I feel old saying this, but having used computers since before external hard drives existed, I can say with certainty that buying a hard drive is easier today than it’s ever been before. For traditional drives, prices are low, options are numerous, and capacities are so high that your only choices are “enough space,” “more than enough space,” and “way more than enough space.” I could point you towards a and end this article without another paragraph. Since Apple doesn’t even sell a Mac with that much disk space, you could back up five (or more) computers to that drive without running out of room. Or you could store a decade worth of digital photos alongside a giant media library.

But buying an external hard drive isn’t necessarily that simple. There are a bunch of factors worth considering before making a purchase, including everything from reliability to portability, design, capacity, speed, and connectivity. Some hard drives are really cheap but have a higher chance of failing after a year or two of heavy use. So in this How-To, I’m going to discuss the big issues you need to consider, and guide you towards the best external hard drive for your needs Quick Overview Most hard drives are guaranteed to work for one to two years no matter what you do with them, ranging from occasional backups to continuous video streaming. They’ll generally last much longer if you don’t use them every day. However — and this is really important — if you keep a typical drive mechanism running 24 hours each day for two years, it’s going to burn out. Hard drive longevity used to be measured with an estimate of “Mean Time Before Failure” (MTBF). Each year has 61,320 hours, so a drive with a MTBF of 300,000 hours would promise to last 4.9 years if actively used 24 hours each day.

Desktop drives typically promised higher MTBFs than laptop drives, but there were exceptions. Unfortunately, MTBF numbers were only predictions — and often inaccurately high. Consumers complained. So drive makers switched to a different but even less useful metric: Annualized Failure Rate (AFR), which estimates the percentage of total drives made that will fail in a year due to manufacturing defects. All an AFR of “0.73%” suggests is that 7,300 of 1,000,000 drives will likely develop problems in year one due to defects rather than abuse. That low percentage may seem reassuring, but it obscures the reality that heavy drive use increases failures over time, and some drives are much better-suited to heavy use than others. My advice: purchase your drive with a specific purpose in mind.

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If you’re backing up precious photos, home videos, or important files, buy a name brand, desktop-sized hard drive from a company with a track record of reliability, and pay a little more for it. It doesn’t really matter how the drive looks, just that it will work for a long time. But if you’re just using a drive to store apps, games, or iTunes movies that you can easily re-download at any time, or only intermittently turn a drive on for backups, you can feel comfortable going with something cheaper, more portable, or fancier-looking. Capacity + Pricing It’s easy to pick the right hard drive capacity these days: most external drives now offer at least as much space as a standard Mac (1TB) — and there are — and you can get an. Most people will find that that 4TB is more than enough to hold years of accumulated photos, media files, and data, but there’s no wrong answer to the capacity question: it’s mostly a matter of personal preference right now. That said, there are sweet spots. Expect to pay around,.

By “basic,” I mean the popular and consumer-grade desktop drives shown above from Seagate, a major (but not top) drive manufacturer with a good (but not great) warranty. The are similar up until the 4TB mark, where the price doubles. Generally, 3TB to 5TB would be the sweet spots between capacity and pricing, but of the 3TB Expansion mirror comments I’ve seen elsewhere online: Seagate’s 3TB units had lots of problems. You’re better off considering 2TB, 4TB or 5TB units instead. Don’t be surprised that longer-lasting drives can cost twice as much as basic models.

They’ll typically last longer, which is worth something. Similarly, don’t be surprised if a solid state drive (SSD) costs much more and offers lower capacity than a mechanical drive. SSDs are just beginning to become mainstream internal drives for computers, and their capacities aren’t yet at the “more than enough space” point. Reliability Since MTBF and AFR are such sketchy measures of hard drive reliability, I suggest that you focus on two more tangible factors: the reputation of the manufacturer, and the length of the drive’s warranty. A three-year warranty is the best you can expect from a consumer-grade external drive from a top vendor, regardless of whether it’s a. (Only the very best internal SSDs now offer and, though notably with much less storage space than the drives covered in this article. See my How-To guides to, and.) If reliability is your major concern, as it generally is mine, I’d suggest you look most seriously at (featuring ultra-reliable Hitachi hard drive mechanisms) and, all of which have three-year warranties.

