1. Best Large External Hard Drive For Mac
2. Best External Drives For Mac
3. Recommended External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro
4. Best Portable External Hard Drive For Mac
5. Best Large Capacity External Hard Drive For Mac
6. Internal Hard Drive For Macbook Pro

1. An external hard drive is, for many, the best solution. You can offload your data from your MacBook's SSD or your iMac's Fusion drive when it fills up, or keep one plugged in 24/7 as a store for.
2. The hard drives Backblaze uses are desktop hard drives, not portable hard drives, with some drives pulled from external enclosures. Even so, the Backblaze study is the largest, most recent sample of hard drive failures we have access to, and it’s always a fascinating read.

An external hard drive is, for many, the best solution. You can offload your data from your MacBook's SSD or your iMac's Fusion drive when it fills up, or keep one plugged in 24/7 as a store for. Article continues below. G-Technology G-DRIVE with Thunderbolt High-Performance Storage Solution 3TB (Thunderbolt, USB 3.0) For years Hitachi was known for making some of the best professional grade video editing hard drives around. Which is the best format (FAT32/NTFS/exFAT) for a hard disk to be able to use both in Mac and Windows without any restriction? Update Cancel. Ad by Confluence. Do I really need to reformat my external hard disk to Mac DOS format to run in both Mac and Windows? I am trying to format a quite large external HDD to FAT32, but Windows built.

If you're looking for the best external hard drives available today then you've come to the right place. We've rounded up the best on the market in our curated guide, making it easy for you to find the right external hard drive for you.

And, you don’t need us to tell you that space is an issue. We all know that regardless of which desktop or laptop you choose, they never have enough room. So connect an external hard drive now and free yourself from manufacturer-imposed storage limitations.

How to choose the best external drive for you

The good news is choosing an external hard drive needn’t be a arduous task – it’s mainly a question of capacity, which boils down to how much room you need for your stuff – now and in the future.

After capacity, the next thing to consider is if you want a portable drive, powered from a USB socket or a fixed desktop drive that will need a power socket. Portable drives are ultra convenient but you pay a premium for this, where as the desktop drives are cheaper and often offer more space. The third option available to you is an SSD drive, which are becoming increasingly popular as they become more affordable.

Solid-state drives are ultra-fast - lots quicker than conventional drives – but you pay extra for that speed, capacities don’t go as high a standard hard drives and you need to get them fitted inside your computer.

Which to go for? All in our round-up will give you the room you need, but if we had to pick a favourite, at the moment we are love the Samsung 860 EVO for speed and space.

The 10 best external drives you can buy today

1. Seagate Backup Plus Desktop

Specifications

Best Large External Hard Drive For Mac

We're also big fans of the Seagate Backup Plus models (see below) but these are the higher capacity, non-portable versions: you still get the speed and reliability that Seagate's known for, but you have to find an extra power socket to plug into as well.

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That extra power means more capacity and faster speeds of course, so it's not all bad: transfer rates go up to 160 MB/s on Windows or Mac and you can get up to 8TB of capacity here. The optional two-port USB hub on the front is handy for charging gadgets too.

2. WD My Passport SSD 512GB

Specifications

Reasons to buy

This is the first portable SSD Western Digital has put out, combining the high speeds of solid-state disks with the convenience of not needing an extra power socket to get it up and running. The drive's transfer rate speeds top out at 515 MB/s, according to WD.

With an eye-catching design and USB 3.1 support, the drives use Type-C connectors but can be used with older USB ports with a separate cable. 256-bit AES hardware encryption is included and the Windows/Mac drives are shockproof too, just in case you drop them.

3. Lacie Fuel

Specifications

The Lacie Fuel is all about its wireless capabilities and mobile support: you can take this away on camping trips and have it stream files to iPads, iPhones, Android devices or whatever else you're taking along with you, thanks to its 10 hours of portable battery life.

Lacie says the Wi-Fi hotspot range is 150 feet or 45 metres and if you want to go the old-fashioned route then the drive supports USB 3.0 as well (Type-B). Up to five devices can access the drive at one time, if required, including Windows and Mac computers.

4. Seagate Backup Plus 4TB

Specifications

Reasons to buy

You can pick up Seagate's portable drives in a host of capacities, colours, and dimensions, so head to the Seagate site for a comprehensive breakdown, but across the board you're looking at USB 3.0 speeds, Windows and Mac support, and 120 MB/s or higher transfers.

There are some differences: opt for the chunkier, 4TB 'Fast' model and you get 220 MB/s transfer rates in return for a little extra bulk on the drive itself. If you just want simple, affordable, reliable backups (software is included), then these are great portable options.

5. WD My Book

Specifications

If you're happy to leave your drive powered up on the desktop and don't need it to be portable, the My Book series from Western Digital has a well-respected history. The latest models go all the way up to 8TB, which should be more than enough room for your data.

