there bigger but that’s when you start getting into server sized pricing).

There’s a guide elsewhere here on the best external hard drive for Mac site you can use if you’re trying to see how much you can store on what kind of sizing, in fact this thing is all over the internet but as a general rule of thumb a 1TB portable hard drive is enough for general use and if you need bigger than you probably know it already. It’s usually a better idea to go bigger if in doubt however, if nothing else it gives you a little bit of future proof protection. It’s cheaper to buy one larger external hard drive than two smaller ones. If you’re just looking for the cheapest option then have a look at some of the 500 gig external hard drive options. It’s big enough so it should still last you easily but you’ll get the lowest price range at that level. If you’re going any smaller you’re either looking at USB pen drives instead or you’re probably also looking at lower quality drives which lack more than just capacity.

Cheapest External Hard Drive

We wouldn’t be doing our job right if we didn’t look at every factor, and when you’re buying anything online or otherwise you (probably) need to consider price (I know I do) so we take this into account. Most of the external hdds on our best external hard drive for Mac list are there because they’re a great combination of quality and value. Either they’re on a temporary deal or they manufacturer just offers a good quality external hard drive at a low price.

In general all of our drives consider the price point and you can look around for the best price which still offers you something which suits you. Our number one rated best external hard drive for Mac currently is on a great deal and you should check that one out. On our reviews for more specific hard drives focusing on durability for example the price is a little higher because you’re paying for that extra level of security on the hard drive. If it seems a little too cheap you might want to make sure you’re looking at a proper external hard drive and not a hard drive enclosure or a pen drive for example. You also should check that it’s not a cheaper quality brand, because while you might save money in the short term if that thing breaks down you’ll just be throwing your money away.

Portable Hard Drive Mac Compatible

The Apple Mac is a growing brand and by next year it’s expected to grow to 22% of the computing industry. In the past finding hardware for the Mac was a lot harder and most of the common hard drives for example would only work with Windows or would be a nightmare to get working. Now getting the best external hard drive for Mac means getting the best quality and features at the lowest price. You still need to make sure you’re getting a compatible device but it’s a lot easier and you have a much wider choice.

You can expect this trend to continue because as Macs become more popular more hardware and software will become more available for it, which is rarely a bad thing.

Best External Hard Drive for Macs

There’s a little bit of personal choice and preference when it comes to picking the best external hard drive for Mac. What works and what is the best for one person might not be the best for someone else but that’s a fairly small part of it. There’s a few extra things some people might want (all of which we look at individually just in case it applies) but for the most part there are the main staples that we stick with. Quality, speed, portability, capacity, connection, compatibility and style. If a drive has that then they qualify as a good external hard drive and a good value deal is just icing on a cake. Icing we like to look for in our more popular drives.

We try and look at a varied list so there’s a little something there for everyone. One person might want a small and very portable external hard drive while others might want the best external hard drive for Mac backups (which means reliability) or they just happen to drop their hard drive a lot (guilty of that myself) and need something to withstand a beating. And that can range from just falling off the desk to falling several feet or even getting shot with a shotgun (yes, scroll down we have a hard drive being tested on a shooting range).

So there’s a lot of factors to consider, and a lot of different models to pick from. We compare what’s out there with what users need and offer a range of the best external hard drives for Mac and hopefully we’ll have a suggestion for you here. If there is something we’ve missed and you think it deserves a spot up there then visit our contact page and let us know about it, we’ll try and get a review done for it but for the most part we think we’ve got everyone covered and we’ve certainly been having some great feedback.

Best External Hard Drive for Mac Reviews

A good way to tell if you’re getting the best external hard drives is by checking the reviews and there’s nothing quite like buying from Amazon for that. They have a great review system as well as the best prices, customer support and fast delivery. They carry the best external hard drive for mac choices as well as the best prices

We’re not supported, employed or paid by any of the big producers of external hard drives or anything. A quick look at our reviews and top list shows different brands for a start. This means we can give an honest review of what drives are good, what drives are bad and to top that of we always show you where you can find other reviews for drives from hundreds or even thousands of users leaving their opinions on the drive. In fact we suggest looking at these reviews as well as our own, just to make sure you’re getting the right external hard drive for you. We’re here to help find you the best external hard drive for Mac, not to try and convince you that there’s one brand out there and you shouldn’t look anywhere else.

There are certainly some brands we’re happier with than others but our top list is a varied mix of different brands because even when a brand is good, that doesn’t mean every model is and some different factors suit people differently.

Regardless of what you want to use your external hard drive for, getting the best external hard drive for mac is important otherwise you’ll just end up having to replace it again in the near future. We update with the best external hard drives and deals as we find them and you can always see our top five external hard drives on the top right of the page.

Click here for the best price and delivery on the best external hard drive for Mac

 

Most Reliable External Hard Drive for Mac

The Most Reliable External Hard Drive for Mac

Reliability is one of the most important features you need to consider when looking for an external hard drive which means it’s not surprising so many people want the most reliable external hard drive for Mac. I mean who wants to buy something which not only wastes your money, but loses you your files at the same time? Doesn’t sound like the best external hard drive for Mac to me.

So for a reliable external hard drive for Mac (or for any operating system really for that matter) what should you be looking for?

Most Reliable External hard Drive for Mac Features

While perhaps not the most useful way to judge the reliability of an external hard drive, this is certainly the most entertaining. I found a video of ioSafe testing their external hard drives against a 12 gauge shotgun. I guess if your external hard drive can take this kind of beating it’s probably safe to call it reliable.

But for the rest of us, unless we have the money to shoot all the external hard drives and see what lasts up, what should we be looking for?

  • Someone not shooting at it
No, seriously, what should we be looking for?
  • High quality hard drive
  • Trusted brand name
  • Drop protection
  • Wide base/horizontal drive
So basically you want to look for a brand of external hard drives who actually use high quality hard drives and not flashy enclosures over rubbish hdds. It’s a bonus if you can go with a trusted known name like WD or Iomega for example.
You really want some kind of drop protection or something. Some of the most reliable external hard drive for Mac models are built to withstand falls from the top of your roof (or apparently taking shotgun shots) but all you really need is something that’s going to survive falling from your desk.
most reliable external hard drive for macA lesser known point is how much data people lose from hard drives falling over on the desk itself which is why we mention the wide base or horizontally sitting drive. A lot of cheaper drives sit vertically but on thin bases which can cause them to fall. For example, have a look at the external hard drive shown in the picture here. A slight breeze is going to cause that to fall, and that’s not what you want.
Cheaper drives with little to no drop protection can really take a lot of damage from even small falls like that. But even drives with protection should be treated properly just to keep them in the best condition possible and preserve your data. That said I currently have a WD external hard drive keeping my desk from wobbling and it still works fine.

