best external hard drive for max

What is the Best External Hard Drive To buy for Mac?

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A short intro to the Best External Hard Drive for Mac

Apple is well known for constructing their devices in a manner that discourages guys from interacting with the internal components. We’ve seen this in the latest iPhones, iPads and even in Macs. As a result, opening up these devices becomes really difficult or even impossible to do without damaging some of the internal pieces or the entire device. A few experts have come up with ways of getting inside MacBook and iPads, but then the charges are usually too steep, making one question the feasibility of the entire project. All these issues may never affect you until such a day when you realize that you need more space for your Mac. As the size of digital files continues to increase significantly, it is becoming evident that not even the best cloud storage clients are enough. At some point, you will have to look for additional storage where you can conveniently store all your vital data without having to worry about security or data loss and since you upgrading Macs is difficult or outright expensive, you’ll have to get a solution from somewhere else. This is where you require external hard drives.

With the best external hard drives, you get to store all your massive 4K videos, high-res photos, sensitive files, and so on in a highly secured gadget. Some of these hard drives are designed in a compact and lightweight manner giving you constant access to your files even when you are out traveling or when you are working between your office and home. Since you are trying to empty huge files from your Mac to create space and improve overall performance, data transfer speeds are definitely going to be crucial. To make sure that you don’t spend an eternity transferring files, the best hard drives are usually programmed to work at high speeds even when you are copying enormous files.

What’s the best external hard drive for Mac?

The Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2Tb is perhaps the best external hard drive for Mac in the market at the moment. This hard drive has so much going for it, making it an ideal accessory that you can use in the office, at home or on the go. That’s because it has a sleek modern design plus it’s lightweight, and hence it can easily slide into your laptop bag without weighing you down. The transfer speeds are decent enough for standard use and the fact that it is available in different sizes ranging from 1Tb all the way to 5Tb means that everyone can get one that is in line with their everyday tasks or within their budget.

Let’s take a look at what the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2Tb external hard drive has to offer:

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2Tb External Hard Drive

Seagate is a company that needs no introduction when it comes to external hard drives. Over the years, they have given us incredible hard drives, and the Backup Plus Slim 2Tb is part of that culture. This particular hard drive is designed to meet the constantly changing needs of modern users. It’s for that reason that Seagate was keen to ensure that other than providing you with space you desperately need, that they also make the hard drive lightweight enough to bring convenience into your life.

Weighing just 4.8 ounces and measuring 4.47” by 2.99” by 0.48” the hard drive is compact enough to grab into your palm and slide it inside one of the small compartments of the fantastic Peak Design Everyday Backpack or any other backpack for that matter. To put it into perspective, at 4.8 ounces, the Backup Plus Slim 2Tb is lighter than the iPhone XS, XS Max, and the Galaxy S10 Plus.

Using the hard drive is as easy as it is to carry. It comes with a mac driver, and you won’t need any technical skills to install it. After installing the driver, you can get down to backing up your files through the fast USB 3.0 cable.

With the Backup Plus Slim 2Tb, you can do backups on-demand with a single click, and you can also schedule automatic backups as frequently as you’d like. Whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, it’ll all come down to your preferences or needs.

Upon purchasing the Backup Plus Slim 2Tb, you will get a membership to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography for free for two months. This will give you access to amazing video and photo editing tools, including Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, and many others.

Other features

  • Works out of the with Windows PC
  • NTFS file system
  • USB 3.0
  • Available in Silber, Blue, Black and my personal favorite red
  • You can also get it with 1Tb, 4Tb or 5Tb capacity

Toshiba Canvio Basics 1Tb Portable External Hard Drive

There are so many serious reasons to like the Toshiba Canvio Basics, but weirdly enough, I loved it the most for its matte finishing. This gives it a very elegant appearance, and that’s why I always enjoy seeing it seated on my white work station. What’s more, with a matte finishing, I’m never bothered about smudges or fingerprints getting stuck on the hard drive.

The Canvipo Basics has more than just the looks though. It is a very reasonably priced hard drive with the 1Tb capacity starting at around $50 which is a lot cheaper than what you’d typically pay for if it were a Seagate or Western Digital hard drive. There are some tradeoffs, though, and we’ll highlight them in a bit.

The Canvio Basics is compatible with both Windows and Macs. For Windows, the Canvio Basics is pretty much plug-and-play, but for the Mac, you will need to carry out some reformatting before you can get started.

The Toshiba Canvio Basics is also a good choice for its fast transfer rate. Speeds can go as high as 5Gb/s. The hard drive uses the fast USB 3.0, and it is also backward compatible with USB 2.0, but speeds will suffer if you are transferring through the latter.

Like I pointed out earlier on, the Canvio Basics has a few drawbacks, and this is the absence of auto back up and password protection software. Therefore, if you are dealing with sensitive data, then this might not be the hard drive for you.

Other Features

  • Dimensions: 4.3” by 3.1” by 0.55”
  • Weight: 5.3 ounces
  • Available in different capacities. Take note that the weight and dimensions will vary depending on the capacity chosen.

WD My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive

If you are looking for a plug-and-play external hard drive for your Mac, then this is the drive for you. This item from Western Digital allows you to hit the ground running as soon as you receive it. No software installation or any form of reformatting is required to get it started.

Using it is also just as simple. Since it is Time Machine-ready, backing up files is a matter of dragging and dropping the files with Finder. Moving the files from the hard drive to your Mac is just as easy.

Security has also been prioritized here. The hard drive uses 256-bit AES encryption and WD Security software to protect all the files inside.

The build quality of My Passport for Mac is quite remarkable. Western Digital has taken keen steps in making sure that the interior components are just as well built as the external housing. This is crucial because the hard drive is designed to be portable. This makes the hard drive a very reliable and durable tool that can survive the tough on-the-road life.

Other Features

  • Dimensions: 3.21” by 4.33” by 0.85”
  • Weight: 8.6 ounces
  • Available with up to 4Tb capacity
  • Compatible with both USB 3.0 and 2.0