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Best Portable USB-C External Storage Drives for Mac – Super fast drives with Type-C interface Samuel J Tan Gadgets, Hardware, Learning 0 Now that the dust has settled, both new generation MacBook 12. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim is the best external hard drive for Mac you can carry around with you at all times. It is formatted for both Mac and Windows right out of the box, and its easy-to-use software can automatically do backups for you as often or as little as you want. SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. FixThePhoto editors’ choice. Capacity: 250 GB – 2 TB Interface. Best USB External Hard Drive (Preformed for Mac) If you have an older MacBook then consider WD 3TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive which only supports USB-3 ports. Western Digital is a known player on the market of hard drives and My Passport is their flagship product. LaCie Mobile Drive. Backups Made Easy. What is one of the most common uses for an external.
Best Portable External Hard Drive
This one is my personal favorite: Samsung T5 SSD. The device is so small that it can fit in your shirt pocket. It’s a little bigger than a matchbox.
I love, love, love this little thing.
It comes with two cables: USB and USB-C which is super helpful if you have old and new Macs. So you can use USB cable with old MacBook, copy data on it and then plug in to a new MacBook with TouchBar and copy again.
And T5 is crazy fast. I was able to run Virtual Box image directly from Samsung T5. I never thought it would be possible because I tried to run VMs from external drives before and they were super slow, even unusable.
With T5, however, I didn’t even know that I am running VM on external hard drive. Partially, it was due to fast SSD inside and partially due to USB-C connector. According to the manufacturer the transfer speed is up to 540MB/s.
Don’t forget to buy the hard travel case when buying T5 to keep the cables together.
Pros: Speed, portability, USB and USB-C support
Cons: Size limited to 2TB
Best Thunderbolt USB-C External Hard Drive
I’ve been using LaCie external hard drives for years and they always have been super reliable and crazy fast compared to other models.
You can always recognize them by their orange cover. While I am not particular a fan of their color option, I loved that the device has a rugged surface. This extremely durable cover provides an excellent protection against dust, shock and water. Which make it a best choice for someone who travels a lot or even someone who carries the laptop and its accessories to school or work daily.
When it comes to performance LaCie external hard drive provides an ok data transfer speed up to 130MB/s thru the Thunderbolt cable. If you need a faster drive go with USB-C SSD option. It will give you up to 510MB/s transfer speed.
Best Portable Usb-C External Drives For Mac
Additionally, each LaCie drive comes with complimentary 3 year recovery service. Thankfully I never needed one, but it’s nice to have such a piece of mind option.
Pros: Reliability, durability, multiple size options up to 5TB
Cons: Color, speed
Best USB External Hard Drive (Preformed for Mac)
If you have an older MacBook then consider WD 3TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive which only supports USB-3 ports.
Western Digital is a known player on the market of hard drives and My Passport is their flagship product. I used My Passports before and I never had any issues with them.
Best Portable Usb-C External Drives For Macbook
What’s good about this particular product is it intended specifically for Macs, not for PCs. If with other external hard drives you need to format them first before the use, this one is already preformatted as HFS+ device (macOS format). So I just get it out from the box, connect to Mac and start using.
While it’s a little bigger than Samsung T5 it’s still small enough to be considered as portable external hard drive.
Pros: Preformatted for macOS, portable
Cons: Outdated, only supports USB
External Hard Drive Usb C
Budget option
If you need a reliable external hard drive under $100 consider Toshiba Canvio Basics 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0.
This is not the fastest drive, but it’s reliable and cheap. You can buy a 4TB drive for less than $100 and in my opinion it’s a good deal.
I use this device for my archives. If I have files that I am not going to use for a while then instead of deleting them I shove them to my Toshiba drive. You never know when you will need that old VM and it’s nice to not waste prime drive space either.
Note, however this comes with USB cable, so if you have a new laptop with USB-C ports you will need to buy an adapter as well. Rusty lake paradise vegetables.
Pros: Super cheap and super reliable
Cons: Only supports USB