Looking for external hard drive for Mac book air

I'm looking for a external hard drive for my Mac book air

What features are important to you?
Size?
Capacity?
Speed?
Price?
Reliability?
HDD or SSD?
Desktop or portable?
Just about any USB external drive will function properly, with only a few exceptions. I would avoid the Toshiba Canvio using USB 3.0, as it has been the topic for numerous threads here wherein users have had problems using them with the MacBook Air.
My personal favorite external HDD right now is the Seagate GoFlex, as I can use them with the Thunderbolt adapter. But I have been eyeing the new LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt.
For super speed, I use a Crucial model M4, either using the Seagate Thunderbolt adapter, or I have some mounted in USB 3.0 housings.

Similar Messages

  • How to transfer my ITunes library from External Hard Drive to Mac Book Pro

    I recently had an issue with my Mac Book(OS X Yosemite)  Had to take it to the store and they fixed it (replaced graphics mother board or something like that) Before that  I backed up the whole laptop on an external hard drive. When I connect the external hard drive I can open all my files, not sure how to transfer it, I see the External hard drive and can drag it but where do i drag it because on my Mac Book I can't  find Music. Should I drag it to the desktop and then drag it to the music when I disconnect the external ? Thanks

    Choose Home from the Finder's Go menu, double-click the Music item, and drag it there.
    (123001)

  • Can i transfer my mac book pro hard drive to mac book air

    i am thinking of buy a mac book air and was wondering if i could somehow transfer my old hard drive(738 g) from my mac book pro. Thanks

    Sorry, that is not possible.

  • What formatting for external hard drives for my photo students?

    I teach digital photography. Our classroom Macs are a mix of Intel and PPC (iMac 20", G5s). My students typically either come with a Mac laptop, buy one while here, or soon after they leave. Some (few!) have a PC laptop or will leave to go home to a PC laptop.
    I've been buying one external harddrive per student (with FW800, FW400, USB 2.0, 250 GB) from macsales.com for students to put their digital photos on while here and when they leave my 12 wk. course. I encourage them if they have a Mac laptop to partition their external drive to have one partition for backing up their boot drive, one for their photos.
    In the classroom, they may be hooking up their external drive to a PPC or Intel Mac.
    What recommendations can you give for what formatting they should be using for their external drives? Intel, for PPC, or...MS-DOS (if they go to a PC)? (One student told me that her external drive which was formated for PPC last summer now won't show up on her MacBook Pro.)
    I realize they can only use the FW800 on a few Macs (including 17" MacBook Pro, Mac Pro), and should not be using USB 2.0 for a drive they hope to boot a Mac with. I've heard formatting and using MS-DOS is very unstable (for PCs at least).
    Tips, please?
    2x2.66 GHz Mac Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   5 GB RAM

    I've been buying one external harddrive per student
    (with FW800, FW400, USB 2.0, 250 GB) from
    macsales.com for students to put their digital photos
    on while here and when they leave my 12 wk. course. I
    encourage them if they have a Mac laptop to partition
    their external drive to have one partition for
    backing up their boot drive, one for their photos.
    That's impressive and very user-supportive. At work, our students have space on our server to backup/store their work for the semester but are greatly encouraged to backup their stuff with either Cds or DVDs (and we don't supply those). If they use a personal machine, they are responsible for their own backups of their system.
    In the classroom, they may be hooking up their
    external drive to a PPC or Intel Mac.
    For data, the traditional APM formatted drive work with both.
    What recommendations can you give for what formatting
    they should be using for their external drives?
    Intel, for PPC, or...MS-DOS (if they go to a PC)?
    (One student told me that her external drive which
    was formated for PPC last summer now won't show up
    on her MacBook Pro.)
    As I mentioned earlier, an Intel Mac can boot from an APM formatted drive although this may or may not be the best solution. Unfortunately with partitioning via Disk Utility (and perhaps other tools as well - I've not investigated this yet), every partition must be of the same scheme GUID or APM.
    The most important reason for backups (IMHO) is to safeguard personal work. The OS can be re-installed anytime and settings reconfigured if need be. Since the APM scheme can be used by both Intels and PPC for data, I would go with APM. Bootable or not, their important data will be backed up.
    (I don't know why one student had a problem but it shouldn't be related to the partition scheme.)
    For a bootable system/backup, I use Carbon Copy Cloner from Mike Bombich. Ideally, so long as there is space, I create a restorable image of a fresh OS install and put it away for a rainy day. I then clone my entire internal drive to the external (APM). Over the last year, I've been able to boot from it on my original iMac CD as well as have a hard copy of my work.
    Once backed up, I would later use the option to only copy changed files instead of re-doing the entire drive. That was a feature in the PPC version of the app (which will run under Intel) although I haven't tried the latest universal version (3.0 beta). There are a number of other applications that can perform backups/cloning as well.

  • Recommendations for external hard drive for excite pro please

    As above please folk,I'm in the uk

    You may want to contact Toshiba UK. This is the forums for Toshiba USA. You could check the Toshiba Europe forums.
    - Peter

  • I am looking to buy an external hard drive for my maced to time machine.

    I am looking an external hard drive for my mac and I do see one in PC world that is compatible with time machine. I do not want it connected to time machine and wonder if I can use it without connecting.

    In my view you need to have one external drive connected to Time Machine all the time in order to receive the true benefits it can give.   Do not use your internal HD for this purpose.
    Having said that, to double up on back ups is a very practical thing to do.   I would advise you get a portable HD, say 1TB, from WD or the like, back up your system, disconnect, then top up by connecting it every couple of months or so.
    You can then store the portable away from the machine, perhaps with a trusted relative, so adding safe keeping against fire, theft or power disasters
    Message was edited by: seventy one

  • What is the best external hard drive for the MAC Book Pro with Retina?