Getting the Most Reliable External Hard Drive for Mac

You’re certainly in the right place if you want to get some of the most reliable external hard drives for Mac online since we review the best external hard drives and we wouldn’t be doing the job properly if we didn’t look at reliable hard drives. There’s two hard drives I would suggest and while one goes a little on the extreme edge – they both provide reliability and they’re good quality hard drives.

If you’re looking for something you can (probably) throw from your roof or dive over in your car (we don’t suggest doing this anyway of course) then there’s the Iomega Blackbelt external hard drive which is built to take a beating. It is pretty expensive though, but you can trust it’s not going to break easily.

For a more ‘down to earth’ reliable external hard drive for Mac there’s the #1 rated best external hard drive for Mac in our opinion. It’s a WD external hard drive and a lot cheaper and more simple looking. They’re known for great quality drives and this one also features password protection which gives you a little more peace of mind in terms of reliability.

A quick look around hardware forums usually shows up a lot of horror stories of failing hard drives and lost data. It’s a good idea to look for the most reliable external hard drive for Mac and getting something which is going to last for you.

Best External Hard Drive For Mac Examples

Finding the Best External Hard Drive for Mac or PC

Laptops and desktops are coming equiped with more and more storage these days but in a world of growing digital media it’s just never enough which is why you really need a good external hard drive for mac.

When it comes down to it, there is really is no one best external hard drive for mac or any best external hard drive at all since they’re always constantly changing. Luckily the prices dropped a few months ago so the hard drive you buy today probably cost several times as much a few months ago.

The best external hard drive for mac for you

best external hard driveFor a best external hard drive review however you need to know exactly what it is you want out of a hard drive. Some people want capactiy which means they can store more on a single hard drive, others want something small and easy to carry, some people want something powered by the USB and not a mains plug while others want an all terain shock proof external hard drive, not that I could ever work out why but each to their own I guess. The more techically minded might also want something which is bootable so you can boot an operating system directly from it if needed.

Some external hard drives support various levels of FireWire and USB which give different speeds but USB is largely becoming the more popular choice. If style and looks is something you are interested in then be sure to get something which suits the colour of your laptop or computer, it looks good on a desk that way. The majority of the external hard drive for mac options will work straight out of the box and you can start transfering files to them as soon as they’re plugged in. In a world where technology is becoming ever more complicated having an easy to use and setup device is great and the easier it is, the closer you are to finding the best external hard drive for mac.

Best external hard drive for mac capacity

A few years ago a one gig external drive was something impressive and now a 500gb is on the fairly small side. A 1TB (terrabyte) drive is now the most commonly used but it really depends on what you’re planning on storing and how often you delete things or do you archieve them etc..

It’s a good idea to get a good quality external hard drive for mac because we’ve all heard the horror stories of poor quality external hard drives which fail and people lose their data. The absolute best external hard drive for mac is anything with at least 1TB of memory, powered by USB and reliable. If you can get that for a good price, you’ve found the best external hard drive for mac and luckily, thanks to the internet, there are some great options around. There are a few examples we’d suggest for the best external hard drive for mac

 

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

Hey there, and thanks for checking out our reviews on some of the best external hard drive for Mac devices. Since more and more people are moving over to Apple Mac we put together this site to help people make the right choice and we review some of the latest external hard drives and we try and find the best external hard drive for Mac.

There’s a lot of factors involved but so far we’re keeping on top of things and finding some great deals. Hopefully we have something here that’ll help you and if not feel free to get in contact with us (there’s a link up at the top) and we’ll do our best to give our opinions on whatever hard drive you’re looking at. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for specifically then might I suggest you take a look at our top list on the top right of this page for some of the best external hard drive for Mac we’ve found so far.the best external hard drive for mac

Keep in mind there are plenty of hard drives we haven’t reviewed yet, and plenty more we would review if we thought there was any point. Sometimes it’s not worth the time reviewing an entire hard drive just to say how bad it is – we could put an entire list of external hard drives that could fit into this list but we prefer to review hard drives that actually stand out and have something to offer. That’s not to say we don’t find problems with the ones we do review but generally we only bother to look at ones in the running for the best external hard drive for Mac.

We do our best to find the best external drives for Mac and this includes looking for the latest and best hard drive for Mac. If you’re looking for what we consider the best external hard drive 2011 then take a look at the top of the page.

Features of The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

Most people will go on about the capacity of their external hard drives. The few time anyone really goes on about external hard drives I mean – they’re not exactly a great conversation point, but you know what I mean. ‘Oh I have a 1 terbyte external hard drive!’ ‘big woop, I got a 2tb external hard drive’ and so on…

The fact is tv adverts have drilled it into peoples heads that capacity is the main thing you should look for, but honestly I’d take my best 1tb external hard drive over someones cheap 2tb external hard drive any day of the week. It’s not the size guys – it’s the full features you need to look for.

There’s some side stuff you can look at like the design and the warrantys etc… You might even choose to get something at the time because it was on sale – but there’s a few key points I always look at when I’m considering buying a new external hard drive and this is what makes it the best external hard drive for Mac, for me anyway.

  • Portability
  • Speed
  • Reliability
  • Compatibility
And after that I’ll look at price and capacity – because they’re much less of an indicator for quality to me.
Portability is important to me. Whether you travel or just move your laptop from your bedroom to the garden, you might want something you can move with you. So look for an external hard drive which is powered by it’s own USB cable (as most of the ones we review are) rather than the mains adapter. You might also want something small which slips into the pocket or beside the laptop without taking up too much room. Some of the smaller external hard drives can even be slipped into your wallet, for example.
Speed is a little two fold. You need to make sure the hard drive you’re looking at has some good read and write speeds (you’ll usually find this on the product description page like the ones we link on Amazon) and you also need the connectivity to your computer. This usually means what version of USB you use, which is likely 2.0 or 3.0. If you haven’t upgraded your computer in the last year or so you might well be on 2.0 but the upgrade is cheap and the USB 3.0 hard drives are backwards compatible with 2.0 Macs if you get one anyway.
Reliability is the main thing for me in looking for the best external hard drive for Mac. I like to see some security features, a warranty and a good reliable brand name behind it before I’ll trust buying a hard drive. If an external hard drive doesn’t have a big name it might still be good (I mean a brand new company could well make the worlds best external hard drive for Mac still) but it needs to have a lot of good reviews behind it to prove it’s not going to break down on me. There’s no point in paying for the best external hard drive for Mac if it breaks a month later – it’d be a waste of money and I’d lose whatever files I had stored there. If you want somewhere to backup your files, then it’d be nice to know that the backup itself is safe. Many of the drives we consider to be some of the best external hard drive for Mac choices are western digital external hard drive models for just this reason, they’re a well known name with a good reputation for quality external hard drives for Macs.
And finally we have compatibility. I mean that’s what these reviews are all about right? If you want the best external hard drive for Mac, then it’d probably help if the hard drive actually works on Mac although to be honest if you want to exchange files with friends, family or your work you’ll most likely want to make sure you get the best external hard drive for Mac and PC because then you don’t have to mess around trying to share files with other people using multiple hard drives. You want something that will work on both and luckily this has become a lot easier since Mac has really started to become a lot more popular and companies are quickly trying to catch up and the latest external hard drives are arriving with both Mac and PC compatibility which is a nice change.

