What is the best external hard drive to backup my MacBook Pro?

The best is a Hitachi. This is basically the ONLY thing the "HD gurus" agree on.
Toshiba is nearly neck and neck in 2.5" USB external HD to Hitachi.
Here are "best for the money"....at bottom is BEST external USB HD
best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B005J7YA3W/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379452568&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+toshiba
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim and perfect
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B009F1CXI2/ref=s r_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377642728&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+slim+500gb
2 Terabytes, 2.5" and only $129
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Basics-Portable-HDTB120XK3CA/dp/B00ARJD56K
updated "design" casing cousin $119
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Connect-Portable-HDTC720XK3C1/dp/B00CGUMS48 /ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379182740&sr=1-4&keywords=2tb+toshiba
*This one is the BEST external HD available that money can buy:
$75
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Touro-Mobile-External-HTOLMX3NA10001ABB/dp/B0062FZ2WS /ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379185002&sr=1-1&keywords=hitachi+extern a l+hard+drive
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"

Similar Messages

What's the best External Hard drive to save my Logic Pro Projects on??

I'm starting to run out of room on my macbook + I want to back up my projects in case something happens to my laptop. I have over 300+ projects in Logic Pro thats like 2-3 years of hard work that i'd HATE to loose lol so whats the best external hard drive for me to back up my stuff on? Any advice/suggestions is greatly appreciated

The best is a Hitachi. This is basically the ONLY thing the "HD gurus" agree on.
Toshiba is nearly neck and neck in 2.5" USB external HD to Hitachi.
Here are "best for the money"....at bottom is BEST external USB HD
best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B005J7YA3W/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379452568&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+toshiba
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim and perfect
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B009F1CXI2/ref=s r_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377642728&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+slim+500gb
2 Terabytes, 2.5" and only $129
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Basics-Portable-HDTB120XK3CA/dp/B00ARJD56K
updated "design" casing cousin $119
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Connect-Portable-HDTC720XK3C1/dp/B00CGUMS48 /ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379182740&sr=1-4&keywords=2tb+toshiba
*This one is the BEST external HD available that money can buy:
$75
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Touro-Mobile-External-HTOLMX3NA10001ABB/dp/B0062FZ2WS /ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379185002&sr=1-1&keywords=hitachi+extern a l+hard+drive
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"

What's the best External Hard drive to backup stuff from a Macbook??

I'm starting to run out of room on my macbook + I want to back up my projects in case something happens to my laptop. I have over 300+ projects in Logic Pro thats like 2-3 years of hard work that i'd HATE to loose lol so whats the best external hard drive for me to back up my stuff on? Any advice/suggestions is greatly appreciated

Firewire is generally recommended for Macs although the newer Intel Macs will boot to USB so it isn't as critical. One handy thing is to clone your current drive to an external so if you should have problems you can actually boot from the external drive.
You don't have to get a laptop size drive just because you have a laptop. That's more a matter of size convenience. It is often recommended you avoid bus powered models and go with one that has its own power source, especially if USB.
If you are tempted to get a huge drive (e.g., 1 TB) because of extra storage space remember that an external drive is just as prone to failure as an internal drive. Go ahead and get one, but not one but two.

What is the best external hard drive for backup on powerbook g4 17-inch?

i need to get a good external hard drive for backing up my files on my 2004 powerbook g4 17-inch. up till now ive been using thumbdrives, but i have way too much to backup now. i was thinking of getting the time capsule, but i don't have leopard version with time machine.
what would be an advisable backup to get without buying a new mactop yet?
please include model # if possible.
thanks in advance for anyone's input!

