The process of upgrading the internal hard drives of Macs, iMacs and MacBook’s are usually tedious and extremely difficult, because of this challenge users prefer to transfer their files to an external hard drive when they start running out of storage space. Here, we list the top 5 external hard drive for Mac.

5 Best External Hard Drives for Mac

There are a lot of hard drives available but only a few are compatible with apple's file system, and are able to match the range of high speed ports that Macs come with.

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Format external hard drive with third party software AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a great free partition format tool that allows you to format external hard drive to Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, etc. The process for backing up an iPhone to an external hard drive on Mac is pretty similar for users with macOS Mojave or older operating systems that, like Windows, use iTunes for iPhone backups. LaCie Rugged Mini ($99.99/1TB) - Review: 4.5. Since many users recommend LaCie as the best external DVD drive for Mac, we put the 1TB version on the top of the best external hard drive for Mac list.Claimed as being even rain-resistant, and pressure-resistant, it can be easily carried wherever you go. 700MB video file can be transferred with USB 3.0, which is quite satisfying in speed.

When you store important files and documents in an external hard drive, you need to be assured your data will not be lost or corrupted. These hard drives listed below are the best hard drives for mac because of their dependability, durability and affordability.

Especially for the new Mac users, it seems difficult to find a solution to format local hard drive or external hard drive under Mac OS. In this article, we will introduce some Mac disk formatting software tools to help Mac users easily and securely format hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card or other device under Mac.

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  • Western Digital My Passport 4TB

  • Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt

  • G-Technology G-Drive USB 3.0 4TB

  • Samsung T3 SSD

  • Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC

  • Best External Hard Drive Recovery Software for Mac Adobe reader free download.

1Best External Hard Drive for Mac - Western Digital My Passport 4TB

This hard drive has a 4TB capacity and an Interface of USB 3.0. It is the latest generation of the Western Digital My Passport external hard drives which comes in capacities ranging from 1TB to 4TB and cost about $99.95. It is a brilliant external hard drive that features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, along with WD's own backup software. It has good data transfer speeds and is a good balance between data speed, capacity and affordability.

2Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt External Hard Drive

This unique thunderbolt external hard drive comes in 1TB and 2TB capacity, its interface is the Thunderbolt, USB 3.0. It is not SSD and it is also mac formatted, which means that if you want to make use of your Mac's Thunderbolt port, then this hard drive is for you, as it provides twice the speeds of the standard USB 3.0 drives. It still uses a traditional hard drive so the speed isn’t as fast. It also comes with an additional USB 3.0 port for connecting to computers without the thunderbolt port. It is very affordable costing about $191.25 which is much cheaper than all the other Thunderbolt drives.

3G-Technology G-Drive USB 3.0 4TB External Hard Drive

This hard drive is one of the best external hard drives for mac. It comes in a slim and stylish design and is one of the fastest high capacity hard drives compatible with a Mac, it has a large storage capacity of 4TB with a USB 3.0 interface, as well as an eSATA and FireWire connection. Although it can be noisy, this all-aluminum sturdy hard drive will certainly protect your data from the impact of falls while also keeping the drive cool when it is being used. It is quite affordable as well costing only $149.99.

4Best External Hard Drive for Mac in Speed - Samsung T3 SSD

The Samsung T3 SSD is one of the fastest external hard drive for Mac, it uses a solid state drive, which means that the read and write speeds of this drive are a lot faster than external hard drives which use traditional hard drives. Its speed sets it at a very high price costing about $468.85. Hpeprint mac software download. it also has a lower capacity of 1TB and a USB 3.1 interface but if your main concern is transfer speed then this is the best hard drive for you.

5Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC External Hard Drive

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The Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC is a flexible hard drive which is compatible with both Mac and Windows machines, it has a 2TB capacity and comes in a dust and water resistant casing, it also has a built-in USB 3.0 cable and its rugged casing ensures your data is protected from the impacts of falls. It has a 256-bit AES security and an NFC (Near Field Communication) feature and cost about$106.99.

