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Good external hard drives for Mac?

I

iUseMacBooks

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 2, 2015
48
8
Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some help with picking a good external hard drive for my MacBook Air. Currently, I don't have anything to back up my data to, and I'd like to get a nice drive for backups with Time Machine and whatnot. I know there are various different brands, but I'm lost as far as what's good and what isn't good. I've talked to people who've said Lacie is good, and others who said to stay away from it. I was leaning toward Western Digital, but I've read that some people have problems with it. I'd like to get something rather small so I can take it with me if I travel. I've been looking around at prices online. I'd like to get at least 1 TB, perhaps 2 TB if I can get it for under $100. Do you guys have any advice as to what external HDD you prefer? Also, I apologize if this is in the wrong section, I wasn't sure where to post it. Thanks.
 
iUseMacBooks said:
I was leaning toward Western Digital, but I've read that some people have problems with it. I'd like to get something rather small so I can take it with me if I travel.
Click to expand...

Western Digital "my passport" - got 3 - they work great for me! no problems ever.

Great for travel and other back ups!

1 Leave one home for back up / clone.
2 One for media, music movies, pictures etc.
3 another for travel and quick back ups and other partitions etc.
 
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mikzn said:
Western Digital "my passport" - got 3 - they work great for me! no problems ever.

Great for travel and other back ups!

1 Leave one home for back up / clone.
2 One for media, music movies, pictures etc.
3 another for travel and quick back ups and other partitions etc.
Click to expand...

Thats great to hear! I like the look of the My Passport, it looks like it'd be really good for travel, as you said. Thanks for the reply.
 
mikzn said:
Great price and the ultra is small - got the 500 gb - the 1 gig looks cool but never needed more than the 500
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are some really good prices from what I've seen. If I can find the right deal I'll probably opt for a 1 TB. I don't need that much space (at least right now) but I think I'd like to have it just in case. Thanks for the help.

wlossw said:
The only rule I go by is don't buy any 3tb Seagate drives...
Click to expand...

Very good to know. Thank you, I appreciate the advice.
 
I am partial to the WD MyPassport drives for use strictly as an external, auxiliary drive, as well as the Apple TimeCapsule for TimeMachine backups.

I also use a smaller (500gb MyPassport) drive for SuperDuper backups done weekly.
 
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satcomer said:
I would get this OWC Mercury Elite Pro add your own hard drive. This way any drive you choose to put into it then whenever that drive goes bad you can easily replace it! OWC most always include all the cables with the drive!
Click to expand...

That sounds interesting. I'm going to look into that and consider it. Thank you.

dwfaust said:
I am partial to the WD MyPassport drives for use strictly as an external, auxiliary drive, as well as the Apple TimeCapsule for TimeMachine backups.

I also use a smaller (500gb MyPassport) drive for SuperDuper backups done weekly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd mostly just be using it for Time Machine once I get it. I also like Western Digital. It'll be nice to have a full backup of everything because I've never really had that with my Mac.

Thanks everyone. These forums are always helpful.
 
i have the worst luck with dedicated external HD's(WD, Seagate, yadda yadda...), half the time they fail to read after connecting them and even after reformatting them. what works for me is a laptop HD i put in an enclosure, i have absolute ZERO issues with them after formatting and connecting them. it's good to know others aren't having issues i've experienced.

to the OP, i'm not discouraging the use of a dedicated external HD that other's have no issues with; i'm just offering another alternative. i would def recommend a SSD, i have an Crucial BX100 500GB as my backup. Many will recommend the Samsung brand SSD since they have great warranties.
 
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Another vote for OWC drives. I have several different enclosures from them and they have all worked perfectly. Something with a hardware raid would be handy for critical backups.
 
I've been using a 1TB Western Digital "My Passport for Mac" for about a year now, and it's worked fine for me.

m
 
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