I G-Tech’s excellent for 9to5Mac, and have trusted their earlier drives for many years without any issues. Was covered in my, and while it’s more expensive and lower-capacity than the G-Drive USB, it has no moving parts to worry about. Go with a G-Drive if you need a large reliable drive, or T1 if you want something small and reliable. Portability + Design There are five major types of external hard drives:,. The first two use 3.5″ hard drive mechanisms and are effectively non-portable: they sit on your desk, depend on wall power, and aren’t easy to carry in typical bags. Flash drives are keychain-sized but relatively limited in capacity and crazy expensive when they begin to approach laptop drive capacities. So if you need a portable hard drive with respectable storage capacity at a reasonable price, you’ll most likely pick a laptop-class drive with a 2.5″ hard drive mechanism inside.

Owned by Seagate, boutique drive maker LaCie’s lineup nicely illustrates the relative size differences between the categories of external drives, though there are even smaller laptop and slim laptop drives out there now. In January, I both, the world’s thinnest external mechanical hard drive, and, a boxy mirrored drive with twice the capacity.

Both use USB 3.0 for data and power, with no need for an external power supply. Either one can easily fit into a laptop bag, backpack, or purse, but Seven is much, much smaller. If you want a portable, reliable hard drive at a low price with minimal design frills, consider, which have a. But if you’re looking for something with a distinctive design — and willing to compromise a little on long-term reliability — are definitely the best around. Pick the one that appeals to your personal taste.

Speed, Connectivity, iOS Compatibility, and Apple’s AirPort Time Capsules A lot could be said about each of these topics, but I’ll save you some time and cut to the chase: recent developments mean that most people will be best off with USB 3.0 wired drives, except under one of three circumstances: you need incredible speed for Mac video editing, you want to stream video to your iOS devices, or you want to do automated wireless backups. If you’re planning on doing 4K or other disk-intensive Mac video editing, Thunderbolt hard drives such as or can deliver dramatically better speeds than drives that share your Mac’s USB bus. They’re much more expensive than comparably capacious USB drives, but they’re built for professional use, and priced accordingly. That said, USB 3.0 drives tend to outperform prior-generation FireWire 800 drives, which were adequate for pre-4K editing, so most users will have no need to look for faster options. If you’re concerned about real-world speeds for a USB drive, check the manufacturer’s stated “up to XXXMB/second transfer rates” claims and subtract around 10-20% for real world performance. If you want to use your hard drive to store content that can also be streamed to your iOS device, consider or, which offer integrated Wi-Fi streaming, a built-in battery for completely wireless operation, and USB connectivity for synchronization.

I’ve tested both, and while Seagate’s version has the edge on pricing, speed, and battery performance, My Passport Wireless has an SD slot built in to back up your digital photos on the road. IOS users will have a better experience with the Wireless Plus, while Mac users and digital photographers with infrequent iOS needs may prefer My Passport Wireless. Go with the one that best suits your needs. Last but not least, if you want to do automated wireless backups, consider — but think carefully about — an. I currently use the latest version of Time Capsule, which has been completely redesigned and has fast 802.11ac wireless with your choice of a or hard drive. On a positive note, it works completely as expected, and although the initial Time Machine backup process for a large Mac hard drive is incredibly slow, incremental backups later on are fine. My concerns are mostly in reliability and pricing.

