Everything we do on our computers and laptops takes up space. Depending on what you’re working on, that content can be minimal or it can be massive. More often than not, you need a storage device at the ready to handle whatever you may need. Thankfully, we have external hard drives which we can use as our own personal “library” systems. Today’s hard drives don’t just act as storage for tax files, photo galleries, and the like. You can use an external hard drive for video and game storage. You can place downloaded media on your external drive to save space on your computer.
Cost per gigabyte is the main stumbling block. You might pay £340 for a 1TB portable SSD, whereas a 1TB external hard drive costs around £50.
You can even use an external hard drive’s extra space to run a program. There’s no denying that an external hard drive comes in handy. But there are so many on the market, it can be a hassle to figure out which one would work best for you. If you’re looking for a great hard drive and you’re ready to buy, please see our top recommendations.
We've researched each one indepth. If you’d like to learn more about external hard drives before diving into a purchase, please continue reading this shopping guide. The Seagate 5TB offers the largest storage capacity on our list at five terabytes. At a cost of $169, it’s the winner of our “Best of the Best” title. A hard drive of this size could potentially hold 2,500 hours of films, 1.5 million photos, 5,000 hours of raw video, or 85,000 hours of music. (Bear in mind that these are only estimates.). The Toshiba Portable clocks in at three terabytes.
This hard drive costs $199 and could potentially hold hundreds of hours of films and television shows, thousands of hours of music, and an entire library of books. The other three external hard drives on our list contain one terabyte of space. You could potentially store about 17,000 hours of music, 1,000 hours of raw video, over 300,000 photos, or 500 hours of films on a hard drive with one terabyte of space. All of that said, having an external drive with the most space isn’t always what’s important. You must also consider what you’ll be storing on the drive.
The figures above are estimates that might apply if you only stored that kind of data. If you use a drive to store multiple items in different file formats, the space changes.
No matter what kind of hard drive you purchase, you will run into slow download times. It’s just the nature of technology; as you pass a file from one piece of tech to another, there’s no way to guarantee speed for uploading or downloading. That said, both Seagate models on our list — the Expansion 5TB and the Backup Plus — have been clocked at having some of the best download and upload times available across all forms of media and file transfers. With the exception of the Toshiba Canvio Connect II, the other models on our list are “middle of the road” in terms of speed. The Toshiba is known to have slow downloading speeds when it comes to bigger files.
While the products we recommend each have their own unique plastic casing design and features, only one of them has been designed to truly take a beating, and that’s the Silicon Power Rugged Armor A60. This particular model has been created to be shock-resistant and waterproof, so regardless of where you take it or what kind of problems it may run into, it keeps running. Shy of beating the device with a hammer or drowning it in water for an extended period of time, it should work after bad spills of any kind. External hard drives are designed to run for extended periods of time, but they don’t last forever. If you keep an external hard drive plugged into your computer or laptop continously, the heat and usage will eventually wear down the technology and make the device slow or unresponsive. In the end, this does you no good, because now you have a “brick” with files you can’t access.
The best way to get the most out of your hard drive is to keep it disconnected from your computer when you don’t need to use it. This practice will make the device useful for years to come. If it ever does become sluggish, then you know it’s time to switch to a new one.
When it comes to the price of an external hard drive, your main focus is probably how much space you’re getting for your buck. The Seagate 5TB may look pricey at $169, but keep in mind that one terabyte of space used to cost the same amount just five years ago. If you’re looking for something more mobile, however, the Silicon Power Rugged Armor A60 (at $B00LN0P5Q0) and the Seagate 1TB (at $57) are your best bets. These cost less than the Seagate 5TB, and you can get a ton of use out of them if you’re on the go or need to send stuff to various places. Q. How do I know if the external hard drive I select is compatible with my computer? A. Every device has a set of specs on the box that tell you what it is compatible with. There are some drives that only work with Windows and are not compatible with iOS.
The reverse is also true. There are ways around this through reformatting the device — like using Apple’s Disk Utility option. However, this hack could still fail. Be smart about your purchase, and double check what it can work with before buying. Q. Could a gamer benefit from an external hard drive?
A. An external hard drive is great for storage and transportation, but it’s not so great for frequent use. Game systems these days run off of cloud-based systems or internal storage to prevent errors from occurring. Q. What is the first thing I do after I take it out of the box?
A. Plug it into the computer or device you intend to use it on the most. Make sure it “recognizes” that you’ve hooked it up and that you’re able to transfer files. Q. If a drive ever dies, can I get the information off it and put it on a new one? A. That depends on what caused it to die. Some hard drives save information no matter what, and it would just be a matter of finding a technical expert to retrieve the data files. However, if you cause your drive physical damage or viral damage, it may be harder to pull the files. If you sense your device is wearing down, get a new one immediately and transfer your files.
