The Best External Hard Drive for Mac
Whether 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:
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.