I’ve had two prior-generation Time Capsules experience hard drive issues, and though Apple may have fixed those problems with the new model, it’s very easy to go out and buy a standalone drive for much less. I’m not a big fan of wireless drives right now, but continue to hope that wireless technology will catch up with the demands of current machines. All of my important files are on a wired, and they will probably stay there for the foreseeable future. Author, lawyer, and award-winning restaurateur Jeremy Horwitz started his journalism career in the early 1990’s, covering video games as a freelancer for numerous publications before creating and running Ziff Davis’s Intelligent Gamer magazine. A graduate of Cornell Law School, he previously ran editorial for the Apple-centric site iLounge and created the historic iLounge Pavilion at CES before joining 9to5Mac and 9to5Toys as a Senior Editor. A lifelong consumer electronics expert and gourmet, he now focuses on the changing ways people work, play, eat, and travel.

His Spanish restaurant Aro Bar de Tapas won Best New Restaurant (Opened 2015-2016), Best Charcuterie, Best Craft Cocktails, and Best Desserts awards.

Hi guys I recently installed Windows 8 on an external SSD for my Mac. In the end the process was quite straightforward, but there were quite a few hurdles along the way.

I found a lot of useful information here on these forums, so I just wanted to say a big thank you and to post my guide here. Hopefully it will save other people some time.

(Sorry for not replying to the other posts directly, but I didn't want to cross-post on so many different threads). I know not everyone likes Microsoft or Windows, but that aside, for those who want and/or need Windows 8 on an external SSD, here's what worked for me. There are many other ways of doing this (for example, you could change the internal drive instead), but adding an external drive is fairly simple and brings with it a fair amount of flexibility. What You'll Need In brief:. A modern Mac (obviously ^^). A Thunderbolt (or USB 3.) hard-drive enclosure.

An SSD drive (if not included with the enclosure). A DVD drive. Windows 8. Boot Camp drivers. A blank DVD (a single-layer DVD-R is fine). A USB flash drive or SD card. Update: Sorry for any confusion, but it seems installing Windows 8 on an external USB 3 drive may be more difficult than expected.

However, Lyyrad has managed this, so. In detail:.

A modern Mac: To get the most out of this, you'll need a Mac made in 2011 or thereafter, as you'll need an IO port fast enough to accommodate an SSD drive. 2011 saw the introduction of Thunderbolt and 2012 brought USB 3 too, both of which are fine for our needs. Firewire 800 and USB 2 may be just about okay for older HDDs, but they'll ruin any speed benefits that an SSD would bring.

A Thunderbolt (or USB 3) hard-drive enclosure: This is essentially just a case with a small logic board that allows a SATA drive to connect with your Mac. Although Thunderbolt is the fastest and perhaps the most elegant solution, it also carries a large price premium. USB 3 enclosures, whilst not as fast, still offer more than enough bandwidth for our needs and are also cheaper and more readily available.

However, the is not as simple. See the Some Buying Advice below for more advice. An SSD drive: Although you could use a regular HDD or hybrid drive (like the ), SSDs will bring much improved performance and are now cheap and stable enough for everyday use. Depending on the enclosure you choose, you may or may not have to buy an SSD separately. A DVD drive: Depending on your Mac, you may or may not already have one of these. If you don't, thankfully an external USB DVD drive should work fine, just as long as you can boot from it.

We'll need this in order to correctly install Windows 8. Windows 8: Microsoft are currently offering a cheap Windows 8 Pro upgrade for existing Windows users, so be sure to buy before January 31, 2013. If you already have Windows 7 installed on your Mac, be sure to purchase the Windows 8 upgrade on this machine, as the installer will check your apps and devices for compatibility and also help to download the right version (i.e. If you're using Windows 7 x64, the installer will download Windows 8 x64).

Boot Camp drivers: You can download these using Boot Camp Assistant on your Mac. Boot Camp 5.x is around 655 MB, so it'll easily fit on a USB drive or SD card (or even a CD-R, if that's how you roll ). A blank DVD: I know, I know, but we need to burn the Windows 8 upgrade to DVD in order to ensure maximum compatibility. If you purchased a Windows 8 retail disk instead, then you can ignore this requirement. A USB flash drive or SD card: This is just for storing the Boot Camp drivers on.

Ssd Drives For Mac

For your reference, my setup:. 2011 iMac.