What I've done is buy the case and drive separately. The case I use is similar to this one: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW91UAL1K/ (looks like they don't offer this case with Firewire 800 anymore), and the hard drive is a Western Digital 3.5" Parallel ATA 320GB which Newegg carries at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136109. The reason I like a combination like this is that the enclosure uses the Oxford 911 chipset, and Oxford chipsets have a good track record working with our macs. The Western Digital drive comes with a 3 year warranty (many pre-packaged hard drives only have a one year warranty). It is very easy to install the drive ... you plug in the power and data connectors to the hard drive, and screw the hard drive to the case.
Whatever external hard drive you get, recommend one with a Firewire connection. Our Powerbooks can boot from a Firewire connection, however, cannot boot from a USB-only connection. Also, be aware that for a USB-only connection, if the external hard drive relies on power from it there may be a problem. This is due to the Powerbook putting minimal power out on USB. There are many people who have found that they've had to either get a dual USB cable, a USB powered hub, or an external power supply for their USB-powered external hard drive. The case I mentioned above has it's own external power supply. Firewire-powered drives don't have this problem.

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.

What is the best external hard drive vs price to buy?

What is the best external hard drive vs price to buy? My MacBook Pro has a 500GB HD and I own 100GB of data that I wan't to backup using TimeMachine. What is the best thing to get for a good price, but something that doesn't break within a month of use. . . .

Most drives will work for your system just make sure you buy one double the size of your hard drive (1TB). Take a look at this link this is one I have been using with my iMac for about a year with not problems. http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-GoFlex-External-STAC2000100/dp/B003ELOSJ G/ref=sr_1_54?ie=UTF8&qid=1315204714&sr=8-54 Do more reseach (Cnet.com)

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

What is the best External Hard Drive for a Macbook Leopard 10.5.8? I need more memory for documents, pictures, videos, and music. Thanks!

What is the best External Hard Drive for a Macbook Leopard 10.5.8? I need more memory for documents, pictures, videos, and music. Thanks!

Hi, does your MacBook have Firewire, or just USB?
FW is far faster if you have that.
Avoid Bus powered ones.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
USB only...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/eliteclassic

What is the best external hard drive with MacBook Pro

What is the best external hard drive with MacBook Pro?

I agree with Allan, and that link is also called OWC, their hard drives are great. Have three of their Mercury Pro Elite 2 TB quad interface drives. They will connect eSATA, Firewire 800 & 400, USB2, so broad reange of options. Drives seem to come Mac HFS formatted, but I always reformat and partition the drives. Service and quarantees are top notch.
They offer a wide range of drives/drive systems so like Allan said, spend some time seeing what the have.

Hello! Help please! Best external hard drive preferably 1TB for macbook pro 2011. thank you!!!

Hello! Help please! Best external hard drive preferably 1TB for macbook pro 2011. thank you!!!

You can pickup any 1TB USB powered drive for about $100 at just about any local office supply store.
It comes formatted FAT32 (MSDOS) for reading by OS X and Windows PC's.
However if your files sizes are going to be larger than 4GB in size (like video tends to be) then your going to need to select the drive in OS X's Disk utility (in the Applicaitons > Utilities folder) and format the drive exFAT instead.
exFAT is a drive format that 10.6.5 and later Mac's, Windows Vista and 7 machines can read just fine. XP machines need a free exFAT drive install from Microsoft.
Do backup the 1TB to another 1TB drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or another backkup utility because 1TB is a lot of data to lose on a $100 drive.
I don't advise the "port powered" USB drive as these tend to have power issues and with 1TB of data on it, very risky. Use a powered drive if you can all help it.

