It does mean the price is higher, but if transfer speed is the most important consideration when looking for the best external hard drive for your Mac, then this is the drive to go for. The best external hard drive for Mac 2018 has lots of storage capacity among other qualities. Whether you will choose a portable one or prefer a NAS, it is up to you.
The current line of MacBook Pro only has Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, but that's OK, because USB-C is fast, future-proof, and will likely replace standard USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, power, and more. A USB-C hard drive is the perfect storage box to locally back up all of your most essential files, including photos, documents, music, movies, and anything else that's important to you. Save your Mac's hard drive and pick up a USB-C hard drive. Here are a few options to get you started on your search.
Fan favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB
Mick's Favorite
The G-Drive by G-Technology is a great USB-C hard drive for most people. It has 1TB of storage and features a quick drive speed of 7200RPM, with transfer rates of up to 136MB/s, thanks to USB 3.1. It comes in silver, as well as Apple-exclusive colors: gold, rose gold, and space gray.
From $71 on Amazon
Best for speed: Samsung T5 SSD 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Lory's Favorite
Samsung's T5 SSD is a solid-state drive that provides way faster transfer rates than physical hard drives. Solid-state drives don't have moving parts, so if you happen to drop this one, there's less to break! SSDs are more expensive, but with this one, you get write speeds of up 540MB/s, which is over three times faster than many hard drives. If you like to store TV shows and movies on your hard drive, consider a solid-state drive!
From $90 at Amazon
Rugged pick: Glyph Blackbox Plus 1TB
The Glyph Blackbox Plus is a rugged, portable hard drive that can keep up with you wherever you go. It's surrounded in rubber to protect from drops and has enough capacity for all your backups and then some. You get write speeds of up to 140MB/s from just 5400RPM, as well as a 3-year warranty in case anything goes wrong. It also features fan-free heat dissipation, so it's nice and quiet.
$120 at Amazon
Best for video: Samsung 5X Portable SSD
With read and write speeds of up to 2,800MB/s and 2,300MB/s respectively, this portable drive is perfect for videographers. It's designed for rendering and compiling high res photos and videos with up to 40Gb/s data transfer. It also looks like the Ferrari of external hard drives.
From $489 at Amazon
Most stylish: LaCie Porsche Design 2TB
LaCie is widely recommended for Apple users (they even sell LaCie products on Apple's site!) The Porsche Design external hard drive is a great-looking solution to your USB-C needs. The mobile version comes in 2TB, while the desktop version is available with 4TB of storage. If you have older devices you'd like to use as well, this hard drive is also compatible with USB 3.0 ports.
SanDisk's Extreme 900 SSD is a powerhouse solid-state drive that offers up to nine times the transfer speeds of external hard drives. It's made of durable aluminum and rubber, and the solid-state core is shock-proof. So, this is far less likely to die on you should you drop it (compared to hard drives).
From $182 at Amazon
Best value: G-Technology G-Drive SSD R-Series
With a low price for 1TB, G-Technology's G-Drive SSD is one of the more versatile solid-state drives on the market, and it comes recommended by Apple itself. You'll get transfer rates of up to 560MBps, and it comes with both a USB-C to USB-C and a USB-C to USB-A cable.
$240 at Apple
Long-lasting: LaCie Rugged 2TB
The LaCie Rugged of yesteryear got me through my entire post-secondary education, and now that there's a USB-C option, it'll help get you (and maybe even your children!) through school or work with reliability and that fast connection. The body is rubberized to help it stand up to daily wear and tear, and 2TB should be more than enough for all of your files, documents, Final Cut projects, and much more. There's a 2-year warranty on these, which includes data recovery services.
$120 at Amazon
Durable and reliable: CalDigit Tuff 2TB
CalDigit's Tuff hard drives are rugged, colorful 2TB drives that offer USB-C connectivity and there's even a USB-C to USB-A cable for backward compatibility. With an IP57 rating, these drives are water-resistant in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. They're dust-resistant, so you can take yours with you anywhere knowing that your data is safe from the elements.