Buying The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

We review a whole bunch of external hard drives here. I mean it wouldn’t really be a review site for the best external hard drives for Mac if we didn’t, but in all of the cases we suggest getting your external hard drive from Amazon (if you didn’t get that from the yellow buttons with their name on it). That’s not because we’re too lazy to look around, or because we like the name (although we do, I mean face it – it’s a pretty cool name). It’s because they have the lowest prices for external hard drives and their delivery times are excellent. Everyone knows Amazon, they’ve been around for years now which means you don’t have to deal with any shady online shops.

Now we’re not saying you should laugh at your local PC shop and tell them Amazon will put them out of business. They’ll still do pretty well because most people still don’t realise they can get things cheaper online (most people will buy from in there because they don’t really know what they’re looking for – they won’t bother to find some reviews online and get the best external hard drive for Mac rather than over paying for whatever the shop attendant tells them to get). It’s sometimes worth looking in there, they might have a good deal on but, for the most part, getting things online is cheaper and easier and you’re likely to get a better deal.

I use the internet to shop for pretty much everything these days, and finding the best external hard drive for Mac should be no different.

Mac External Hard Drive

The Mac External Hard Drive

The Mac external hard drive needs little explanation. Both because pretty much everyone these days knows fine well what an external hard drive is and partly because it’s explained right there in the name. It’s a hard drive, and it’s external. It’s an external hard drive, just in this case it’s an external hard drive for Mac.

Why a Mac External Hard Drive

Going inside a Mac is generally not for the average user and Apple doesn’t exactly want you to be in there in the first place. Using an external hard drive for Mac is as difficult as plugging a USB cable in. And if you’re having trouble with this, most of the best external hard drive for Mac models come with a manual in the box which explains just how to do this. And it’ll even come with a shiny new USB cable, like you don’t have dozens already.

So they’re so easy to use your dog could install them, but why might you need to use a Mac external hard drive in the first place? Well there’s three main reasons.

  • Capacity Increase

Whether you’re storing videos and music or you just have a lot of documents, games or whatever on your Mac you’re going to eventually be forced with a decision. Do you delete the files you have (and hope you don’t need them at some point in the future) or do you increase your storage capacity? Well with an external hard drive you can use it to store files or move some of your lesser needed files over to it, freeing up resources on your internal hard drive. And, as mentioned, installing an internal hard drive to a Mac can be a pain, especially for the average user.

This is usually the most common reason for wanting a Mac external hard drive.

Mac External Hard DriveIf you want to use your Mac external hard drive as a permanent addition to your Mac then you want to make sure that it’s got a fast read/write speed or it can slow down your overall performance. Because this usually rises price a better alternative is to copy the unused files onto the external hard drive which frees up capacity on your internal hard drive. This means you don’t need to keep your external hard drive connected and constantly in use. You can always plug it back in if you need the files and if this doesn’t suit you, you can always change it in the future to suit your needs.

  • File Sharing

The internet is a great way to share files around and I’m sure you’ve sent an email or IM with a photo or something. But larger files can take a very, very long time to transfer via internet so a lot of people choose to use removable media like an external hard drive. If you get the best external hard drive for Mac and PC (not just for Mac) then you can pretty much share with anyone. It’s as simple as copying the files to the external drive and plugging it into the other persons Mac or PC.

Any file types can be transferred like this and transfer speed is not an issue when it’s through USB.

  • Backups

The digital age is certainly upon us and keeping your electronic data secure has never been so important. But after all the virus scans and firewalls if the worst should befall your Mac it’s a good idea to have a backup. No, wait it’s a great idea to have a backup and the best way to do it, no wait the only way, is to have it on removable media so you can safely keep it separate. Some of the best external hard drives for Mac have even been built specifically with backing up in mind works with the Apple Time Machine as well as it’s own backup software which can be started with the push of a button on the hard drive case itself.

Get a Mac External Hard Drive

There’s a massive range of external hard drives on market at the moment but so many of them are the same thing packaged differently over and over again. Really you should do the same when looking for the best Mac external hard drive as you should with any electronics, get reviews before paying anything.

Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Air

The Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Air

So you’re looking for the best external hard drive for Macbook Air? Well we have some of the best external hard drive reviews for some of the most portable external hard drives which go perfectly with the Apple Macbook Air.

Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Air Reviews

We focus on the best external hard drive for Mac brands and finding the best external hard drive for Macbook Air isn’t actually much different. We did a review before looking at the best external hard drive for Macbooks and the Air is basically just a more portable version, which means you’ll want a more portable external hard drive. Now, I want to be clear here, any external hard drive for Mac will work just fine with your Macbook Air. The connections are likely to be USB/FireWire anyway so the only difference is in size and weight.

the best external hard drive for macbook airIf you’re using your MacBook as a normal computer and not really moving around then it shouldn’t matter too much what kind of external hard drive you use in terms of size. Take a look at our top rated list of the top rated best external hard drives for Mac on the top right of this page. But if you’re looking for the best external hard drive for Macbook Air then it’s probably safe to assume you want something a little more portable because you want something light to move around.

There’s no point in getting a light and thin laptop if you’re carrying around a huge bulky external hard drive, right? And you don’t want to have to use a USB flash drive as a major way to store your files. Not only are they small and easy to lose or break, but they’re a lot smaller so you won’t get nearly the same capacity or protection. But, fear not, there are plenty of very portable external hard drive options you can look at.

You’ll want something which fits neatly into a bag with your MacBook Air. External hard drives with stands can be a pest for this because they make it awkward to fit or (worse) they can end up scratching your MacBook and they’re really not needed in the first place. Some people just think they look better, but I prefer the look of my MacBook not being scratched so I tend to look for something which is happy to sit on it’s side. Some people like to use a pouch or case for their external hard drives but that’s personal taste and I’d rather not have to bother personally. So the best external hard drive for Macbook Air in my books is:

  • USB powered (there’s no point in having a portable external hard drive if you need to plug it into the mains)
  • High transfer speed (there’s a lot of reasons for this, do you really want to wait around for your files to transfer?)
  • Small and light (why get a portable laptop if your portable hard drive is a brick?)

Get the Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Air

So like I said, a lot of the best external hard drives for Mac will work just fine but if you’re really looking for something which is perfectly suited then we’d suggest taking a look at either the WD essential for high performance in a small package or if you really want to go small then there’s the U32 Shadow which is by far one of the smallest drives around and easily one of the best external hard drive for Macbook Air.

