kcj Loc: Seneca SC

What is a good external hard drive for a Mac laptop? I have a we my passport now but the ratings don’t look good now

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It depends upon many factors. I'm going to assume that you are using a Mac released after November, 2020, with at least an M1 Apple Silicon processor.

OWC (Other World Computing, https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/storage) is my go-to source for Mac accessories.

If you are just using the drive for backup, an enterprise class conventional "spinning" hard drive with a five year warranty is a good choice. Get two, either in a RAID array, or as a backup and a separate "backup of the backup."

If you're recording and editing high bit rate video, you would benefit from a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 SSD drive. They are very expensive! But they are extremely FAST.

If you're using primarily a stills camera, you don't need super speeds. A USB 3 or 4 (10 Mbps peak speed) SSD is a good choice. I have several Sandisk and Samsung portable SSDs. I like the Samsung T7 the best. They're reasonably inexpensive and fast — I get sustained write speeds of 640 MBPS (MegaBYTES per second) and sustained read speeds of 690 MBPS. That's fast enough for what I do with my M1 MacBook Air.

If your camera has a USB-C port on it, and supports writing high bit rate video files to an external drive, consult their website for recommended drives! The latest models from Panasonic Lumix (GH-6, S5 Mark IIX, and G9 Mark II) are examples of such cameras. Lumix has tested certain drives and certified them as properly compatible.

Perhaps if you tell us which Mac you have and what use cases you have for it, we can be more specific.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Good dvice Bill, and I completely agree on the Samsung T7. Much faster than a spinning disk, more reliable (essentially shock proof) and small/light.

flferg Loc: Driftwood, TX

ORICO NVMe SSD Enclosure 40Gbps M.2 to USB-C Adapter for NVMe M-Key 4TB SSD 2280, Aluminum M2 External SSD Case, Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 USB3.2/3.1/3.0/Type C -M234-Gray

If you need extra storage the device described above would meet your needs since I assume your Mac would connect to the drive using one of the interface capabilities of this device. Of course you can get one of these enclosures and use it with a M.2 memory size and manufacturer you prefer. It looks like it has all the capabilities described by burkphoto in his post.

bnsf

Wal-Mart has a 2tb external USB drive that works in either Apple or Windows for under $60.00.

MJPerini

@Burkphoto got this right
The folks at OWC are making the fastest most reliable drives available.
They make sealed shock proof waterproof thunderbolt SSD's that are so fast they equal your internal SSD

R.G. Loc: Scotland

And in the case of a laptop it may be relevant that the SSDs are less of a drain on the battery.

Jersey guy Loc: New Joisey

As a side note here: I was just about to take the plunge on a SanDisc SSD 1T from Costco and ran into tons of on-line reviews cautioning one about the many reports of problems with that particular drive dating back to about May '23. Some were much more recent than that causing me to be hesitant about the SanDisc 1T Extreme Go SSD. Can anyone update me on this

Burkley Loc: Park City

Samsung T7 or the newer T9 is a great SSD choice. That is my choice for active use. If it is for off site storage where it will just sit for months to years, you may want a traditional hard drive which is less expensive. SSD’s will be most stable if you plug it into the computer every year or two.

kcj Loc: Seneca SC

I have the apple Mac Pro 16”M1 64 GB Ram/2tb Ssd

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Use cases? Do you just do photo editing, or are you also doing video editing, audio production, 3D modeling, or other tasks that would be I/O intensive? If any of the latter tasks are involved, then look at Thunderbolt 4/USB4 drives. The fastest USB-C 3.2 drives should be plenty for photo processing.

kcj Loc: Seneca SC

Photo editing with Adobe photo shop

steve49 Loc: massachusetts

I've been using one of these for assorted backup. Seems fine.

Gatorcoach Loc: New Jersey

I have two Crucial portable SSD drives. They are fast and reliable, as are most of the Crucial products. ONE BIG PRECAUTION...don't buy them from Crucial. Their sales department and customer service are brutal - hopefully just disorganized and will be eventually be corrected but your order will takes weeks and CS responses not helpful. Order it from Amazon and get it in 2 days.

tcthome Loc: NJ

I have a 1TB WD MY PASSPORT HDD for about 4-5 years & a 4TB for about1-1/2 years now without any problems so far. Probably pick up another 4TB for the reason mentioned above. If you can swing the ssd in the size you want or need...