From $120 at Amazon
Compact pick: SanDisk Extreme SSD
You may know SanDisk for its SD cards, but its hard drives are excellent as well. This solid-state drive is smaller than the average smartphone and has a hole in it so that you can clip it to a bag. It's shock-resistant and ruggedly designed, so it's perfect for life on the move.
From $72 at Amazon
Budget pick: WD My Passport
Western Digital makes some of the best hard drives around, and its 4TB USB-C hard drive fits right in with all its other excellent drives. This one can be found for under $120 and comes in six colors. This hard drive, however, is not inherently a USB-C drive — it's 'USB-C ready,' so it'll connect to your USB-C ports no problem, though it does not have a USB-C port itself.
From $60 at Amazon
Waterproof-ish: G-Tech All-Terrain Drive
For the extreme outdoorsmen and women, this rugged hard drive does more than protect your external hard drive from scratches and breaks. It's watertight, so you can drop it into a pool of water up to one-foot for 30 seconds without anything seeping in. The tethered Thunderbolt cable means you don't have to bring any extra cables, too.
From $153 at Amazon
Our personal favorites
Best External Ssd Hard Drive For Mac 2018 Football
External hard drives are must-have peripherals for anyone with a computer. They give you additional storage space, which can fill up fast on laptops, and are essential to backing up your data safely and securely. Every one of the drives on this list is easy to set up and start using right away. All you have to do is plug one into your Mac.
Lory's go-to external hard drive is Samsung T5 SSD because SSDs are much more reliable, and this one, in particular, has super-fast data transfer speeds. The G-Drive is Mick's favorite portable hard drive because it's affordable and reliable.
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We all know just how important storage space is — you start to run out, you can run into a lot of problems, such as the system bogging down, running out of space for new programs, photos, etc. Without a good amount of storage space, your overall PC experience really can start to deteriorate. That’s why it’s always important to not only make sure you have enough, but plenty to spare — this can be through adding additional hard drives and SSDs to your PC or even starting to store some files in the Cloud.
But storage space isn’t just important for your operating system, programs and user files — it’s super important for the ability to create system backups as well. You, of course, cannot create a backup of your system on the hard drive you’re trying to backup — that just doesn’t make any sense. You need an external source for that, and usually an external drive is the way to go there.
So, whether you’re looking for extra storage to back up your system or store different files, an external drive can be a great option. They’re super portable, too! Follow along, and we’ll show you some of the best external drives you can get your hands on in 2018.
What to consider when buying an external drive
Quick Links
Buying an external hard drive can be a daunting task simply because there’s a ton of different things to watch for when purchasing your drive. Here’s just a few of the things you should consider:
Storage Space: Storage space is easily the most important factor in picking up an external drive — you need to figure out how much you’ll need, whether that be for storing photos, programs or regular system backups. The amount of storage space one needs varies from person-to-person, so it’s up to you to decide on just how much you need for your personal use.
Drive Speed: Next thing to consider is drive speed. It doesn’t matter as much with SSDs, but if you’re buying a traditional drive (more on this later), look for something that advertises 7,200 RPM. It’s faster than a 5,400 RPM drive. If you’re looking for pure speed, an SSD is the way to go here, as paired with something like Thunderbolt, you can transfer files over to your external SSD in seconds.
Input Type: Determining what input type your external drive will have is very important, especially with USB Type-C gaining popularity in most new machines. USB 2.0 can be a good option, but data transfer speeds will be a lot slower. If anything, we recommend going with a USB 3.0 compatible drive, as data transfer speeds are leagues faster. If you have compatible products, USB-C is also an excellent choice. Not only are speeds faster than USB 3.0, but it’s a more universal input type, as it’ll work with phones and tablets that have USB-C as well.
What type of drive should you get?
There are a couple of different hard drives you can get these days — standard mechanical hard drives or solid state drives, also known as an SSD. The latter is considered flash memory and there’s nothing mechanical about it, meaning they last a lot longer than traditional hard drives.
Even in 2018, you still have advantages to using traditional mechanical hard drives. The biggest reason to use one is that you can get a few terabytes of space at a cheap price point. Today, you can find a 3TB hard drive for as low as $75, or even less if you don’t buy from a big name manufacturer.
