If you'd rather have an external hard drive that took advantage of solid state drive (SSD) speeds, then the Samsung Portable SSD T5 is definitely the best external hard drive for you.
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- Considerations before buying - Hard drive vs SSD: which is best? - The best external hard drives & SSDs
If you're looking for the best external hard drives for Macs and PCs, then you've come to the right place. No matter if you have an Apple device, or run a Windows 10 PC, the external hard drives on this page will let you quickly and easily expand the storage space of your device.
If you're a creative professional, then buying the best external drive for your Mac or PC is essential, as it's likely you'll need to store large files, such as raw video or photographs.
If you're using a laptop or MacBook for your creative work, then you may find your storage space is quite limited, and can quickly run out if you have a lot of files. Rather than opening up your device and fitting a larger hard drive (which is particularly difficult with Mac devices), an external hard drive can be quickly and easily plugged into your device for extra storage space. Best mac deals for students.
While Cloud storage is another option, which allows you to store your files online, enabling you to access them from pretty much any internet-connected device, it takes your work out of your hands, and instead leaves them with other companies. Picking something that's reliably safe and has lots of space, speed and value for money is your best bet.
So what sort of external hard drive is best for your needs? An external hard drive or SSD (Solid State Drive) is a device that can plug into your machine, giving you an instant boost to storage space, without having to go down the road of pricey computer upgrades.
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The other major plus is the portability of an SSD, take it with you and plug it into another device for instant file swapping – handy if you swap between PCs and Macs regularly.
Right now, our pick for best external hard drive for Mac and PC is the Western Digital My Passport 4TB. It offers the perfect balance of speed, reliability, portability and price. But there are many options out there – scroll down to see our full list of recommendations, and the best external hard drive prices too.
External hard drive storage considerations
There are a number of things to consider when looking for an external hard drive or SSD for your Mac or PC. First, is storage. You'll want to make sure you buy an external storage device that has enough capacity for your needs – without paying for high capacities you'll never use.
Around 500GB is a good sweet-spot for external storage, though you can buy smaller capacities, as well as larger ones at 1TB or greater.
Hard drive vs SSD: which is best?
Another consideration is whether to get an external storage device that uses a traditional hard drive, or one with an SSD. Usually, external hard drives with traditional drives are more affordable and come in larger capacities. There are external SSDs that come with large capacities – but these can be expensive.
SSDs are much faster than traditional hard drives, and because they don't have any mechanical or moving parts, they're generally more robust and smaller in physical size as well.
So, if you want to store huge amounts of data while keeping prices low, an external hard drive is the way to go. But if speed is your top priority – for example, if you move a lot of large files, or want to run programs off the drive – then choose an SSD.
External hard drive connections
The connection between the external hard drive and your Mac or PC is also important. The first generation rectangular USB-A ports are slowly being superseded by the newer, smaller reversible USB-C ports. These are now found on all modern PCs, and Macs.
Some high end PC and Macs, such as the new iMac and MacBook Pro, come with USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 3. This is the fastest external storage connection there is, and it provides very fast data transfer speeds, though Thunderbolt storage is considerably more expensive than plain old USB. If you're in the market for a new laptop, don't miss our post on the best laptops for graphic design.
The best external hard drives: today's deals
Fancy getting your hands on the best external hard drive deals? Here's our pick of the very best deals we've found today:
Seagate 8TB External Hard Drive: £179.99 £139.99 Save £40: This brilliant deal sees a decent 23% shaved off the retail price of this powerful Seagate 8TB external hard drive. Perfect for providing extra storage for your ever-growing collection of large files.
Seagate Expansion 4TB External Hard Drive: $139.99 $86.68 Save $53.31: This excellent deal from Walmart knocks over $50 off the asking price for this speedy 4TB external hard drive from the experts at Seagate. Its USB 3.0 port is compatible with pretty much any computer, and 4TB is more than enough room for many people.
