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.