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You should check your date of purchase against the manufacturer's warranty
or guaranty since some of those better brands have some recourse should
they fail within a specified time period. A good reason to save dated receipts.
Since solid-state USB drives probably don't (all) use a wear-leveling software
to equally utilize their recordable space evenly, it is possible that some of these
may exhibit a failure in some sector areas due to excessive over-writing. If the
ones you use do not have such a technology or an undercounted total capacity
with a means to automatically write in other sections, you may have to consider
manually using a disk utility to zero-overwrite and reformat them occasionally.
Even so, that may only help a marginal flash or thumb drive work a little longer.
Should a camera memory card fail you still may be able to attempt with margin of
success, to +recover image files+ from it. re: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
The standard default format they ship with works well for most file types; so if
you aren't moving OS X or Mac app specific files around on a USB flash drive,
the original format should be fine. Oh, you can use Disk Utility to attempt to do
a repair; but in some cases you may have to reformat them, etc.
{Some of the flash drive warranties or guarantees may vary from between regions;
so if you have one with a '5 Year' guarantee in the US, other rules may apply in EU,
or when you seek to replace an item under warranty outside of where it was bought.}
Good luck & happy computing!

What are the best External Hard Drives In your opinions?

Hi, I have quite a few Mac's G5 Quad, Power Book, down to I-macs. I would like to ask all you apples users what you think are the best External Hard Drives? I have quite a few Lacie's but am dissapointed at their reliability. have had to send at least 3 back and lost all date! (had a back-up of the back-up) ..... I have thousands of high res pictures that I would like to back-up and my entire music library of 2000 CD's. Could you please tell me what the most reliable and compatible Hard Drives are? I was thinking of getting G Drive Q's. As I saw them in the apple store. What do you guys think? Thanks.....

I assume you are thinking in terms of FireWire still? In which case I'll 2nd the OWC Oxford cases. Though I buy FW800. I have not bought any which are 'built in RAID enabled' or dual. I do have one $68 dual bay SATA drive case though connected to Sonnet Tempo SATA controller ($79). Not bootable but great.
Best: SATA
2nd: FW800/400 - and you might want to put a FW800 PCIe controller if you use them heavily or a lot.
You want to isolate consumer firewire electronics and hard drives as far away from each other - and not share or daisy chain - too much noise on the cable interferes with drives.

What is the best external hard drive for iMac?

The two external hard drives I am looking at are the Seagate GoFlex 500 G for Mac and the Seagate 500G formatted for Windows, but can reformat for Mac.
The first one is formatted for Mac at the factory and has both USB and firewire connectors, is upgradeable plus it is ready to use with Time Machine. ($139). The second is very similar, but does not say anything about firewire and would have to be reformatted to work with Time Machine/iMac. ($59, Costco). I want the external hard drive mainly to back up my iMac program data and to store photos and other media. I have put off getting an external hard drive, but feel I need one to keep things backed up. One that would automatically back up would be great. Other suggestions than the above two would be fine, too. I know so little and am looking to this group for some knowledgeable feedback. Thank you.

Just setup a USB GoFlex with my Son-in-Law's new iMac and it seems like a fairly sturdy drive. However it is hard to tell at this point how reliable both the drive and enclosure hardware will be long term.
I use both FireWire and USB drives and while USB drives are slower, they will work just find for both Time Machine and bootable clone backups
Personally I suggest using 2 External HD's, one for Time Machine (if you like using Time Machine) and one or both for cloning with either CarbonCloner or SuperDuper.
In addition see > The no-worry backup plan | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld
Other highly recommended External HD's here in the forum's are, OWC's and LaCie's

What's the best external hard drive for iMac?

I'm very close to purchasing a 21" iMac. I've read about the 27" model problems, but nothing negative about the 21" model. Frankly, in the space I have, the 21" model will work just fine. I'll be replacing my MacBookPro laptop, which I will move to my work station at work, replacing my PC laptop (making totally Mac driven).
So anyway, I'm going to take the external hard drive I currently have at home and bring it to work also, leaving me with a need to purchase a new external hard drive for the new iMac. My question is: which external hard drive do you think is best to get. I'm getting at least 1T, and perhaps as much as 1.5T.
I've been reading about the Western Digital My Book for Mac, but there appears to be some new issues with the software and Snow Leopard. Anyone know anythign about this?
Also, some of the online descriptions indicate some hard drives need to be reformatted to work with Macs. Anyone know have any input on that? What about Seagate? Anyone have any experience with those?
Any input is greatly appreciated.