    What is the best external hard drive for the MAC Book Pro with Retina?
    I was looking at WD MY PASSPORT FOR MAC and Toshiba. I want something that will work best with time capsule! Suggestions on the best external hard drive would be greatly appreciated!!!

    A Time Machine backup drive should be substantially larger than the system drive.  If you have a 128 or 256 GB SSD then a 1 TB drive will suffice.  If you have a 512 GB SSD then a 2 TB drive will suffice.  As leroydouglas indicated any brand other than WD will do.
    For 1 TB drives PlotinusVeritas gives some great suggestions here:
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5602141?tstart=0
    A 2 TB drive sold by Apple:
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/H9378ZM/A/lacie-2tb-usb-30-porsche-design-p923 3-desktop-hard-drive
    $130
    A 2 TB drive just as good for only $92.
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-Canvio-Basics-3-0-USB-2-TB-Portable-Hard-Drive-M odel-HDTB220XK3CA-/231162655273

  • How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

    i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

  • How do i format an external hard drive for use on both windows and mac book air?

    how do i format an external hard drive for use on both windows pc and mac book air?

    Use exFAT on the PC.
    (71374)

  • Hello, how would I go about using my time capsule as an external hard drive for my Mac book pro?

    Anybody know if I can use my time capsule as an external hard drive for Mac book pro?

    Just recognise the following.
    Store files on the TC.
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/24380694#24380694
    This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
    The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
    It cannot be partitioned. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
    Major issues.
    1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
    2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great.
    3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no controls.
    4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
    5. iTunes will constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is too slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
    6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
    7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
    Read pondini for some work arounds.
    Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

  • I have a 2007 macbook and I am wondering what is the best external hard drive for my Mac?

    What is the best external hard drive for a 2007 Macbook?

    The Apple USB superdrive would be a great choice for you, ( http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive?fnode=5f ) I am not certain but I am pretty sure that it has the same form factor as the MacMini (Not thickness but all the other dimenetions) so it fits just under and looks like an extension of your mac. 

  • I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

    I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

    dj_paige wrote:
    however, I do point out that obtaining an additional hard drive and not throwing anything away seems a preferable solution to me.
    heidie22, dj_paige has a very good point there. I would not through away the NEF files; I would archive them to a external drive.
    By the way, I am assuming that converting RAW files to DNG is a decision you have made and not an accident.

  • One Format External Hard Drive for Your Mac and PC...

    I have Formatted my External HD Passport 500GB = (465.8) and split it in two partition Mac OS Extended (Journal = 232GB) and FAT32 (Ms-Dos-FAT = 232GB) and reformat to NTFS using Windows...
    How to use one External HUD for your Mac and PC you have a PC and how to have two Partition in Mac OS Extended (Journal) and FAT (Ms-Dos-FAT)as you desire the size of your partition under application, Utilities and Disk Utility and covert the (FAT32) to (NTFS)using Windows Control Panel or just search by Start, search Computer Management or just right my Computer and format the second partition to (NTFS)
    Tips for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) FAT32 vs NTFS, what works and don't work...
    (1)Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Partition can't be use in Windows to transfer files but NTFS Partition can be use in Mac by transferring file from Windows to Mac and NTFS support for files over 4G in size...
    (2)FAT32 can be use in Mac and Windows but with a limitation that a file cannot be transferred to a FAT32 partition if the file is larger than 4GB such as a video file and FAT32 file system performs more slowly than NTFS...
    (2)Mac OS Extended (Journaled) can be use in Windows when you Reformat your HD to HFS+ by third-party app such as http://www.macdrive.com/ MacDrive for $50.or http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ NTFS For Mac 6.0 for $30...
    Reference link 1 External Hard Drive for Your Mac and PC...
    http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/1-external-hard-drive-for-your- mac-and-pc
    Best regards...
    JamesUFOs...
    http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesEBEs

    I have many external drives I use between my MacBook Pro and my Windows PC's. I use a free NTFS driver for Mac OS-X to give me full read/write access to any NTFS formatted partitions when running Mac OS. I also use MediaFour's MacDrive v8 on some of my Windows PC's to access any HFS+ formatted partitions.
    Most of my drives are formatted NTFS because I have more Windows machines than I have MacDrive licenses, and with the driver for Mac OS, they are fully accessible. I have a few drives I do keep formatted as HFS+ because I have encountered an app or two that don't work quite right when they don't get to write to files on an HFS+ partition (one of my backup programs is picky about this).
    As said before, FAT32 is fully accessible between the two OS'es but it also has it's own limitations.

  • Should I get a 2.0 or 3.0 USB external hard drive for my 2011 Macbook Pro? I need it to be compatible with the USB ports of both a PC and a Mac.

    Should I get a 2.0 or 3.0 USB external hard drive for my 2011 Macbook Pro? I need it to be compatible with the USB ports of both a PC and a Mac. I was thinking of getting a Seagate becuase apparently it is compatible with both systems, but I want to know which would be a better investment.

    Using USB 3 devices on Mac computers FAQ

  • Want to partition a new External Hard drive for both pc and mac

    Hello!
    I am going to partition a new Seagate external hard drive for both my pc and mac.  What format do I choose for the PC partition?  MS-DOS (FAT), ExFAT, or Free Space.
    Thank you!
    Nikki

    If I may suggest:
    Drive Preparation
    1.  Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    7. After formatting has completed select the main entry for the new drive (mfgr.'s ID) then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Click on the large partition rectangle then click on the Add [+] button. The partition should divide into two equal volumes. Resize as you prefer. Select the second or bottom volume to use on the PC. Set the format type to ExFat, then click on the Apply button. Wait for the two volumes to finish mounting on the Desktop.

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