Best External Hard Drive for Mac 1TB

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac 1TB

So you want to be specific and look for the best external hard drive for Mac 1tb eh? Well we can cover that. While most external hard drive brands go up to around 3.5 TB these days the majority of them start well below that so finding a 1TB external hard drive for Mac isn’t too hard. And since you’re on the best external hard drive for Mac site, finding the best one shouldn’t be too hard now either.

Best External Hard Drive for Mac 1TB Capacity

Now just to make sure you know what you’re looking at here. A terabyte  is over a thousand GB( gigabytes) or over a million MB (megabytes). So you see all those MP3 music tracks you have? You’re going to fit around 250,000 or so on one 1TB external hard drive. So that should give you some kind of perspective on how much memory you’re actually getting here. It doesn’t hurt to look a little further sometimes and ‘future proof’ yourself by getting a 2tb external hard drive or something but for the most part a 1 terabyte external hard drive will easily do most people.

Just keep in mind that as time goes on, files are going to generally be in higher quality which means a higher file size and you’ll need to adapt as time goes on.

It’s good that you’re specifically looking for the best external hard drive for Mac 1TB rather than just the best external hard drive with 1TB or something. For the most part this is becoming less of a problem, but there are still plenty of external hard drives out there that won’t work with Mac (not without a headache at least) but if you look for Mac specific drives then you’re likely to find something which will work with both Mac and PC and it’ll be as simple as just plug in and play.The Best External Hard Drive for Mac 1TB

Get the Best External hard Drive for Mac 1TB

So enough of this. You know you want the best external hard drive for Mac with 1TB and you just want to know what to get and where to get it from? Well we usually suggest Amazon because they have great prices, great postage times and let’s face it you probably have an account with Amazon already (I mean, who doesn’t?). They have some of the best 1tb external hard drive for Macs and the best external hard drive brand selection by far.

But, while it’s great to have choice, just keep in mind that a lot of the drives there are all going to be pretty much the same. So many companies are just piling out the same nonsense drives and slapping the ‘For Mac!’ sticker on it hoping to make a buck. So before you run off and just type in ‘portable hard drive for Mac’ or something take a second and make sure you’re doing this right.

The best way to shop online is to get reviews first. Now you’re currently looking at a portable hard drive for Mac review site so finding the best external hard drive for Mac 1tb shouldn’t be difficult from here and we do suggest some of the best external hard drives for Mac which you can see at the top right of the page. You see our top five best external hard drive for Mac list? Well that’s not all.

We do individual reviews on the external hard drives we find but further than that we show a few reviews from other users and we link to them on Amazon where you can see the rest of the reviews. That’s what makes it the best place to shop from, because you can see what others users actually think about the drive rather than just what the makers want you to think about them. So you get a good impartial review of some of the best external hard drive for Mac 1TB capacity.

So take a look at a drive like this or take a look at some of the external hard drives we review and find something you like and then be sure to check out the reviews on it before buying – that’s how you get the best external hard drive for Mac 1TB or any capacity for that matter.

Best External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

Best External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

When most people are looking for a USB or fire wire hard drive, they sometimes make the mistake of buying one which only works with one operating system so they’ll get something purely because it’s the best external hard drive for mac instead of getting the best external hard drive for Mac and PC. The funny thing is, the price isn’t even any different, people just are not taking the time to make sure they’re getting the right one for them.

The majority of the hard drives we review here (especially the top rated one) will work on both Mac and PC and that’s not by accident, it’s because that can be pretty important especially these days because everyone has either one or the other.Best External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

Now there are numerous reasons to actually have a separate external drive. It’s great for easily extending memory, it’s great for making backups separate to your computer and it’s absolutely perfect for sharing files between multiple computers whether you own a couple or you want to share with friends or family. Now I personally work with computers a lot and I make my living through them, I have an Apple Macbook for carrying around and a Windows desktop for most of my work, and I’ve had hard drives in the past that for some reason or another wouldn’t work with both which was a real pest. If I wanted to move anything from my laptop to my desktop I’d have to take it off the external drive, put it on something else and then move it. Getting yourself an external hard drive for Mac and PC that actually works for both costs you pretty much the same and there’s no downside. Sounds good?

Choosing the best external hard drive for mac and pc

Well the main thing you’re looking for when you want to pick a hard drive is that it has a connector which suits you. It’s pretty unlikely you’ll find one these days with a USB and even more unlikely that your laptop or desktop doesn’t have a USB port although there are different speeds you can look at, not that it really makes any real difference since they’re all compatible and transfer speeds are fast through USB of any version. The second thing is the operating system compatibility, some drives will come with various software installs and if the product information itself doesn’t tell you, check the compatibility for the software to find out if it’s compatible with both.

The majority of externals you can find on the market these days will work fine with both but you don’t want to have to buy a second or go through the bother of having to swap things around every time it’s easier just to make sure you’re getting an external hard drive for Mac and PC in the first place. Amazon do great prices and their customer service for returns is top notch stuff but when you’re looking for the best external hard drive for mac and PC, getting yourself something good in the first place is just easier.

External Hard Drive Reviews

Writing External Hard Drive Reviews

It can actually be pretty hard writing external hard drive reviews, especially if we’re trying to name one best external hard drive for Mac with so much of a choice out there (and it’s only growing)! We have the tricky task of finding the right drives to review in the first place, making sure they’re going to match what people need, making sure they’re a good reliable deal and then (and only then) do we match them up to our existing reviews and compare the difference.

Like we always say though, there’s not a best external hard drive for Mac and it’s all subjective. We have several different drives we consider the ‘top brass’ of external hard drives and a few others which fill a more ‘niche’ roll. For example if you’re looking for something to take all terrain or something – there’s an app for that. There’s also an external hard drive for that very purpose. And while it’s very good at what it does, for most people (even the most clumsy) it’s probably taking the shock protection a little far.

So when we make external hard drive reviews we’re spending most of the time trying to find drives actually worth reviewing and then comparing them to what we already have. We could do hundreds of reviews on drives that just plain suck or ones that are pretty much clones of the kind we already have at a higher price. But what’d be the point really?online external hard drive reviews

Reading External Hard Drive Reviews

So if you’re looking through our reviews looking for the best external hard drive for Mac you want to make sure you know what you’re looking for. If you check our rating system at the bottom of each review you’ll see the point system we allocate each external HDD to give you a quick understanding of each drives pros and cons. We also suggest alternatives for most hard drives to help you find the one you’re looking for. And for each of our reviews we show other peoples external hard drive reviews and we link over to Amazon – who (if you didn’t already know) let people post their own reviews for products so there’s plenty of external hard drive reviews for most of the models we look at.

