Best External Drive for Older MacBook Pro

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Level 1

31 points

Best External Drive for Older MacBook Pro

I am in a market for a few new external hard drives. Looking through Amazon, most/all need reformatting and a lot of reviews state that you need a specific OS to be able to use. Which drives (SSD or standard) should I be looking at? I currently have two old ones - Western Digital (for documents and Time Machine) and a SeaGate (for thousands of out of focus cat photos). I just want something to hold lots of .RAW photos and while I don't want something super slow, I'm not needing the greatest and fastest. Perfect situation would be two/three under $100 drives all holding the same information in case one fails. I plan on getting a SanDisk USB stick as an additional back up for just documents and using the Western Digital for Time Machine and meme storage.

I was looking at:

Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, PS4, & Xbox - 1-Year Rescue Service (STGX2000400)

WD 2TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive - Blue, USB-C/USB-A - WDBA2D0020BBL-WESN

UnionSine 500GB Ultra Slim Portable External Hard Drive USB3.0 HDD Storage Compatible for PC, Desktop, Laptop, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4(Black) HD-006

Will these work? Better options? Advice or other suggestions?

Posted on May 12, 2022 3:09 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobTheFisherman

Level 10

81,457 points

May 12, 2022 3:13 PM in response to pirhan

Any usb drive will work. I would opt for a SSD over a HD for reliability and speed considerations. I would format any new drive using your Mac's disk Utility. Do not use the manufacturer's included utilities. Use the Mac's Disk Utility to manage the drive.

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Answer 2

May 12, 2022 3:42 PM in response to pirhan

pirhan wrote:

Wow, thank you so much for the speedy reply.

I read in a review that if a SSD breaks, then there's zero chance of recovery like a standard drive, is this correct? I upgraded my MacBook with a Crucial SSD and made a huge difference speed wise, but since I was looking to get multiple drives, standard seemed like the best option, cost wise. Though, I checked my SeaGate 1TB drive and it has just shy of 200GB of photos over the course of many years, so 500MB should last me a while still.

Are you able to point me in the right direction for using Disk Utility to format?

For SSD, would you recommend:

Crucial X6 500GB Portable SSD – Up to 540MB/s – USB 3.2 – External Solid State Drive, USB-C - CT500X6SSD9

SanDisk 500GB Extreme PRO Portable External SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.1 - SDSSDE80-500G-A25

There are many Samsung options... I have a Samsung watch and I need a Samsung account & apps to fully utilize so I'm hesitant to get a drive from that brand. I think I might go with the Crucial as I have their internal SSD drive in my current laptop and I believe I updated my previous iBook and even possibly the G3. Does this sound alright?

If a drive "breaks" you recover from your backup. I think SSDs are more reliable than old rotational drives.

I use multiple Samsung SSDs and have been doing so for several years without problem. I would not buy an external drive these days that had less than 1TB capacity.

This may help you understand how to use Disk Utility: https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-and-reformat-a-storage-device-dskutl14079/mac

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Answer 3

pirhan Author

Level 1

31 points

May 12, 2022 3:34 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Wow, thank you so much for the speedy reply.

I read in a review that if a SSD breaks, then there's zero chance of recovery like a standard drive, is this correct? I upgraded my MacBook with a Crucial SSD and made a huge difference speed wise, but since I was looking to get multiple drives, standard seemed like the best option, cost wise. Though, I checked my SeaGate 1TB drive and it has just shy of 200GB of photos over the course of many years, so 500MB should last me a while still.

Are you able to point me in the right direction for using Disk Utility to format?

For SSD, would you recommend:

Crucial X6 500GB Portable SSD – Up to 540MB/s – USB 3.2 – External Solid State Drive, USB-C - CT500X6SSD9

SanDisk 500GB Extreme PRO Portable External SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.1 - SDSSDE80-500G-A25

There are many Samsung options... I have a Samsung watch and I need a Samsung account & apps to fully utilize so I'm hesitant to get a drive from that brand. I think I might go with the Crucial as I have their internal SSD drive in my current laptop and I believe I updated my previous iBook and even possibly the G3. Does this sound alright?

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Answer 4

pirhan Author

Level 1

31 points

May 13, 2022 3:51 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Big thanks. I ended up going with the smaller Crucial at this time. Since I have under 200GB of photos at this time, I just want something quick and cheap to organize and then I'll go about getting a larger terabyte drive. Thank you very much for all your help.

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Best External Drive for Older MacBook Pro

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