Best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC
01. Western Digital My Passport 4TB
The overall best external hard drive for Mac or PC
Capacity: 4TB | Interface: USB 3.0
Today's best Western Digital My Passport 4TB deals
Large capacity
WD backup software is basic
When it comes to the best external hard drives, look no further than the Western Digital My Passport range. This is the latest model to have launched, coming in sizes from 1TB to 4TB. It features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, along with WD's own backup software.
It also offers top data transfer speeds. And while it doesn't quite offer a similar speed to solid state drive devices, the Western Digital My Passport range hits a brilliant balance between high storage capacities and quick file transfers without knocking the price way up.
02. Samsung Portable SSD T5
Capacity: 250GB - 2TB | Interface: USB 3.1 (Gen 2)
Very good performance
Expensive
The Samsung T5 SSD is a great performing storage device, reaching speeds up to 550 MB/sec, making the most of the USB 3.1 specification. It plugs directly into PCs and Macs with either a newer USB-C port or USB-A, is roughly the size of a matchbox and being a flash storage device, contains no moving parts, so can survive being dropped.
External SSDs may cost considerably more than hard disks, but the extra money and faster speeds go a long way. You’ll be able to easily load edit and save 4K video directly on the T5, which can be very slow with a USB hard disk, you can install applications onto it, or even run an entire alternative operating system off it at full speed, if you’re so inclined.
The downside is the pricing. SSDs give you less capacity for more money, so we don’t recommend the T5 for backup. It’s better to have a bigger hard disk for that and use the T5 in more specialised situations that need all that lovely performance
03. G-Technology G-RAID with Thunderbolt 3
The fastest and largest external hard drive for modern desktop Macs
Capacity: 8TB - 24TB | Interface: Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1
Easy removal of disks
G-Technology has long been a favourite of Mac creative professionals, and no small part of this is the clever use of silver aluminium that perfectly matches Apple’s iMac casing, keeping desktop areas with a uniform appearance.
The latest incarnation of its G-RAID dual hard disk Thunderbolt product isn’t just a start performer, capable of 440 MB/sec transfer rates in RAID 0, which is pretty incredible for hard disks, but it also gives you a few extras.
There's an HDMI 2.2 port on the back, which routes a video signal for an external display over the G-RAID’s Thunderbolt 3 cable, which has plenty of bandwidth to spare even with the hard disk going at full speed. It also has a USB-C port to connect to Macs or PCs that lack Thunderbolt.
Expect to pay a small fortune for the largest capacities, but thanks to the easy drive removal system, you could always buy a cheaper, lower capacity G-RAID and upgrade it with off-the-shelf hard disks yourself.
04. Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt
The most affordable Thunderbolt external hard drive
Capacity: 1TB, 2TB | Interface: Thunderbolt, USB 3.0
Low price compared to other Thunderbolt drives
If you want to make use of your Thunderbolt port, then this Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt is a great option, as it provides twice the speeds of standard USB 3.0 drives. It's also not especially expensive compared to other Thunderbolt drives. This is mainly down to the fact that it's a traditional hard drive, not an SSD, which means it's not quite as fast as it could be – though it will still give you an upgrade to your transfer speeds.
Helpfully, the Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt also comes with a USB 3.0 port for connecting to computers that don't have a Thunderbolt port.
05. LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive 4TB
USB-C star
Capacity: 4TB | Interface: USB-C
Today's best LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive 4TB deals
Fast USB-C connection
Expensive
The LaCie Porsche Design is one of the best external hard drives for Macs on sale today, and comes with both USB Type-C to Type-A and USB Type-C to Type-C connectors, making it a versatile way to expand the storage space of your Mac, regardless of what ports it has. This is also one of the most stylishly-designed external hard drives on this list, and it comes with a large 4TB capacity (with other sizes available as well), and it performs brilliantly.