Using External hard Drive Reviews

Your best bet when looking to buy anything, is to look for reviews online first. Not only will you get better value for your money, but you’ll also likely end up with a much better quality external hard drive. If you look in at store window or at advertisements they’ll tell you this hard drive is the best thing ever and will sort all of your needs, the online external hard drive reviews might well tell you that a week down the line it’ll break down and the warranty won’t cover it.

Finding the Best External Hard Drive For Mac

Finding the Best External Hard Drive For Mac

Finding the best external hard drive for mac is laregely just a case of knowing what you actually want and make sure it’s included in the one you buy. With so many brands and options available it’s important you get the one which suits you and what you want from your external hard drives.

external hard drive for macAn external hard drive for man is largely the same as the best external hard drive for windows or Linux.best Since the main standards of connection is either USB or Firewire, the only real difference is software and setting up and the vast majority of them support all three. So finding the best external hard drive for mac is really just finding the best external hard drive which suits the needs of what you want.

Best external hard drive for mac and PC

The External hard drive for mac and pc is largely the same thing and the majority don’t need any kind of software really you just plug them in and let them do their thing. This works out well if you want to transfer files between computers with different operating systems.

Best external hard drive for mac in 2011

There are a few key points you need to look out for in an external hard drive

  • Price

Price can vary largely depending on features and, in some case’s, just a brand name.

  • Capacity

It really depends on what you want to use it for but normally I wouldn’t go lower than 500gb and 1TB drives are cheap nowadays anyway.

  • Connection

This isn’t really too much of a worry anymore. Every drive will at least have USB but if you’d prefer FireWire then you need to look out for that

  • Reliability

Buying an external hard drive is one of the few times I’d look for a well known name. You don’t want your hard drive to fail and to lose all your data for the sake of a few bucks, when it comes to external hard drives there’s really not that much difference in cost but for the sake of reliability it’s better to go with a trusted brand.

  • Ease of use and style

It might not be the first thing you think of when you’re looking for the best external hard drive for mac but you want something which is easy to use (just plug and go) and you might want something which is stylish and suits the look and feel of your laptop or perhaps your desk.

Normally it’s a good idea to steer yourself towards a well known brand when you’re looking for the best external hard drive for mac, but you also need to keep in mind that price does not always guarantee quality, if you find an unknown brand with a high price, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re better or that that’s the best external hard drive for mac. It might just mean that they’re over charging their prices.

Finding the best external hard drive for mac is pretty easy, there is plenty to choose from and if you check the top right of this page we keep an updated list of the best external hard drive choices, latest offers and what we think is the best external hard drive for mac.

 

Best External Hard Drive for Mac With USB 3.0

best external hard drive for mac with usb 3.0

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac With USB 3.0

One of the most common requests we get is for a review on the best external hard drive for Mac with USB 3.0 and since it’s the next big step and the best external hard drives really should have USB 3.0 now for the transfer speeds we’re happy to help. So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the best external hard drive for Mac with USB 3.0 compatibility.

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Best External Hard Drive for Mac Backups

Best External Hard Drive for Mac Backups

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac Backups

External hard drives can be used for a lot of different things but  certainly one of the most popular uses is for backing up your files. While you can technically use any external  hard drive for backups we thought we’d do a quick review on the best external hard drive for Mac backups to help you get the fastest and easiest backups.

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Best Solid State External Hard Drive for Mac

Best External Hard Drive for Mac – Solid State Drive

We talk often about the improvements USB 3.0 have made to the world of external hard drives but what about solid state drives? (SSDs) Well certainly some of the best external hard drive for Mac hdds are SSD drives and for good reason, but they certainly raise the price tag.

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Best External Hard Drive for Mac Reviews

Best External Hard Drive for Mac Reviews

These days everyone is shopping online and looking for the best external hard drive for mac is no different. One of the greatest benefits to shopping online, other than the great price, is getting a good review so I thought I’d put together some external hard drive reviews to help you find the right one for you. Nobody just goes out and buys things like this anymore and with sites like Amazon you can see reviews from people who have actually bought a product and shared their opinions on it. I usually check out these reviews before buying something so I can see what people are saying about it.best external hard drive for mac reviews

So one of my favorite external hard drives on the market at the moment is the Iomega eGo 1TB 800 Desktop External Hard Drive Mac Edition. It has everything you’d look for in a great external hard drive plus it has full star reviews which is something I love to see.

Best external hard drive for mac suggestion

The 1TB capacity is perfect for storing everything I need, it’s a pretty hard stretch to max that out easily even these days. There are larger options available as well such as the 2TB version. It has two firewire 800 ports and a USB 2.0 port. I’m not really sure why you’d want two firewire ports and I prefer USB myself but it’s good to have both. It’s not USB 3.0 but that hasn’t really become mainstream yet and 2.0 is easily fast enough for most people.

Not only does it work on Mac it’s actually designed with the Mac in mind featuring a stylish design which won’t look out of place on your desk and Smart Surfing for mac protection suite included. So the speed is there, the capacity is there, it works with a mac and as far as durability goes it’s got a 3 year warranty and great external hard drive reviews.

As an extra bonus, it’s also bootable which means you can keep an operating system backup on the drive in case anything goes wrong with your main OS. The included firewire as only about three and a half feet long which is fine if you’re just hooking it up on your desk and leaving it there but if you’re planning on moving it around a lot you might want to get something a little longer to save you having to go to the back every time, that or just swap over and use a USB cable when you’re moving it.

At 5×7.3 inches and 1.5 thick it’s not the thinnest external drive around but what you’re really getting here is a fast and durable hard drive with a big storage. The slight extra size is a small price to pay for a drive of this quality for this low a price.

It’s got everything necessary to make it possibly the best external hard drive for mac and it’s cheaper than a lot of drives which offer less.

Finding the best external hard drive for mac for you

At the end of the day regardless of any other review, you need to make sure that you’re getting the right external hard drive which will suit you, if you have a particular need from a storage disk then it’s not the best external hard drive for mac for you if it doesn’t have what you need.

Firewire External Hard Drive Mac

FireWire External Hard Drive Mac Compatible

The best fireWire external hard drive Mac compatible devices used to be all the rage. Back when FireWire actually mattered, yes that’s right. While most of the best external hard drive for Mac reviews we’ve done do still have a FireWire port, it’s more a small bonus because most people deal with USB these days anyway. And with the new USB 3.0 standard arriving and external hard drive manufactures jumping on the new standard I don’t see much of a future for a firewire external hard drive Mac compatible device, or FireWire at all for that point. I found this post  which is several years old now talking about how FireWire was in trouble back then, and it’s not got any better.