You get all the usual WD goodies, including compatibility with Windows and Mac machines, speedy and reliable transfers, USB 3.0 support, and strong 256-bit AES encryption, so they're one of the best options for a standard external desktop drive.

6. Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC

Specifications

The main party trick of this compact, portable, stylish drive from Buffalo is the NFC (Near Field Communication) technology built in, which means you can unlock the contents of the drive with the swipe of the supplied smart card, with no passwords required.

On top of that encryption and protection, you also get USB 3.0 connectivity (with integrated cable), shock protection, resistance from water and dust and capacities up to 2TB in size, so if you're looking for a portable drive with a little bit extra, this could be it.

7. SanDisk Extreme 510

Specifications

The SanDisk Extreme 510 is an unusual-looking portable option if you want the speed of a solid-state drive and don't mind paying for the privilege - note that although the label on the front says SanDisk, the company is in fact now owned and run by Western Digital.

That strange casing makes the drive resistant to drops, shocks, vibrations and extreme temperatures, and the manufacturer is promising up to four times faster transfer speeds than a comparable HDD drive. Integrated data encryption is provided as standard too.

8. Samsung 860 EVO

Specifications

Samsung has always been ahead of the game with SSDs and now they are back with the 860 EVO – which improves on the original drive and bumps storage up to a colossal 4TB. This huge capacity means if your pockets are deep enough mechanical drives are no longer needed.

For this drive Samsung has switched to using V-NAND 3-bit MLC technology for storage, which is very reliable and as a result the 860 EVO comes with a 5-year warranty, which is a great longevity. Add sequential read speeds of up to 550 MBS per second and sequential write speeds of up to 520 MBS per second and you’ve got a fast, reliable and reasonably priced option. We approve.

9. WD My Book Duo

Best External Drives For Mac

Specifications

Reasons to buy

The third WD drive in our rundown is for those who really need a lot of capacity and are happy to pay for it - as the name suggests, the My Book Duo has two drive bays, so you can slot in two hard disks for a total capacity of anywhere between 4TB and a huge 16TB.

Even with the two bays, the drive isn't difficult to configure, and with the standard WD backup software supplied you can be up and running in minutes. If you prefer, you can have the two drives mirror each other, so you've always got two copies of your data.

10. Lacie Rugged

Specifications

If you're looking for an external hard drive to cope with the stresses and strains of modern-day life then you can't do much better than the bright, padded Rugged model from Lacie, shock and drop resistant to a height of 1.2 metres when not running.

It's also pressure-resistant, and comes with automatic backup software and encryption to keep your data as safe as possible. A variety of connection options are included, from USB 3.0 Type-C to Thunderbolt and Firewire, and it's Mac and Windows compatible as well.

• Want something networked instead?Here are our favourite NAS drives

Modern Mac computers use the HFS+ file format, which has a maximum file size limit of about eight billion gigabytes. Therefore, about the only time you cannot transfer files larger than 4GB on a Mac is when trying to copy data to an external hard drive formatted with the FAT32 file format. FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, and if you attempt to transfer a file larger than that, an error occurs. To overcome the 4GB size limitation, you must reformat the external drive using the HFS+ file format.

Step 1

Connect the external drive's AC adapter if it has one and plug it into an electrical outlet. Connect the cable to the external drive and a free USB port on the Mac computer. Wait a few seconds for your Mac to detect the external drive and mount it automatically.

Step 2

Click the 'Finder' icon on the dock. Double-click the device name of the external hard drive in the Devices list. Press 'Command-A' to select all of the files and folders on the external hard drive, and then press 'Command-C' to copy them to the clipboard.

Recommended External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro

Step 3

Click the system drive in the 'Devices' list, and then select a folder in which to store the files from the external hard drive temporarily. Press 'Command-V' to copy all of the files and folders from the external hard drive to the selected folder.

Step 4

Click 'Applications' in the Places list of the Finder window. Scroll down to and double-click 'Utilities.' Double-click 'Disk Utility.'

Step 5

Select the external hard drive in the left navigation pane. Click the 'Erase' tab, and then select 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' in the 'Format' drop-down list.

Click the 'Erase' button, and then wait for OS X to reformat the drive with the new file system. Return to the Finder window, open the folder where you saved the files from the external hard drive and press 'Command-A.' Press 'Command-X' to cut the files to the clipboard. Open the external hard drive in the Finder window, and then press 'Command-C' to move the files and folders from the system drive to the external drive. After you reformat the external hard drive using the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file format, you will no longer see errors when copying files larger than 4GB.

Warning

Best Portable External Hard Drive For Mac

• After you reformat the external drive with the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system, you will no longer be able to view its contents with a Windows computer without special software. Applications such as MacDrive, HFSExplorer and Paragon HFS+ for Windows enable you to view Mac-formatted drives on a Windows machine (links in Resources).

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