- #BEST 1TB USB 3 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MACBOOK PRO FOR MAC#
- #BEST 1TB USB 3 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MACBOOK PRO PORTABLE#
- #BEST 1TB USB 3 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MACBOOK PRO PS4#
It’s not hard to find external hard drives that cost very little and have unknown drives, dubious electronics, and questionable reliability and support. Best External Hard Drive Overall: WD My Book Duo Desktop RAID Western Digital Now that we’ve handled the fundamental considerations, let’s look at some awesome drives. That’s partly because mechanical drives have a price floor regardless of size, so bang-for-buck tends to improve the bigger you go. Although higher capacity drives may cost more in total, they can actually be cheaper than smaller drives on a per-gigabyte basis. Speaking of which, if you’re budget-conscious, you may want to take note of how many dollars each gigabyte of storage costs for a given drive. The most durable drives are SSDs, but it will be some time before the price per gigabyte competes with mechanical drives HDDs.
#BEST 1TB USB 3 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MACBOOK PRO PORTABLE#
Of course, this isn’t a factor for everyone, and you can always get a padded case for portable drives if you’re worried but don’t work outdoors. That makes them ideal for creative professionals in the field that aren’t always in ideal conditions. Ruggedized drives are designed to take more punishment with water, shock, and dust protection. Drives that use methods such as RAID can go significantly faster, and, of course, non-mechanical Solid State Drives (SSDs) are the fastest option possible.ĭurability is another factor. Typical mechanical drive speeds fall somewhere between 100-150MB/s, with high-end drives reaching 250MB/s. SATA III), and the speed of the interface of the external connection (e.g., USB 2, USB 3, or Thunderbolt). Performance in an external drive depends on several things, such as the rotational speed of the drive, the drive interface (e.g., SATA II vs. The downside is that they can be slower compared to the full-size desktop external drives. They also tend to be smaller and pocketable, making them great travel companions. There’s no need to look for a power outlet to use them. They all provide extra storage for backups and can easily be moved from one device to another, but several key areas shape which drive is right for you.įirst, is it a desktop external drive or a portable external drive? Portable drives get all the power they need from the USB connection. What to Look for in an External Hard Drive in 2022Įxternal hard drives (or HDDs) come in many shapes and sizes and are designed for different use cases.
#BEST 1TB USB 3 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MACBOOK PRO FOR MAC#
What to Look for in an External Hard Drive in 2022 Best External Hard Drive Overall: WD My Book Duo Desktop RAID Best Budget External Hard Drive: WD My Passport Ultra Blue Best External Hard Drive for Mac: Sandisk G-DRIVE ArmorATD Best External Hard Drive for PS5: WD_BLACK 8TB D10 Game Drive Best External Hard Drive for Xbox Series X|S: WD_BLACK 12TB D10 Game Drive for Xbox Best Portable External Hard Drive: LaCie Rugged Mini Best External Solid State Drive: Samsung T7 Update, : We’ve replaced our previous sold-out best for Mac pick with the SanDisk ArmorATD. ✗ The drive will throttle speeds to prevent overheating if necessary ✗ Cheaper options at slower (yet still fast) speeds are available ✗ Needs to be reformatted from NTFS if you want to write to the disk with Mac ✗ RAID 0 offers no redundancy, if one disk fails you lose everything ✓ Durable and resistant to physical shock ✓ The loud orange color makes it easy to spot if you misplace it ✓ Ruggedized against drops, water, and dust ✓ Fast enough for a great backwards compatible game experience
#BEST 1TB USB 3 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MACBOOK PRO PS4#
✓ Plenty of space for PS5 game backups and performance enough for direct PS4 play ✓ Dual-drive RAID 0 for significantly more speed than standard external drives Solid State Drives aren't as cost-effective as HDDs yet, but they're worth looking into if you need an external drive with some pep in its step. LeCie's Rugged Mini HDD can survive that and much, much more. If you want a truly portable hard drive, you want to make sure it can withstand drops and jostles. WD_BLACK's 12TB model is perfect for the Xbox, which doesn't have the same capacity limits as Sony's consoles. The PlayStation 5 can only have up to 8TB of external storage, so you can use the 8TB WD_BLACK to store games you aren't playing so you don't need to redownload them in the future. Great for use on a desk or as a portable storage device. Need to save money but also need to make sure your data is safe? WD's Ultra Blue will have all the space you need, is portable, and will not break down after a year.Ī compact, high-capacity hard drive that includes several Mac-specific features straight out of the box. With two WD Red drives, you can back up all your data twice over to prevent loss, or use them separately for double the storage space. This external hard drive can really do it all, except being portable.