So unless you really do have some burning reason  to use Firewire (perhaps nostalgia or a USB port attacked you as a child) you might want to just take a look at some of the best external hard drives for Mac and use one of those instead. If you want the best of both worlds, our very top reviewed external hard drives still have both ports so once you’re sick of the slower transfer speeds and lack of support – you can always swap over to USB.Firewire External Hard Drive Mac wire

Firewire External Hard Drive Mac Is Outdated

I don’t want to disappoint anyone that was hoping they were on to something with FireWire here but I’m afraid you’re several years behind the curve. It used to be a great standard but times have changed and not only is it a slower option but so many less devices and computers/laptops even bother to include the port any more. You did the right thing by looking for external hard drives Mac compatible, because it means you’ll get something that actually works for your Apple Mac. But lose the FireWire part – the future of external hard drives is in USB and you’ll see that in any of our best external hard drive for Mac reviews.

FireWire External hard Drive Mac Drives Have USB Anyway

As close as we’ll get to doing a FireWire external hard drive Mac compatible review on an external hard drive is this post. There’s no point in hunting down an external hard drive which only use’s FireWire or something because you’d be getting a bad deal. The absolute best FireWire external hard drive Mac hdd is the top rated drives we feature mainly for USB, but that also have FireWire.

So basically this post is just to give you a heads up before you end up getting yourself an outdated hard drive. If you find one trying to tell you it’s the best FireWire external hard drive Mac compliant then the first thing you should do is check for a USB and compare it to some of the best external hard drive for Mac reviews.

Hard Drives for Mac

External Hard Drives for Mac

When people talk about hard drives for Mac they’re usually talking about external hard drives. There’s a guide over on MacRumors about hard drives for mac which is about as close as anyone gets to talking about internal hard drives these days. Apple really don’t want you messing with the inside of your Mac and really, why would you bother when it’s just so much less hassle to get your hands on the best external hard drive for Mac that you can find and do the exact same thing with that.

External hard drives for Mac are pretty much the same thing as a regular hard drive for Mac – with the one difference (yes, you guessed it!) – it’s external. It transfers and stores your files but rather than being screwed inside your case it connects through a port such as USB or Firewire, chances are you already have other devices which do the same. It’s removable media and whether you’re using the best external hard drive for Mac or just the first 2tb external hard drive you saw in the shop window, they have one thing in common over their traditional internal relatives. They’re easy to use, so portable and great for backing up your files.External Hard Drives for Mac

Why Use External Hard Drives for Mac

No more messing around inside your Mac or paying someone else an obscene amount of money to install the upgrade for you, just plug it in and go!

No more backing up your files just to have the Mac itself die on you. External hard drives can be kept separate which means you get an extra layer of security for your important files.

It becomes so easy to transfer files between friends and family. Email can only hold so much and a lot of online file transfer services are either limited or expensive but with an external hard drive it’s easy to transfer files between person to person with close to no restrictions. Some of the bigger external hard drives for Mac have 3tb of storage capacity. I’m not sure it’s possible to take that many pictures in a lifetime even if your whole family chipped in. Anything from music and pictures to videos and programs can be transferred without problem, just drag and drop the files you want to share.

Best External Hard Drives for Mac

I’d be very surprised if you could find an internal Mad hard drive that does more than an external hard drive is going to do for you, some of the more expensive ones might have a bit of a higher transfer rate but that’s rarely an issue for people and the newer external hard drives with USB 3.0 connectivity (such as our highest reviewed best external hard drive for Mac has) are practically on par with internal hard drive transfer speed and still have the benefits of being external. No problems installing, no problems using – just no problems and that’s what makes using external hard drives for Mac so attractive. Things are hard enough these days and computers are becoming ever more complicated why make it even worse by having to over complicate or pay more for a normal internal hard drive when you get more utility by finding yourself an external HDD and we have some of the best external hard drive for Mac reviews here on the site to help you find the one you’re looking for.

Best External Hard Drive for Mac 2011

The Best External Hard Drive for Mac 2011

Sometimes when you want to find something like the best external hard drive for Mac you want to to be specific and specify something like the month or year, in this case the best external hard drive for Mac 2011. This is because of how frequently hardware updates, and lets face it do you really know anything which goes out of date faster than computer hardware?

You can buy a brand new computer and a month later you’re already behind on the latest equipment. Now that’s not to say it’s not worth having because it’ll still run all the newest games and software, but there will already be better.

Best External Hard Drive for Mac 2011 Will Change

The best external hard drive for Mac 2011 will be different by next year. In fact it might well have changed by the next month but the different between a hard drive and a graphics card is if it’s big and fast enough for you today it’s fine for you tomorrow. While newer drives might come out, it’s not really going to make your drive worse.the best external hard drive for mac 2011

You can always upgrade if you want but if you’re making sure you get the right external hard drive today then you’re probably future proofing yourself enough. There’s a lot of choice out there and some of the best external hard drives we’ve reviewed have some pretty scary stats. Most of the reviews we’ve actually rated the #1 best external hard drives are the ones which are midway between performance and expense but if you really want to go higher tier there are some impressive ones we’ve looked at as well.

Capacity and transfer speeds of hard drive is always increasing because file size is constantly increasing and people are trying to keep up with this trend. But this kind of thing doesn’t change nearly as fast as hardware does. The average file size today will probably be pretty close over the next year or so which means if the hard drives just now work for you, you won’t need to worry about upgrading.

They’ve upgraded to their current versions so you can transfer quickly (because we’re not used to waiting for our computers anymore) and you have plenty of space to store all your files. And because people use their computers for everything these days, it’s generally expected we need more room for the more files we store.

Get The Best External Hard Drive for Mac 2011

As for actually getting the best external hard drive for Mac in 2011 you can always go into a local computer store and ask for their most up to date drive – but the better plan is to get it online. The one thing I want you to remember is just because a hard drive is brand new or just released, that doesn’t actually make it better than older drives. A lot of companies make external hard drives that are actually lower quality than some that have been around for a long time.

And in a lot of cases, all that actually changes is the casing around the hard drive itself. You see an external hard drive is pretty much just a normal internal hard drive with a casing around it. And a lot of companies will use cheap, low quality hard drives inside flashy looking cases and try to pass it off as the best external hard drive for Mac 2011 – or otherwise.

It’s one of the main reasons we don’t spend more time reviewing some of the cheaper hard drives out there. There’s just no point really when most of them are just rehashes of themselves over and over again with different cases. I guess we could put together a section on reviewing the various cases – based on how flashy they look and how cheap the actual hard drives inside are. But we’d rather look at the good quality stuff to help you find the right one.

This is why looking for reviews is the best way to make sure you’re getting the right thing in the first place. You could shift through dozens of reviews of bad drives – or just have a look at our list of some of the best external hard drive for Mac 2011 which is always updating to show the latest (decent quality) hard drives.

 

Best External Hard Drive for Mac

Picking The Best External Hard Drive for Mac

There’s at least a dozen reasons why you might want the best external hard drive for mac. Maybe your origianl hard drive is running out of space and you don’t want to have to open your computer to add a second. Maybe you want to be able to share files between different computers or ferry things between work and home. Or maybe you need a way to back things up safely and keep it seperate from your files.
I was working on a site once, much like the one you’re reading right now (although it wasn’t about external hard drives) and I saved the work I’d made and went to bed for the night. When I came back to it my hard drive had died and repair was near impossible. From the week or so of work I’d had sitting saved on that hard drive, I got maybe a few hours back.

