Best Hard Drive Format For Mac Time Machine

Best Hard Drive Format For Mac Time Machine Rating: 4,1/5 3002 votes

When it comes to data storage, enough space is never a possible word. Fortunately, thanks to the constant changes in technology, users are empowered with storage options that were unthinkable a few years ago.

The Best External Hard Drives for Mac Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your Mac? Here's what you need to know, along with our top-rated Apple-friendly drives.

  1. Time Machine can back up to an external drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac model) or AirPort Time Capsule. Make sure that the USB drive is formatted for Time Machine. Connect the drive to a USB port on your AirPort base station, then turn it on.
  2. I use Mac OS X 10.6.8. I have a brand new external portable hard disk, a Seagate 1 TB, formatted as NTFS. I want to use it as backup drive for Time Machine.

Best External Hard Drives for Mac:

1. LaCie Rugged Mini

This best hard drive for Mac is available in two different sizes, namely 2TB and 4TB. The device is easily identifiable by its distinctive orange rubber sleeve. In addition, it has been purposely designed to stand the most difficult environmental conditions.

Price:
2TB: $109.94

The Rugged Mini is rain, drop, and crush resistant, compact in size, and has a 2 year warranty. It is tested to resist a drop of 1.2m, and a crush of a 1tn car. Besides, its compact size makes it very easy to transport.

In brief, the Rugged Mini presents a great alternative for those making films, photo shoots or other activities in tough places.

2. Maxtor M3 Portable External Hard Drive

Although the brand is presently owned by Seagate, the M3 still is presented under the Maxtor umbrella. This external hard drive is provided with a 3-year guarantee. Presented in a handy portable form, it is designed to store up to 4TB of data and supports Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later.

Price:
2TB: $64.99;
4TB: $99.99

The device is supplied with the software, including AutoBackup for drive backups, Secure Drive for drive security, and SecretZone for data encryption.

The M3 is ideal for environmental challenges, as it works with temperatures ranging from 5° to 40°C, and can be stored in places under temperatures ranging from –20° to 65°C. The device speed is 5.0GB/s using a USB 3.0.

Its size varies according to capacity, measuring:
82mm W x 118.2mm L x 19.85mm H (max) for 4TB and 3TB
82mm W x 112mm L x 17.5mm H (max) for 2TB, 1TB, and 500GB.
The weights are: 236g for 4TB and 3TB; 169g for 2TB; 151g for 1TB; 141g for 500GB.

Overall, this best portable hard drive for Mac is a very good alternative for those working under hard conditions.

3. WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo

This nice hard drive is available in 4TB and 6TB capacity, with a 30 days money back guarantee. In addition, it can be easily upgraded by the owner, by opening the case and replacing the existing drive. No screwdriver is needed for the operation.

These games include many similarities to other Sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto series, with the huge number of interaction Non-player Characters, the enormous amount of content and some of the massive worlds to navigate and vast playtimes of all Role-playing due to the impressive amount of content. These games usually have an open environment where the player either explores the environment from a first-person perspective or a third-person viewpoint to complete his tasks to become the master. Best rpg games for mac free. Some games come with the level-based system while other games offering mission-based gameplay and the player can interact with NPCs and struggle to complete missions for them to earn experience points or different types of rewards.

Price:
4TB: $249.99; 6
TB: $279.99

The Thunderbolt Duo is based on a bi-directional technology that permits fast multitasking. Thus, showing a video, doing a 3D rendering, and other graphic-intensive tasks at the same time present no problem to the user.

• Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse supports Os X Multi-Touch Navigation. • Portable design makes it simple to transport the wireless mouse. Best mouse for blender mac download.

Features:

This best external hard drive for Mac includes the WD Drive Utilities, which enable the user to register the drive, run some tests, manage RAID or JBOD modes, and other tasks.

It is a very connectable drive, which is provided with two channels of up to 10Gb/s transfer rate, in both directions.

Formatted for Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Lion operating systems, the Thunderbolt Duo requires a computer with a Thunderbolt connector and supported by a Mac OS version 10.6.8 or higher. The device includes an AC adapter and a quick install guide.

Measuring 99 x 157 x 165 mm, and weighing 2.3 kg, the Thunderbolt Duo works with Time Machine for automatic backups.

It is a secure drive, provided with password protection and encryption capacities.

Format Internal Mac Hard Drive

Overall, the Thunderbolt Duo is the best hard drive for Mac, which combines good storage capacity and great technology.

4. Apple AirPort Time Capsule

Best External Hard Drives For Mac

Apple’s Time Capsule is available in 2TB and 3TB sizes. It is actually more than a simple hard drive, as it has the capacities of both a wireless router and a network attached storage (NAS) device.

Drive

This best hard drive for Mac was introduced at the Macworld Conference and Expo on January 15th, 2008, and its fifth generation was released in June 2013, together with the sixth generation AirPort Extreme. For this last release, the name was changed to Airport Time Capsule.

Although it is more expensive than other more common hard drives, the Time Capsule has the advantage of working with Time Machine on Mac OS X and being automatically detectable by the Mac.

Measuring 168 x 98 x 98 mm, and weighing 1.48 kg, this device is not so good regarding connectivity as it includes four Gigabit Ethernet ports and only one 2.0 USB port.

Hard Drive Format For Time Machine

Summarizing, although it is difficult to define what is the best external hard drive for Mac, Apple’s Airport Time Capsule is a valid option for Mac lovers.

5. Seagate Seven

Claiming to be the smallest 500GB external hard drive in the world, the Seagate Seven is a precision crafted device. It comes in a very elegant, but rugged stainless steel case.

It is indeed small in size, measuring only 7 x 82 x 123 mm, and weighing a mere 173g. It’s very slim format allows for great portability.

Its physical portability is enhanced by the fact that it is formatted for exFAT and thus can be used for Windows and Macs interchangeably.

The Seagate Seven includes the Seagate’s Dashboard Software, which can be used to backup photos and upload them later in social networks, such as Facebook. It also contains a high quality branded USB 3.0 to micro USB-B cable and an informational quick start guide. This device comes with a three-year guarantee.

On the downside, it is perhaps a bit expensive, and not very fast for an SSD drive.

Summarizing, the Seagate Seven is perhaps the best portable hard drive for Mac, when it comes to size. However, because its performance is not so good, it is more of the best buy external hard drive Mac based on looks than on efficiency.

Active4 years, 8 months ago

My sister used to be a mac user and recently switched to a PC. She has her mac stuff backed up on two hard drives, one is formatted as a time machine. We've transferred all her important files to the other one that is not a time machine, so the time machine one is empty. She wants to use the time machine one as a backup drive for her PC but I'm not sure how to get it to reformat.. help?

Wd Elements Hard Drive Format For Mac

RachelRachel

1 Answer

Best Hard Drive Format For Mac Time Machine

Ages ago it was just 'fdisk', but now Microsoft suggests this: Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Mangement/Storage/Disk Management/Format

Ref: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-format-hard-disk-partition#create-format-hard-disk-partition=windows-7

Dave XDave X

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged machard-drivetime-machinebackuppc .