External hard drive Apple macOS Storage reviews, ratings, and prices at CNET. Find the External hard drive Apple macOS Storage that is right for you. External hard drive free download - Free External Hard Drive Recovery, Free External Hard Drive Data Recovery, Free External Hard Drive Data Recovery, and many more programs.
HDD Name Available Capacities Interface Read/Write speed, Mb/s How Much? WD My Passport Ultra 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB; 3TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 118Mb/s / 120Mb/s Seagate Expansion 500GB; 1TB; 2TB; 3TB; 4TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 129Mb/s / 121Mb/s Toshiba Canvio Connect II 500GB; 1TB; 2TB; 3TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 98Mb/s / 100Mb/s Seagate Backup Plus/Slim 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB; 4TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 125Mb/s / 120Mb/s Toshiba Canvio Basics USB 3.0 500GB; 750GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 95Mb/s / 89Mb/s WD My Passport for Mac 1TB; 2TB; 3TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 105Mb/s / 104Mb/s. Western Digital is known for their quality and well made hard drives, and WD My Passport Ultra is no exception. New Wd My Passport Ultra model comes in five capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB and 3TB. You can get this external hard drive in four colors – Black; Blue; White; Berry.
You also don’t have to worry about compatibility because this drive will work on both Windows and Mac computers, out of the box the drive is formatted in NTFS file system. To use it with Mac you need to reformat it to HFS+ file system. My Passport supports both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. When used with USB 2.0 drive registered reading speed of 30Mb/s and writing speed of 28Mb/s. Drive speeds via USB 3.0 are quite impressive – 118Mb/s reading and 120Mb/s writing. The drive worked quietly and almost with no vibration during our tests. WD My Passport Ultra comes with a 3-year limited warranty, which is more than other portable external hard drives usually have (2-years).
This 1TB external hard drive will be an excellent choice whether you need a device for backup or consoles like and Playstation 4 (PS4). In our Top 6 list Seagate Expansion portable drive takes the second place. Also, this portable external hard drive has new model (STEA1000400) which is available in five capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 2TB; 3TB and 4TB. People who need big capacity should consider Seagate Expansion as an option. The price for 1TB version right now is very similar to WD My Passport Ultra, though is changing all the time. Seagate Expansion comes without any bundled software, which is main reason it takes the second place in our top list.
Many included softwares are a big advantage for WD My Passport Ultra, and that is the main reason why it’s in the first place instead of Seagate Expansion. Both new and old models supports USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity and is Bus-powered. Drive comes only in one color and it`s Black. Out of the box drive is formatted in NTFS file system for Windows, in order to use it with Ma you need to. The same as most external hard drives Seagate Expansion is mostly used with game consoles – Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or by photographers.
The internal 2.5-inch hard drive spindle speed is 5400RPM. Drive offers excellent performance, it’s faster than WD My Passport Ultra and all other 1tb external hard drives in this list. Drive registered following speeds – 121Mb/s writing and 129Mb/s reading.
Expansion is one of the fastest 1tb external hard drive on the market. Seagate Expansion also have a dekstop version which is good deal for the money. Read to find out more. The compact Toshiba Canvio Connect II (HDTC810XK3A1) offers decent performance bundled with useful softwares, such as Pogoplug PC and NTI Backup Now EZ.
If you buy it yourself Pogoplug PC would cost you 30$. Drive comes in four capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 2TB and 3TB. And in five colors – Black, Blue, Red, White and White-Gold.
Canvio Connect II is the most colorful portable hard drive in our Top 6 list. Toshiba Canvio Connect II 1tb is few bucks more expensive than WD My Passport Ultra and Seagate Expansion at the moment. NTI Backup Now EZ is very easy to use automated backup software. As long as your computer is connected to the internet you can access data stored on Canvio itself remotely via mobile app.
This software turns Canvio Connect into a personal home cloud server. Canvio Connect supports both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports but sometimes it declines to work via USB 2.0.
That should`nt make any hassle at all, because who now still uses USB 2.0? When used with USB 3.0 Canvio Connect scores 100Mb/s writing and 98Mb/s reading speed.
It’s quite good for portable external hard drive, but still behind Seagate Expansion and WD My Passport Ultra. Out of the box hard drive is formatted in NTFS system, to use it with Mac you need to install, included on the drive itself. After installation you can use it with. Second best external hard drive from Seagate is Seagate Backup Plus Slim (STDR4000100), 2.5-inch external USB hard drive.
Drive is available in five capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB and 4TB. After registering your drive on Seagate.com you will recieve 200GB of free Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage (value $95).
Offer is not available in all countries and it must be activated by June 30, 2017. Software is included. This drive have two versions, the 0.5 inch thin drive is called Backup Plus Slim (capacity up to 2TB and four colors) and the Seagate Backup Plus which is 0.8 inch thick, comes in black and have 4TB capacity only. Like most portable drives it’s Bus-powered and supports both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. Also, like most portable hard drives out of the box it`s formatted in NTFS.
To use it with Mac you can install NTFS driver for Mac or re-format it to HFS+ file system. Drives performance is very close to other hard disks in our top list, 4TB scores 115Mb/s writing and 120Mb/s reading but 2TB capacity registered 120Mb/s writing and 125Mb/s reading.
But Backup Plus Slim is just half as fast as Seagate Backup Plus Fast. To find more alternatives read –. The Toshiba Canvio Basics USB 3.0 (HDTB220XK3CA) 1TB external hard drive really is basic. The 1tb version is more expensive than alternative drives.
Canvio Basics is available in five capacities – 500GB; 750GB; 1TB; 1.5TB and 2TB. It`s quite weird but different capacities have different warranty. Warranty varies from 1 to 3 years, on Amazon you can see how long warranty is for each capacity. Toshiba Canvio comes with no bundled software, that is a big disadvantage. Hard disk is Bus-powered and both compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports.
Toshiba hard drives stand out for their reliability, many server owners choose Toshiba instead of Seagate, HGST or Western Digital. Internal 2.5-inch hard disk speed is 5400RPM, the same as most portable external hard drives.
The drive will work on Windows and Mac. Buffer cache is 8MB and average seek time 12m/s.
This drives performance is a little bit weaker than competitors – Wd My Passport Ultra, Seagate Expansion and other external hard drives we have reviewed so far. We registered reading speed of 95Mb/s and writing speed 89Mb/s. WD My Passport for Mac (WDBJBS0010BSL-NESN) is very similar to Wd My Passport Ultra seventh generation, but especially made for Mac users. Passport for Mac offers compability with Time Machine, 256-bit AES encryption and software. Passport for Mac performance is quite lower than Wd My Passport Ultra.
The Wd My Passport for Mac scored 104Mb/s write speed and 105Mb/s read. Drive has USB 3.0 inerface, if you want thunderbolt connection you can look at Wd My Passport Pro, which has capacity up to 4TB and is much more expensive. Also Passport for Mac got new design in Spring 2015. New model comes only in Black color. Old model (WDBLUZ0010BSL-NESN) is available just in Grey color, but it is more expensive. Why 1TB external hard drives are so popular?
The 1tb external hard drive is the most searched external hard drive capacity online. What makes them so popular? Especially when talking about portable external drives people are more interested in 1tb capacity. Main reason for that is the price, almost all 1tb external hard drives costs quite below $100, usually you can get one for about $50-70. Purchasing one won`t make your wallet empty in most cases, but we can`t say that about bigger capacities like 5TB and more.