54 Shares Apple has moved away from normal USB ports and only included USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports in their latest MacBook Pro. So if you are trying to look for external storage drive you only have few choices. You have an option to use an adaptor and use USB 3 external storage drives with your Macbook’s but they don’t take full advantage of USB C ports. USB 3.1 Gen 2 provides up to 10Gb per second data transfer rate which can be good if you store your day to day file on an external storage drive. The same ports can support up to 40 Gbps transfer rate if you use thunderbolt interface but those drives are expensive than USB-C drives. So here is a list of 5 best USB-C external storage drives which you can buy to take the full advantage of your MacBook power. Samsung T5 Portable SSD – 1TB Samsung has released the latest version of their one of the best SSD drive T5 Portable SSD Drive. The drive is available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB configurations.
Considering that this is an SSD drive it provides a read-write speed of 540MB/s which will be helpful for your 4K videos and photos. It comes with a shock-resistant metal enclosure to provide a solid protection. This drive comes with USB-C to USB-C cable or USB-C to USB-A cables in the box. So you can use it with your new or old MacBook Pro.
It also has AES 256-bit hardware encryption to protect your data from unwanted access. You will also get 3 years warranty for any manufacturing defects. Specifications: Read-Write Speed – 540 MB/s Interface – USB-C Body Type – Metal Enclosure Size – 2.3 x 0.4 x 3 inches WD My Passport SSD External Storage Drive WD provides some of the best and reliables external storage drive, I am still using my first WD drive which I have purchased almost 10 years before. So you can use them with trust. They have also updated their drives to get a benefit of USB-C connections.
Their My Passport drive comes in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB configurations. You can password protect your content with the hardware encryption and it supports up to 515 MB/s read-write speed.
The WD case is built to stand with a fall from up to 6.5 feet. It usually comes pre-configured to work with windows or Mac but if you want to use it as a time machine backup drive then you need to reformat it. Specifications: Read-Write Speed – 515 MB/s Interface – USB-C Body Type – Metal Enclosure Size – 3.5 x 1.8 x 0.4 inches Suggested Reading: LaCie Rugged USB-C Hard Drive This is not an SSD drive, though they have 1TB and 2TB capacity available in SSD also which can give up to 500 MB/s read-write speed. This is a hard drive with many different types of connection available, so you can choose based on your MacBook model. The drive is available from 250GB to 5TB capacity so you can choose according to your need. It will provide the read-write speed of around 100 MB/s which should be good for most of your work.
The case is built to last all kind of rough uses like drop, crush or rain resistant. Specifications: Read-Write Speed – 7200 rpm Interface – USB-C Body Type – Rugged Enclosure Size – 0.7 x 3.4 x 5.3 inches Archgon USB-C Portable External Drive This is another good external storage drive for MacBook’s. They use WD hard drive inside within their enclosures so it will be reliable.
They have added an enclosure on top of WD hard drive to add the USB-C connection and provides USB-C to Micro-B cable along with it which can be used with any of latest MacBook Models. It comes with a blue indicator to show you activity on the hard drive with a glossy surface. This hard drive comes pre-formatted in HFS+ so that you can directly use it with your Mac. Archgon provides 3 years warranty for any manufacturing defects in the device.
![Mac Mac](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51bjzJvbgKL.jpg)
This hard drive is specifically made for new MacBook models and will connect with them easily. Specifications: Read-Write Speed – 7200 rpm Interface – USB-C Body Type – Rugged Enclosure Size – 4.9 x 3.1 x 0.5 inches Seagate – DJI Fly Drive 2TB Seagate has a USB-C Drive but they promote it as a Drone Footage drive.
It can be used as a regular drive and comes with a rubber bumper to protect it from unintentional damages. It has a dedicated UHS-II microSD card slot which can help in transferring content from your DSLR or other cameras. Durable rubber bumper makes it a good companion on outdoor travels and you can almost carry it anywhere along with you.
Other than that it’s a standard drive which provides all other benefits of the 2TB drive. It comes with User Manual, USB-C to USB-C cable, Hard Drive and Rubber bumper in the box. Because it is promoted as a Drone footage drive, it comes with 2-Month complimentary membership to Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC.
Specifications: Read-Write Speed – 7200 rpm Interface – USB-C Body Type – Rubber Bumper Size – 4.8 x 3.4 x 0.8 inches So these are some of the best USB-C external storage drive which you can get for your MacBooks. You have another option of customizing the hard drive by getting a enclosure of 2.5 inch SSD and buying an internal SSD seperatly. My preferred combination for this is with. Samsung EVO is SATA III internal drive with read-write speed of up to 540 MB/s and comes with 5 years limited warrenty. So which external storage drive you prefer for your new MacBook’s? Are you using any of the mentioned drives?