SSDs are quite different. Sure, SSDs have gotten cheaper over the years, however, they’re still extremely expensive depending on the amount of space you want to get. In fact, a 4TB SSD from Samsung will run you around a whopping $1500, not including tax.
So, what type of drive should you get? We definitely recommend a traditional hard drive, just out of sheer cost-to-storage-space ratio. Right now, SSDs just cannot beat that. Having a small one is great as your primary drive — keeping your important and most used data on it — but if you’re looking for an external backup drive to carry around, you still can’t be the traditional hard drive.
Kesu 250GB Portable Drive
You don’t have to worry about this hard drive dying from a spill or being knocked off the desk, since it’s encased in a protective military-grade shell. It also doesn’t require any sort of installation or software setup when you first go to use it, which is fantastic. You’ll just plug it in, and it’s ready to go.
You can get this external hard drive from Kesu in anywhere from 80 – 750 GB, as well as black, blue, or red for the color. Because this hard drive is sleek and so easy to use, it’s great for someone looking for something to do the job, but a little on the simpler side.
At the lowest 80GB model, you’re looking at just $20.
Buy it now:Amazon
Seagate Expansion
The Seagate Expansion hard drive is another one that is simple to use with little to no set up. You can plug it in and begin using it right away. Saving files to it is also just as easy as dragging and dropping from their original location onto the hard drive. It’s extremely easy to use, and very affordable as well, coming in at around $55 – $110.
One thing worth mentioning about this hard drive is that it does require Windows 7 or newer to operate. While other drives will run on older systems, this one will require them to be a bit more on the newer side.
Buy it now:Amazon
Western Digital Portable External Drive
Best External Ssd Hard Drive
This Western Digital hard drive is a tad pricer than those previously mentioned (depending on the size you pick), but it really has a lot of advantages. You can get it with as little or as much storage space ranging from 1 – 4 terabytes (again at $55 – $110) and it comes in 8 really neat colors.
Another advantage is that although this thing’s storage packs a punch, the actual design is very small, which is ideal for just about everything. Whether you plan on travelling or staying home, the size of this Western Digital external hard drive will never be an issue. It also has features like auto-backup and password encryption, to ensure your files are both thoroughly secure and protected on the drive.
Buy it now:Amazon
Samsung T5 Portable SSD
Ssd External Drive For Mac
At first glance, Samsung’s portable SSD seems extremely expensive compared to a lot of external hard drives, coming in at a whopping $700.00 for 2T. However, it’s worth noting that while both the SSD and the hard drives are external, SSDs run on flash while hard drives are mechanical. This just means that your SSDs are going to run faster than your hard drives. This is a good thing, of course, but it could also be a trade off since it’s on the pricier side.
As for the logistics of the T5, this is another very secure, data-encrypted system, as well as compact (weighing less than 2 ounces, to be exact). It has speeds of 540 megabytes per second, and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Android devices.
Buy it now:Amazon
PNY Elite 256GB
External Ssd
If you’re looking for something on the cheaper side, the 256GB SSD option from PNY sits at just $100. It’s not nearly as large as a traditional hard drive or even a pricier SSD, but it’ll get the job done for you most basic storage needs — just don’t expect it to hold multiple large backups at a time.
You still get decent speeds with this cheaper option — USB 3.0 at 430 megabytes per second. That’s still fast, but is about a 100 megabyte downgrade in comparison to the Samsung T5. PNY does offer their external SSD in a 480GB option for another $100, which puts your purchase around $200, not including tax.
The PNY Elite should work with either Windows or Mac flawlessly, although Mac systems seem to vary, requiring you to reformat the drive in the correct file format for Mac use. Either way, you’re getting a good reliable drive with the PNY Elite. Check it out for yourself at the link below.
Buy it now:Amazon
Closing
By following the advice above, you should be able to purchase a quality external drive on the cheap that’ll last you for years to come. It’s so important to have an external drive, simply because of the peace of mind it can bring by keeping regular backups on it. That’s to not even mention the benefits that the portability can bring for transferring files, storing family photos, etc. Do keep in mind that any of the drives above will work with a USB-C device, you just need a USB-A to USB-C cord.
If you have a favorite drive, or even drive setup (i.e. traditional hard drive over SSD or the other way around), be sure to let us know in the comments section below.