Best External Hard Drive Recovery Software for Mac

Recovering files from data loss seems difficult most of the time but with the help of some data recovery softwares you can now successfully retrieve lost data easily, the best data recovery software to use is the AnyRecover for Mac.

This software lets you retrieve all types of documents, emails, photos, videos, etc. from your MacBook, iMac and even their external hard drives. You can also retrieve data lost from empting your trash, accidentally deletion, partition errors, virus attack, hardware failure and also formatted device.


Some of the features of the AnyRecover software are:

  • Devices Supported

Hard Drive: SSD, HHD, HDD, VHD

Laptop and Desktop: Internal drive, partition & recycle bin; Windows PC & MAC

  • System Supported

Apple: Mac OS 10.13, Mac OS 10.12, Mac OS X 10.11, Mac OS X 10.9, Mac OS X 10.8, Mac OS X 10.7, Mac OS X 10.6

Microsoft: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP

To easily retrieve lost data from your external hard drive using this software follow these steps:

Step 1. Download and install the AnyRecover software and select the External Device Recovery mode.

Step 2. Connect your external hard drive to your computer, and click on Next to select the file type.

Step 3. Once the scan is completed you will see a preview option that lets you view the scanned files. Click on the “Recover” button to retrieve the lost data.

So if any of your hard drives, computer or device has any data loss problem instead of panicking you can download the AnyRecover for Mac software and follow the simple steps to restore your lost data. If you still feel unsure, you can check out the free trial section before you finally purchase the software.

Download software to external hard drive mac external

Mac OS X do not support writing files into NTFS filesystems by default and you cannot copy files to external hard drive from mac. But Mac do support reading the NTFS drives and copying files from NTFS HDDs. Most of the Mac users don’t know this and will buy portable external hard disks to expand the storage space. If you bought one, don’t worry 3 solutions are for you.

Cannot copy files to external hard drive from mac ?

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Solution 1. Format the Hard disk with ExFat file system (Windows and Mac will fully support it)

Solution 2. A Third party utility to support read and write operations on NTFS file system.

Solution 3. Using simple tweaks play on your Mac OS X.

1. Format the Hard disk with ExFat file system

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If you go for the first solution, simply backup all the data and connect your external hard disk to your MAC and follow the steps

  1. Connect your Portable External Hard drive and open “Disk Utility”
  2. Select the External Disk on the left section, and click on the “ERASE” tab and format as ExFAT file system

2. Third party software for NTFS support on Mac

How To Download Software To External Hard Drive Mac

Software

Second solution is a third party utility that adds NTFS drivers for Mac. Go for “Paragon NTFS for Mac” which is a paid software. Download and install it.

Download Software To External Hard Drive Mac External

If you are using Seagate external hard disk, the download free copy of “Paragon NTFS” thats comes absolutely free and only works with Seagate branded portable hard disks. Download Paragon NTFS for Seagate made Portable Hard disks.

3. NTFS write support for MAC using simple OS X Tweaks

Its a bit skill oriented task, so follow it carefully and at your own risk.

First connect your NTFS Drive into the Mac and open “Terminal” application and run the below command to find the UUID of your External NTFS Hard Disk. (My NTFS HDD name is “TOSHIBA”, Edit with your own Mac HDD name)

diskutil info /Volumes/TOSHIBA | grep UUID

Sample output:

Volume UUID: 45125EB1-E1C3-3D21-9484-32DE22FEF0

Now enable read/write support for the Hard drive (based on UUID) run the below command, edit with your own Disk Volume UUID. This command add read write attribute to the /etc/fstab

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sudo echo “UUID=<UUID> none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse” >> /etc/fstab

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example:

sudo echo “UUID=45125EB1-E1C3-3D21-9484-32DE22FEF0 none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse” >> /etc/fstab

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Now you will be able to perform both read and write to that NTFS formatted Hard drive from that Mac. If you got another NTFS hard drive, Follow the steps again to find that HDD’s UUID and enale the rw/wr .