2tb hard drive for mac
That expanded storage capacity is the perfect place to keep a backup of your main files, particularly if you can find a large hard drive capable of keeping both a Time Machine backup and a few extra files. If your Mac drive goes belly-up, you'll have an archive of everything — and using Time Machine means you also get the ability to, yes, go back in time.
Older versions of files you've saved will remain available, so if you catastrophically save over something important you'll still have that legacy file to work with.
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We've picked out a number of drives, with different capacities, different skills, different levels of durability. Whatever your specific needs, whether it's a drive you're going to carry around or something you'll keep attached to your Mac at all times, there's something here to suit. Seagate's helpful inclusion of a Mac NTFS driver means that, formatted properly, this drive can be used to store files on both Mac and Windows systems without any of the incompatibility issues that so often crop up with Mac external drives.
That's handier than you might think, particularly if you're going to use it to make two flavours of backup. It's cheap enough, it's completely inoffensive to look at with its slim metal case, and the Backup Plus 5TB has an absolute ream of storage for all of your files.
It may not be the fastest, running at 5,rpm, but that's a small sacrifice to make given the price. Let's start with the highlights: That's huge. It's also an 8TB external drive designed by the masters at Porsche, clad in beautiful aluminium and classy enough that you'll put it front and centre on your desk rather than tucking it away in a corner. It's also USB 3. Power up the drive, plug it into a Macbook, and it'll both give access to that cavernous storage and provide power to the Mac with one single cable. That's super-handy, particularly given Apple's allergy to ports, and you may be able to get away without an external hub.
It's not hugely portable, being a big lump of aluminium, and the Lacie hard drive is a little slow compared to some, but it's also USB 3 compatible without the power passthrough which does lend it a certain amount of versatility. Transcend's Storejet includes a number of levels of protection to stop your data being lost, from a floating design inside to a ruggedised outer shell that earns it military drop test certification. It's pocket sized, and similarly small in capacity, but the multi-function button is a great touch, allowing you to make a backup of your files with a single press.
An external drive is good for backups, but if there's a fire or something similarly catastrophic, it's possible that absolutely everything will be wiped out — including your backup. Unless, that is, you pick up a robust drive.
- Best external hard drive for Macs 6 we recommend for extra storage | T3;
- Cool features included with all Backup Plus for Mac portable drives!
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A fireproof hard drive. A waterproof hard drive, a hard drive with theft protection, and one which includes a free data recovery plan in case of hardware failure. This is that drive. Newer MacBooks and MacBook Pros only come with Thunderbolt 3 ports, but the arrival of Thunderbolt 3-equipped drives has been a trickle, rather than a flood. Most of the current models are designed for photographers and video editors who need to store mountains of footage and access it very quickly.
So what's a Mac user who just wants to back up his or her files using Time Machine to do? Read on as we answer that question, and solve your other Mac external-storage quandaries.
Best external hard drive for Macs 2018: 6 we recommend for extra storage
Thunderbolt 3 and USB Type-C are the latest innovations in the external storage market, but before we get to them, we need to address a basic building block of hard drives that has always affected compatibility, and probably always will: An external drive's file system is the most important factor that determines whether or not it's readable by Macs, PCs, or both. But with the release of the macOS High Sierra operating system, Cupertino switched to an entirely new file format. If you plan to use your external drive with computers that run both operating systems, you should consider a drive formatted with the exFAT file system.
Microsoft introduced exFAT about a decade ago, which means that it's still relatively young, as far as file systems go. You won't get the security and efficiency of Apple File System, but you will get the convenience of being able to transfer files back and forth between Windows and macOS simply by plugging in and unplugging your drive.
Of course, you can easily reformat almost any drive you buy, so you're not limited to buying only those intended for use with Macs.
External Hard Drives For Mac - Apple
If you really fancy a drive formatted for Windows which will usually come preformatted in the NTFS format , you can use the Disk Utility in macOS to reformat it after you bring it home from the store. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but they're rare. It relies on firmware that requires motherboard-level support that isn't found in any Macs. Once you've settled on a file system, you then have to determine which storage medium you want: Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and—unlike the file system—the type you buy is the type you're stuck with for the life of the drive.
Boost your Mac's capacity
A solid-state drive SSD offers quick access to your data because it stores your bits in a type of flash memory rather than on spinning platters. SSDs are often smaller and lighter than spinning external drives, as well, which is also thanks to the lack of moving parts. Their small size means they can often fit into a jacket or pants pocket, which makes them a better choice if you're looking for a portable external drive that you'll be carrying with you frequently.
One major downside, however, is that they're much more expensive.
Storage considerations
You could pay more than 30 cents per gigabyte for an SSD, while spinning drives can be had for less than 10 cents per gigabyte—and often much less. Compare that with spinning drives; portable hard drives top out at 5TB, and desktop ones are easy to find in capacities in excess of 8TB. For professional videographers who edit lots of 4K footage and gamers or movie buffs who have large libraries of multi-gigabyte titles, an external RAID array is worth considering, since it combines the speed of an SSD with the gargantuan capacities of a spinning drive.
An array typically contains as few as two or as many as eight spinning drives, which all work together to speed up throughput, or guard your precious files against corruption via drive redundancy if one of the drives fail. Or both; it depends on how the array is set up. You'll pay handsomely, of course. On the other hand, if you're looking to buy an external drive mainly to back up your files which you should definitely do and it will rarely leave your home office, an inexpensive spinning drive will work just fine.
So, to recap: Faster, smaller both physically and in terms of gigabytes solid-state drives come at a premium, while spinning drives offer a much better value while sacrificing speed. But what happens when you throw yet another variable into the mix: As you might have guessed, the answer is more tradeoffs. Every Mac laptop sold today comes with USB Type-C ports that support Thunderbolt 3, but other than a headphone jack, they are the only connectivity options available, which means you'll need an adapter to plug in any device that doesn't have a USB Type-C cable.
Unfortunately, you won't find many Thunderbolt 3-compatible drives on the market currently. Even some Mac-specific drives are still sold with USB 3. Moreover, the Thunderbolt 3 drives you can buy are constrained by the maximum throughput of the drive itself, rather than the Thunderbolt 3 interface. This means that for now, it's best to include Thunderbolt 3 support in your buying decision only if you're concerned about futureproofing.
Drives intended for PCs sometimes come bundled with software that will automatically back up your files to the drive when it's connected, but such software isn't really a consideration for Mac users, who already have an excellent built-in backup option in the form of Time Machine. The first time you plug in an external drive, Time Machine will ask if you want to use it as a backup drive. While you can customize backup options in System Preferences, such as asking Time Machine to exclude certain folders, there's no action required on your part if you're happy with the default settings.
The next time you plug in your drive, Time Machine will automatically set to work creating a backup. Unless your drive is never going to leave your home or office, you should also consider its physical durability. Rugged, waterproof drives are a good option not just for surfers and BMX riders, as their marketing seems to suggest, but also for people who are carrying their drives to and from school or work, where they might occasionally get spilled on or dropped on the floor.
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