Is There A Best External Hard Drive for Mac Available?

But the answer isn’t usually as simple as just getting yourself an external hard drive for mac anymore. Somewhere along the line someone made an external hard drive for mac and people loved it. Then another company made one, and another. Before long the market was overrun with cheap knock off hard drives. Now to be honest I’d never say there was any one external hard drive I would say is the one best external hard drive for mac because honestly I’m not sure such a thing exists. I mean there’s so many drives around and a lot of them offer different features and it can be pretty hard to actually compare them properly.one of the best external hard drive for mac
So there might not be a single brand or model that’s the best external hard drive for mac – there’s certainly a way to find the best external hard drives for mac which will suit your needs. There’s really a few things I tend to look for, and they’re pretty much the same thing anyone should look for.if you want to get the right thing.

  • Compatibility – I tend to look for the best external hard drive for mac and PC so I can move files between both. If you just have a Mac then this might not be such a big deal, but you still need to make sure that whichever external hard drive you do get works for your mac.
  • Connections – The majority of external hard drives (any drives that would be considered anywhere near the best external hard drives) will have a USB connection which makes it easy to use. Some also have Firewire connections but it’s unlikely you’ll need to worry about that.
  • Transfer speeds – The speed of the transfer depends on the speed of the hard drive itself and the connection (for example USB 2.0 or 3.0).
  • Reliability – as a general rule of thumb, the better the name the more reliable the drive. If you’re using the external hard drive to backup important files this is what I tend to look at. I don’t mind how slow the files transfer or what kind of connections it has. I just want something I can trust to not break down on me.

There are so many make and models you can look at, in fact this entire site has nothing but hard drives you can use. The following video shows a basic unboxing review. There’s a lot of newer (and better) models of hard drives than the one shown in the video but it is a good example of an unboxing. Basically it’s exactly what you’d expect from the name, the video maker looks at the hard drive and gives a review fresh out of the box. They don’t hurt to see but it’s not always the best way to review a hard drive – especially if you’re looking for long term drives. I like to use a mix of an unboxing and reviews from people who have owned a hard drive model for a good time and are still getting great results from it.

A Best External Hard Drive for Mac Example

 

Now you know the basic ideas of how to judge and find yourself the best external hard drive for mac, have a look at our reviews to find the one you want!

Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Pro

Deals On the Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Pro

With so many choices out there on external hard drives it can be hard to find the best external hard drive for Macbook Pro. In fact it can be pretty hard to find anything close to the best external hard drives because, and let’s be honest, there at a lot of rubbish brands out there making rubbish products.

It’s going to get to the stage at one point where even the reliable brands are doubted because of the quality of some of them. It’s not even like you have to be a massive big corporation when you make them, you just need to care about something more than your bottom line.

Can you tell I get a little empassionate here? Yeah I’ve got more than a few hard drives which just died on me and became nothing more than expensive paper weights. I think I’ve got more use out of one of my hard drives to hold a table straight than I have to store files.

Judging the Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Pro

Anyway, there are certainly still some great brands out there and I can suggest a few which I would consider some of the best external hard drive for Macbook Pro on the market just now. There’s a few things I’d judge this on:

  • Size and Weight. You’re looking for the best external hard drive for Macbook Pro and there’s no point having a laptop if you’re carrying a big heavy external hard drive
  • Capacity and speed. As with any of the best external hard drive for Mac drives – it’s no good if it’s not going to hold your files and transfer them fast enough.
  • Reliability and price. You want good quality but you don’t want too much.
  • USB power supply. What’s the point in getting an external hard drive for Macbook if you have to plug it into the wall? If it’s the best external hard drive for Macbook Pro then it’s powered by it’s own USB cable.

Best External Hard Drive for Macbook Pro Reviews

Probably the Best External Hard Drive for Macbook ProIn one of the other external hard drive reviews I’ve suggested an eGo because of their quality but it’s mostly been for desktops since they are (like most external hard drives) pretty big. The Helium model is meant for laptops however. I mean look at the picture even, they’re comparing to a paperclip (obviously it’s not as small as a paperclip though).

It’s stylish and it’s thin (2.1″ x 7″ x 5.1″ and 14.1 ounces). It’s USB 2.0 which is pretty standard and it’s drop protection is far higher than the industry standard and the brand has a great reputation for quality (not to mention a 3 year warranty which doesn’t hurt).

It comes in everything from 320GB to 2TB. I’d suggest a standard 500GB or 1TB, especially for a Macbook. Plenty of room for storage but it’s a good affordable price. Unless, of course, you’re doing a lot of work on it like video editing in which case – you’ll know what kind of size you need of course.

>>> Click HERE to see the eGo Helium on Amazon <<<

If that doesn’t do it for you then there’s one even smaller. I don’t know the brand myself but not only is itexternal hard drive for macbook pro getting tons of great reviews but it’s really cheap and really portable (I mean at 4.6″ x 0.4″ x 2.8″ and 8 ounces weight you’d have no problem carrying it).

Works with Mac and PC, powered by USB and you get two little extras with it. A carrying pouch (which not everyone use’s – heck I keep my hard drive at the bottom of my satchel) but you also get a free 4GB online storage (which is pretty handy).

>>> Click to see the Oyen Digital <<<

Really any standard USB external hard drive which is compatible with Mac will work but for the best external hard drive for Macbook Pro these are certainly worth looking at.

Mac External Hard Drive

Mac External Hard Drive – Finding the Best External Hard Drive for Mac

It used to be a much bigger deal trying to get a Mac external hard drive. Now a days you have the chance to look around and get the best external hard drive for Mac based on reviews like these but it wasn’t long ago that Mac was much smaller that it is now. Think about it this way, the reason so many external hard drives are designed for Windows is because they own the biggest majority of the market. The hard drive manufacturers can aim solely for Windows users because there’s enough of them out there to make it worth their while.

A few years back Apple really started to become popular however. I don’t know if it was their brand of advertising painting Windows computers as boring work machines and Macs as playful personal devices, or the fact that the iPhone was such a big hit and people thought they might as well go with an Apple computer as well – but it’s been a hit. And the good news for the rest of us that already use an Apple Mac is now the people that make external hard drives are wondering why we’re all not buying their Windows hard drive as much.

Having the Choice of the Best External Hard Drive for MacMac external hard drive example

So this has led to a much wider choice and some of the best external hard drives for Mac that there have ever been. You still need to be careful with what you buy hardware wise, because there’s a lot of stuff out there which might give you problems with compatibility (nothing we’ve reviewed here on the best external hard drive for Mac site, otherwise there wouldn’t be much use in it really) but it’s certainly got a lot easier. Before where you’d be looking for anything which might barely work, now you can look for the best external hard drive and most of the main ones which I would suggest for Windows users is the same as I can happily suggest for Mac users.