06. Adata SD700 External SSD
The best cheap external SSD
Capacity: 256GB, 512GB or 1TB | Interface: USB 3.0
Great performance
No USB Type-C
The Adata SD700 will suit those looking for a rugged storage device that can provide ample capacity without costing too much. It performs superbly well and remains the only SSD we’ve seen that's IP68 rated.
Thanks to the solid state drive that resides in this external hard drive, it's a lot faster than external drives that use traditional spinning hard drives – so you're getting great transfer speeds as well as rugged protection.
It also comes in capacities up to 1TB, so you don't have to worry about missing out on storage space just because it uses an SSD. This Adata drive really does hit all the right notes.
07. WD My Book Duo
Best External Hard Drive Review
The best high capacity external drive for your Mac or PC
Capacity: 4TB - 20TB | Interface: USB-C (Gen 1)
Huge amounts of space
Expensive
Limited performance compared with Thunderbolt drives
If you're looking for the absolute largest capacity external USB hard drive, then the WD My Book Duo Is the one to get, as it now goes all the way to 20TB.
If you don't mind sacrificing some of the ample storage space you can set the drives up in a RAID 1 array, so you have file backups of your files should one of the drives die. This is an excellent feature if you're going to use this device to back up irreplaceable data, such as your creative work, as it adds a level of protection in case things go wrong.
It provides two additional USB ports on the rear, so you can easily insert flash sticks. The device, which comes with two-year warranty, has 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and automatic backup software (WD SmartWare Pro).
It's also worth noting that the enclosure used is fully serviceable and that WD ships the drive already pre-formatted for Windows users (NTFS), so you'll want to reformat it to work with your Mac.
Read TechRadar's review here.
08. LaCie Rugged USB-C
This rugged design is great for storage on the move
Capacity: 1TB - 5TB | Storage Type: Hard Disk | Connector: Type-C | Interface: USB 3.1
Rugged design
Ugly orange casing
Lacie’s rugged hard disk series is instantly recognisable from its orange casing, which is a rubber enclosure that keeps the disk safe from even medium-height drops up to 1.2m, along with your precious data.
According to Lacie it can apparently withstand the pressure of a one-ton car, and is resistant to rain. That makes it a great choice for content creation when you’re out and about, whether you’re participating in daredevil sports, travelling the world, just a bit paranoid or simply clumsy.
Today's best external hard drives and SSDs
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Your Mac came from Apple equipped with at least one internal drive. Depending on the Mac model you have, it could be a 3.5-inch desktop platter hard drive, a 2.5-inch laptop hard drive, or a 2.5-inch SSD (Solid State Drive). Some Macs, including specific models of the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro, were offered with an additional internal storage device, or at least with room for the end user to add more drives.
But when it comes right down to it, the 2006-2012 Mac Pros are the only Intel-based Mac models that have easily user upgradeable drive space.
If your Mac isn't a Mac Pro, it's likely that if you need more storage space, you're going to go with an external drive.
External Drive Types for the Mac
External drives can be categorized by the type of drives the external enclosures contain, as well as the interface type that is used to connect the external enclosure to a Mac.
This guide concentrates on Macs from 2006 on, which means that external storage options should be able to work with FireWire 400 and 800 ports, USB 2 and USB 3.1 ports, Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt 2, and Thunderbolt 3, the newest of the ports.
Now, any single enclosure doesn't need to contain all of these port types. But if you're buying a new external enclosure, it should at least have a USB 3.1 port, to ensure compatibility with newer Macs (even if you don't own one yet). USB 3.1 is backward compatible with USB 2, so it should be usable on older Macs as well.
When we say that a USB 3 drive is usable on an older Mac, we mean just that: usable. It is by no means optimal. If you plan to use your older Mac for the foreseeable future, make sure that the external drive supports one of your faster connection types, specifically FireWire 800 or FireWire 400; both are faster than a USB 2 port.
Increase Storage With an External Drive for Your Mac
External drives are available for many purposes. They can be used for backup, primary data storage, secondary storage, media library, and even as a startup drive. They can also be easily moved to another compatible Mac, if necessary. This versatility makes external drives the popular choice for upgrading storage.