Buffalo Ministation Thunderbolt enclosure. Plextor M5S 256 GB SSD. Windows 8 Pro x64 (upgrade). Boot Camp 5 Some Buying Advice If you already have your hard-drive enclosure and drive, you can skip this part. If not, feel free to read on.

Enclosures USB 3 Pros and Cons. + Cheap.

+ Plenty of choice. + Compatible with more PCs. + Should allow Windows to correctly enter standby mode. More difficult to install compared to Thunderbolt (please read ). Not as fast as Thunderbolt (although for our purposes this probably isn't an issue) Remember to check if the enclosure supports SATA III drives, as some older/cheaper enclosures only support SATA I/II. This isn't the end of the world, as SATA standards are backwards compatible, but if your SSD is rated as SATA III (6 Gbps), then I'd choose a SATA III enclosure too. Also note that some USB 3 enclosures require a small power brick, whereas others are bus-powered (either requiring one or two USB ports depending on the model you choose).

Again, it all works out the same, but bus-powered drives are generally more portable. Finally, USB 2 drives (and Firewire ones too) will be rejected by the Windows installer as the connection speed is probably deemed too slow. There are workarounds, but really you will need at least USB 3 for a satisfactory experience. I got some problems installing windows 8 on my external LaCie Thunderbolt SSD 512Gb. (I have removed the raid on and currently using one ssd for os x and the other one for windows 8 but no success.) Here is what I have done so far, feel free to correct me on what I'm doing wrong.

(I'm very new to mac). I have made a usb stick with windows 8 on it with bootcamp. (don't have a dvd unit). Made a 1Gb fat partition on the internal harddrive plus its bootable (used ubuntu for it). Created one single partition on the ssd which is going to have windows 8 on it. Managed to format it to ntfs when installing windows 8 but after formating it can't be installed on. Tried format it in ubuntu as well no luck.

Imac 27' 2012 These are the messages I get. I got some problems installing windows 8 on my external LaCie Thunderbolt SSD 512Gb. (I have removed the raid on and currently using one ssd for os x and the other one for windows 8 but no success.) Here is what I have done so far, feel free to correct me on what I'm doing wrong. (I'm very new to mac). I have made a usb stick with windows 8 on it with bootcamp.

(don't have a dvd unit). Made a 1Gb fat partition on the internal harddrive plus its bootable (used ubuntu for it).

Created one single partition on the ssd which is going to have windows 8 on it. Managed to format it to ntfs when installing windows 8 but after formating it can't be installed on. Tried format it in ubuntu as well no luck.

Imac 27' 2012 These are the messages I get. Would love to get Windows 8 working. Help is very much appreciated. First of all, thanks a lot for this tutorial! I just followed it and I now have Windows 8 booting from my LaCie Rugged drive!

A couple of points that may be useful to people. Rather than upgrading from Windows 7 (which I may want to install somewhere else at some stage), I thought I may as well upgrade from my old Windows XP disc that was sitting around doing nothing. I installed XP on to Parallels and upgrade process went smoothly, until it got to the stage of making a disc to install from. Apparently this option only exists when you upgrade from Windows 7 (and possibly Vista), with XP you can only upgrade directly from the hard drive.

Luckily, by downloading the files again on Windows 7 (using the link in the email from MS), I could create an installation disc that way. It asks you for your serial number, but doesn't seem to care that you're on Windows 7 and the upgrade was for Windows XP. Minor point, but you mentioned the LaCie Rugged is a very orange! That's true, though the orange sleeve is removable. Once you take that off, it looks fine sitting next to an iMac (this video, just after the 2 minute mark shows the sleeve removed: ) Thanks again! Very helpful tutorial!

Click to expand.No, sorry, I haven't been able to test this myself. My iMac is a 2011 model, so it only supports USB 2.

I have/u tried USB 2, and I know the Windows installer refuses to proceed on external USB 2 drives (maybe it can be hacked, but I'm not sure). USB 3 should work, because it's fast enough and Windows 8 includes native USB 3 drivers, but I can't test this myself. A small, but important update to the original guide: it seems you do need a partition on your internal drive in order for Windows 8 to install correctly. If you just try:.