Most any drive will work with Macs, and Time Machine.
Most drives come formatted for Windoze, but most of them can be re-formatted on your Mac to work with it. See item #5 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Also note item #1 there for size considerations; and items #3 and/or 4 for using with other data and/or other Macs.
If you think you ever might want to put a "bootable clone" on it, be sure it's a bootable drive. Most PPC Macs can boot only from FireWire; most Intels can boot from F/W or USB. But some Western Digitals won't boot a Mac. Their list of which ones should and +should not+ boot: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*.
In addition, many of them have a built-in sleep mode that cannot be disabled, and sometimes interferes with Time Machine backups: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1376
Depending on what ports you have, FireWire 800 is by far the fastest; FireWire 400 next, and USB slowest (F/W 400 and USB 2.0 are rated about the same for short bursts, but F/W is faster for sustained transfers. Also, your Mac's CPU has to do more of the work with USB, so actual throughput is usually less).
Many folks think USB is less reliable than FireWire. If you do get USB, be sure to connect it to a port on your Mac, not a keyboard (that may be only USB 1.0). Try to avoid hubs, too.
If you're using USB, it's usually best to get a drive with it's own power supply, as taking power from your Mac can be a marginal proposition. Portable FireWire drives without separate power supplies don't seem to have this problem.
Take any advice for or against particular makes or models with a grain of salt: all makers (of just about anything) can have a "run" of bad components, or a relatively few early failures. Plus, by the time any really good trends are noted, the model has probably been revised or replaced anyway!

What is the best external hard drive i can get for my macbook pro snowleopard?

my hard drive is full and i need an external drive
we dont have a mac store here so i went to radio shack and picked up a toshiba canvio 3.0 plus
all fine and good except the fellow at the store failed to notice i am a 60 year old grandmother
and probably wouldnt know how to install let alone use it or format or whatever it requires... no manual
no nuthin' : (
i dont even know how to get all the stuff i installed off the computer (i uninstalled the driver)
So! i need an external drive but i am not a computer scientist
i just need to plug and play ya know?
Doesnt apple make one and does it have a users manual or operating guide or
whatEVER they are choosing to call the directions this week??!!
the thing is i came into apple's site and the flipping stuff in the middle is moving so fast
i cant even find someplace that talks about external hard drives...
i just get my eyes focused on the new array and it flips to the next one
hope someone can help me
i dont even know if i can find my way back here
will bookmark it but if not....
my email is
by the way... why is it all getting harder as we progress in this techno adventure??
it used to be so easy
[email protected]
thanks
calling apple care tomorrow

the BEST that exists (fact, not opinion) are Hitachi
best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B005J7YA3W/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379452568&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+toshiba
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim perfect for use with a notebook
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B009F1CXI2/ref=s r_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377642728&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+slim+500gb
BEST FOR THE COST, Toshiba "tiny giant" 15mm thick 2TB drive (have several of them, lots of storage in tiny package) $100
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Connect-Portable-HDTC720XK3C1/dp/B00CGUMS48 /ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379182740&sr=1-4&keywords=2tb+toshiba
*This one is the BEST portable external HD available that money can buy:
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive $88
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Mobile-Portable-External-0S03559/dp/B009GE6JI8/ref=sr _1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383238934&sr=8-1&keywords=HGST+Touro+Mobile+Pro+1TB+USB+3.0+7 2 00+RPM
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"
Hitachi is the winner in hard drive reliability survey:
Hitachi manufacturers the safest and most reliable hard drives, according to the Storelab study. Of the hundreds of Hitachi hard drives received, not a single one had failed due to manufacturing or design errors. Adding the highest average lifespans and the best relationship between failures and market share, Hitachi can be regarded as the winner.

What is the best external hard drive to backup my MacBook Pro?

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