Actually I think that’s a great point. External hard drives that work for multiple operating systems (or at least Mac and PC because they’re the biggest) is a lot better than having one which only works on one operating system. I mean personally I own both Apple Mac and Windows devices and I like being able to transfer files and backup files without having to use multiple hard drives and even if you don’t have both, what if you want to exchange files from a friend or colleague? Or what if something changes in the future and you have both, do you really want to add to that cost with another external hard drive?

You don’t lose anything by getting the best external hard drive for Mac and PC so you only get a little extra use out of the same thing. And to be honest, most of the best external hard drives in either case work for both anyway, and if things continue on this trend I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. The Google OS might come along and shake things up a little but I’m expecting most of the Mac external hard drive devices we have now will work just fine with them, but that remains to be seen.

External Hard Drive for Mac

Getting An External Hard Drive for Mac

Making sure that you have an external hard drive for Mac is more important than ever. One of Macs biggest selling points was that there was so few risks in using a mac, because the market was that small there wasn’t really that much chance of getting a virus.

But now, more than ever, macs are becoming increasingly popular and to top that of that having your data backed up in a safe place (and it doesn’t really get much safer than an external hard drive) is a good plan. It’s getting to the point that nearly everyone has an external hard drive for mac and even if you’re using it for games and movies – it’s good to have a small part of that for backups.

Whether you’re getting a mac external hard drive for the sake of storing files or maybe you’re just running out of disk space and you don’t want to have to upgrade the main hard drive – an external hard drive makes life easier and they’ve really fallen in price over the last couple of years (which is good news for us).

If you want to make sure you’re getting the best external hard drive for mac (or at least one that’s going to suit you) then you’ll need to make sure you’re getting a mac compatible external hard drive. It’s becoming easier these days because the Macs a growing market which means hard drive vendors are taking the time to make sure their devices work with Macs.

External Hard Drive for Mac – What To Look For

So if you’re shopping around for an external hard drive for mac – just basically make sure that it says it works with Mac (and it doesnt’ hurt if you get one which works for Windows as well – means it’s easier to carry around).

Another point I’d look for these days if you’re getting an external hard drive for mac is whether it has USB 2.0 or 3.0. The only real difference is the speed you’re going to be able to transfer files at but this can make a pretty big difference. If you’re only backing up your files once every few days or something then really it won’t matter but if you’re using your external hard drive permanently plugged in for example then you really want to try and get a 3.0 model. And these days there’s hardly any difference in price.

Other than that it’s easy enough – get one with enough capacity for your needs and from a good reliable name so you know it’s not going to break down on you within a week.

Recommended External Hard Drive for Mac

An external hard drive for macSo now you know what to look for what about some suggestions on mac external hard drives? There’s certainly some great ones you can get online for a fraction of the price you can pay for some much lower quality ones there are some great external hard drive for mac options I’d suggest. There’s reviews for a bunch of different models around this blog (I mean we do try and review the best external hard drive for mac which means sifting through some rubbish first) but if you want to skip all that and just get yourself a good external hard drive then I’d go with a Western Digital, great price, good quality, good speed and it’s got loads of great reviews. It’s actually been rated the #1 external hard drive for Mac.

>>> Click HERE for my recommended external hard drive for mac <<<

1TB External Hard Drive

A 1TB External Hard Drive

A 1TB external hard drive (a 1 terabyte hard external hard drive for those that don’t like abbreviations) is probably one of the more common size’s of external hard drives. Only a few years ago it would have been a pretty astounding capacity but I’d say the most common ones we see around range from a 500gb external hard drive to a 2 terabyte external hard drive (if you really have a lot of files).

A terabyte about 1024 GB (although you get about 1000 for reasons we don’t really need to get into). For the non tech people around of us – think of it roughly as 300,000 mp3 songs. (Note: this can really vary largely depending on what kind of quality and song length we’re talking about but that’s a basic approximation). And if you have that many songs – well I’m quite frankly impressed. But you’re not just limited to songs of course, you can stuff a 1TB external hard drive with your entire music and video collection with still plenty of space left over to back up your important work files – probably several times over.

Best 1TB External Hard Drive

Now since we mainly focus on the best external hard drive for mac we make sure that our external hard drives work on the Mac but in this case we’ll look at drives which support both the Mac and the PC. To be honest, really if you’re looking for the best external hard drive you want something that works with both so you have the most portability either now or in the future, should you need it.

Best 1TB External Hard DriveRight, first up is a good standard. In fact it’s (at the time of writing) the #1 rated external hard drives on Amazon. It’s a 1TB external hard drive, it works with both the Mac and PC and it’s a western digital 1tb external hard drive – and they’re a well known name.

It’s a good price and it’s got a few hundred good reviews there alone. It’s a good standard and certainly a good 1TB external hard drive to choose. It has connectivity with both USB 2.0 and 3.0 which gives you some great transfer speed. It’s powered by it’s USB cable (none of these separate power supplies which are nonsense). It’s a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive which means you also get the option to use their automatic backup software which can be pretty handy if you’re like me and constantly forget to backup your files.

As a little aside, they also have a 750GB version, they’re available in a couple of different colors and it’s made with recyclable materials.

Click HERE to see this drive on Amazon

If that’s not for you, for whatever reason, there’s also a good Verbatim 1TB external hard drive you could also look at. I’m honestly a bigger fan of Western Digital myself but I know there are some Verbatim fans out there and I don’t want an angry lynch mob at my door.

Basically they’re the cheaper brand, so you save some money but you get what you pay for. You lose speed, you lose capacity and with a lower quality drive you put yourself at more risk of a breakdown. I’m not saying don’t go with them (because they’d sue my ass if I said that) but I am saying they’re the cheaper option.

If you’re going with them then the Acclaim seems to be their best range. There’s everything from 320GB to 1TB and it’s also available in a few colors. It say it’s one of the smallest in the industry, and compared to a lot of them this is probably true, but it’s about the same size as the WD alternative.

It’s only a 2.0 USB connection but even so you’re looking at a 480 mb/s connection (keep in mind that’s the ‘max’ possible – not always what you get which is the same as every external hard drive) and if you’re not transferring often then that’s certainly still a respectable speed.

Click HERE for the Verbatim 1TB external hard drive on Amazon

Well that’s pretty much all I have to show you. There’s hundreds of external hard drives out there and the range of the 1TB external hard drive does not sit solely with these two brands. I’ll try to keep this updated with any other good models I find, and if you think I missed one feel more than free to get in touch and let me know about it.

Best of luck and I hope your new 1TB external hard drive gives you everything you need.