External drives are available in many styles, including single-drive enclosures, multi-drive enclosures, prebuilt enclosures, bus-powered enclosures (no external power supply needed) and DIY enclosures. And we haven't even gotten to the interface options yet.
Before you purchase an external drive, use this guide to learn more about the various types of external drives and how they connect to a Mac.
Build Your Own External Hard Drive
Taking a DIY approach and building your own external drive for your Mac allows you to pick the enclosure you like, with the interface you need, and install the type of drive you want. And in some cases, you can do this less expensively than buying a pre-built, off-the-shelf model.
Of course, you have to spend some time looking for the best enclosure for the project, as well as decide which drive you want and where to purchase it, so in the long run, it takes more time than just buying a ready-to-run solution. But, saving money and building it yourself; what’s not to like?
Where to Buy External Drive Enclosures
There are a few sites and manufacturers you can always check when in the market for a ready-to-go solution. That's where you buy the external drive enclosure, the drive, and any necessary cables, already assembled.
The advantage is that you end up with a quick solution to your storage expansion needs. Simply remove the drive from the shipping box, plug it into power and your Mac, flip the switch, format the drive, and you're ready to go.
Buffalo Technology has a line of desktop drives called DriveStation that are often used for backup solutions. Many of the models support multiple drives as well as data encryption. Buffalo Technology's portable lineup includes USB 3, and Thunderbolt models. The company also offers NAS (network attached storage) models for a complete network solution to your expansion needs.
G-Technology has a wide range of products to choose from, including its popular G Drive series of desktop drives, available in single and multi-drive configurations. G-Technology's portable lineup is also impressive and includes multi-drive portable options. Many of the enclosures make use of solid-state drives (SSDs) to really help boost your Mac's performance. You'll also find a good selection of RAID systems, including docking stations that let you replace a drive without having to power off the storage system.
LaCie offers external drives for just about any interface you want to use, including USB-C, USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, and NAS. LaCie has external drives for mobile use; simply pick one up and go. There are also drives available for desktop use or creating RAID arrays. LaCie drives are available for use with 3 1/2 inch hard drives, or smaller 2 1/2 inch laptop drives and SSDs.
Other World Computing may have the widest selection of desktop, portable, and RAID-based external storage solutions available specifically for the Mac. OWC also offers enclosures with a wide range of interfaces, including many that offer multiple ports so you can use the enclosure today with your 2008 MacBook Pro and its FireWire ports, and later use it with USB 3.1 gen 2 when you upgrade to a new Mac.
Promise Technology specializes in high-performance storage systems. Its Mac-compatible products include Thunderbolt-based single and multi-drive enclosures. Promise Technology also has a selection of Fibre Channel and eSATA-based enclosures, primarily for use on the Mac Pro with a PCIe expansion card that includes the necessary interface types.
Seagate has quite a few portable and desktop storage solutions for Mac users. It also offers NAS systems for home and business use. You will find single and dual drive models, as well as your choice of USB 2, USB 3, and Thunderbolt enclosures.
Western Digital offers external drive solutions for desktop and portable Macs. WD also makes NAS drives, which it calls Personal Cloud drives, that are Time Machine compatible, a nice feature if you're looking for backup solutions for multiple Macs.
Your Home Folder Doesn't Have to Be on Your Startup Drive
Best External Hard Drive
Now that you have an external drive, you may want to consider moving your home folder to that drive, to free up space on your Mac's startup drive.
This is especially true if your Mac has an SSD for a startup drive. Moving your user data will provide a lot of free space on the SSD. But this only works if your Mac is always connected to the external drive. If you tuck your Mac under your arm and hit the road without the external drive, you'll be leaving all your user data behind.
Using macOS Disk Utility
When you purchase a new external drive, chances are you’re going to need to use Disk Utility to format or partition the drive to meet your needs. This guide provides details for using Disk Utility.