External Ssd For Mac

Internal drive: OS X (HFS+). External drive: Windows 8 (NTFS) Then the Windows 8 installer will complain about not being able to partition the (external) drive or something like that. You're then left with no choice but to quit the install process. To fix this, just create a partition on the internal drive before you begin the Windows 8 install. It can be small (20 MB should be enough), but you can make it much larger if you want to use it like any other normal partition. OS X's Disk Utility doesn't support formatting new partitions as NTFS, but you can use FAT32 first then use the Windows installer to format it again as NTFS. You'll then have:.

Internal drive: OS X (HFS+), Windows 8 'boot' (NTFS). External drive: Windows 8 'proper' (NTFS) You still select the external drive when installing, but now Windows will use the internal partition to store its boot manager files, and all the other files will be installed on external drive. This way OS X's Startup Disk is also happy, because it can recognize a Windows installation on the internal hard drive, even though the actual Windows 8 files are all on the external drive. You can stop reading now, but in case you're curious, Windows 8's Disk Management app should show your drives as follows:. Internal drive: OS X 'proper' (HFS+), OS X 'recovery' (HFS+), Windows 8 'boot' (NTFS, marked 'System, Active'). External drive: Windows 8 'proper' (NTFS, marked 'Boot' and many other things) In Windows parlance, a 'system' partition is where the boot manager is located ('active' just means that partition can be used to boot into Windows).

External Ssd Hard Drive Mac

Confusingly, the 'boot' partition is where the actual copy of Windows resides. Normally the 'system' and 'boot' partitions are one and the same, but here the Windows 8 installer separates them and then automatically links everything together so Windows starts up normally.

Like I say, you don't need to know this, but just don't worry if your 'system' and 'boot' partition aren't the same. Merry Christmas!

As an update, I got Windows 8 installed to an external USB 3 Drive using a MacBook Pro Retina 15'. I followed the instructions in post to create a Windows 8 To Go drive.

I can then boot by pressing ALT upon startup. I did notice in that thread that some people were experiencing issues with certain USB 3 enclosures. I'm using the BlacX 5G after installing the UASP firmware update. I do notice that after a reboot, the drive isn't detected, but unplugging and plugging it back in gets it to appear. I installed the Boot Camp drivers and they seem to work fine.

I'm using a regular disk drive, but I'll probably get an SSD for this setup later. As an update, I got Windows 8 installed to an external USB 3 Drive using a MacBook Pro Retina 15'. I followed the instructions in post to create a Windows 8 To Go drive. I can then boot by pressing ALT upon startup. I did notice in that thread that some people were experiencing issues with certain USB 3 enclosures. I'm using the BlacX 5G after installing the UASP firmware update.

I do notice that after a reboot, the drive isn't detected, but unplugging and plugging it back in gets it to appear. I installed the Boot Camp drivers and they seem to work fine. I'm using a regular disk drive, but I'll probably get an SSD for this setup later. Click to expand.Sorry you're still having problems, Gascogne I previously encountered a similar problem when messing around with my partitions, and the following helped me to fix the 'winload' error.

It's all detailed on, but basically we're going to try to fix the broken Windows boot manager: Update: I just saw your edit. I guess you did the following and none of it worked? Click to expand.That's odd There's maybe two more things to check before you start from scratch: 1. Check the boot manager is correct Back in the command prompt above, type bcdedit /v You'll then see your boot manager information.

Check the first part ('Windows Boot Manager'):. 'device' is on an internal drive partition. 'default' (a long ID) is the same ID as your Windows Thunderbolt drive partition below Now check the second part ('Windows Load Manager'):. 'device' is on your Windows Thunderbolt drive partition.

'path' is something like ' Windows system32 winload.exe'. 'osdevice' is the same partition letter as 'device'. 'systemroot' is ' Windows' If all this is correct, next let's check the partitions are correct.