Most reliable external drive?

[countermoon]

What do you consider the most reliable external hard drive for Mac?

I have not tried all brands, but I have tried many over the years, and I have had problems with them all, esp. lost data and drives not mounting. Do you prefer SSD or HD (mechanical)? I have tried to support OWC because it's a Mac store, but I have had so many problems with OWC drives in recent years that I can no longer do so.

I simply want something reliable.

 

[maflynn]

Samsung SSDs are very popular and well regarded.

 

[Hombre53]

My Samsung 970 Evo+ NVME/SSD coupled with a OWC Thunderbolt 3 NVME enclosure (external boot device) is faster than Apple's internal 250Gb drive on my 2020 27" iMac. Very pleased with this combo.

 

[Clix Pix]

The Samsung T- series of external SSDs is very reliable. I have been using them since the very first T-1 versions came out several years ago. I also use SanDisk Extreme external SSDs and find them very reliable as well.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Another vote for Samsung SSD's here.

 

[Basic75]

Are y'all talking about the same Samsung that brought us the 840 EVO disaster and the more recent issues with multiple lines of their SSDs?

 

[Fishrrman]

If you're shopping for an SSD, Samsung, Crucial, Sandisk.

If you're shopping for a platter-based HDD, Toshiba and HGST (Hitachi)

 

[countermoon]

Not WD?

I've had trouble with Samsung, Crucial, and Toshiba. My WD passport seems to be OK, provided I ignore the software they include and initialize the drive myself.

 

[Clix Pix]

I never use the proprietary software that Samsung includes in their external SSDs. When I buy a new one I simply format it to APFS and the drive is ready for whatever I want to do with it.

 

[countermoon]

Why APFS and not HFS?

 

[Clix Pix]

Because my machines are all APFS and have been for some time now. APFS is really meant to work best with SSDs anyway.