Now, my sister does use a macbook but she also uses a dell and gaming systems for media. Choose the best external hard drive for your mac or ios. Problem solved macbookmac is not recognizing external. If you dont know it by now, upgrading the ssd in the macbook or imac youre buying will cost you a fortune a lot more than it would to buy an. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac.
How to backup macbook pro to an external hard drive guide. You can offload your data from your macbooks ssd or your imacs fusion drive when it fills up, or keep one plugged in 247 as a store for any. How to transfer your iphone or mac photo library to an external drive. Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. The higher a disks rpm, the faster its working speed. If i did not include the specific external hard drive from apple itself, id be certain to hear about it. Most people who upgrade their macbooks existing hard drive do so because they need extra space. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. Find out which hard drive can help increase your storage or safely back up your mac. Im looking to buy a portable hard drive for a family member and have noticed that a number of sites recommend i buy one meant for apple computers if i intend to use it with a mac.
Now connect the external hard drive to windows 8 computer and format it in fat32 file system. This article covers backing up to a directly connected external hard drive, if you are using time machine to back up to apple time capsule, take a look at this article. External hard drive usb storage for your imac, mac mini. Tips to fix mac doesnt recognize external hard drive on. The best external hard drives for mac in 2019 forbes. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Mac secret trick how to clone mac hard drive with disk. Can i store and run applications on an external drive. Every wsu macbook hard drive is set up the same way. Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want.
Here are the best mac hard drives and external storage options in 2020. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the finder in the lefthand column under devices, since macs treat them the same way as. Traditional hard disks are the most common options of external drives for mac, but you can also use them as laptop internal hard drives. External enclosures are also ideal options if you want to choose a highquality hard drive mechanism for yourself, rather than taking a risk. Ms windows requires reformatting for mac os maximum capacity.
I am thinking of getting a this macbook but the hard drive space is not sufficient. You can offload your data from your macbooks ssd or your imacs fusion drive. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. Simply follow the instructions below to install the latest compatible version of macos or os x on your new hard drive. How to backup a mac to an external hard drive in 2020. If you want to make use of your macs thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated apple friendly drives. Sometimes our macbooks, macbook pros, or macs dont recognize our external drives or external thumb drives. Promise pegasus j2i 8tb internal storage enclosure for mac pro previous gallery image. How to backup your macbook pro to an external hard drive. To see the size of a specific file or folder, click it once and then press commandi. Mac owners have good machines, with plenty of battery life and power.
Seagate stgx2000400 portable 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. I was wondering if i bought an external hard drive for it would i be able to download apps and things onto it. Before trying any other solution, you must look on cable in most case usb cable which you are using while connecting the external hard drive to the mac. One of the best gaming external hard drives for mac silicon power armor a60. To see storage information about your mac, click the apple menu in the topleft of your screen. Storage devices such as external hard drives can also be available. This reduced power draw helps preserve the battery life of the mac you plug the drive into. See my howto guides to ssds for imac, desktop macs, and macbooks here. You probably have a decent bluray collection of your favorite movies, but without a bluray drive, you cant play them on your mac. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. Desktop external hard drives usually run at 7200 rpm to offer all the speed they can. If all settings look useful to you, the removable hard disk not showing up problem might result from the incompatibility between the file system and the macbook, or the corrupted file system of the external hard drive. Mac secret trick how to clone mac hardrive with disk utility hdd sdd macbook pro 20102018 the external case i use this is the samsung ssd i use.
How to backup macbook pro to external hard drive, pro magic. For time machine backups, its good to use a drive that has at least twice the storage capacity of your mac. This drive is compatible with apple time machine as well, and its stylish design adds an overall creative style to your work desk. Now you would be able to use the external hard disk on both the computers. Backing the hard drive up to an external hd is tricky, though, which is why weve put together this guide on how to. We recover all models of apple external hard drives and not only do we recover all models of apple external hard drive hard drives, we recover all sizes too. When you try to plug in the drive again, your mac no longer sees it. Hard drives can vary in cost and storage capacity but even though they are an added expense, they are more than worth it in the worstcase scenario of a broken or stolen macbook. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. How do i connect an external hard drive to my macbook air. Best mac external hard drive in 2020 mac external hard. Having the best external hard drive or ssd for your mac or pc is.
The silicon power armor a60 is a rugged and portable external hard drive that comes with 3 tb storage capacity, militarygrade shockproof body, cable carry design, usb 3. The first step to backing up your macbook pro is to connect your computer to an external hard drive. This situation often occurs after you initially eject the external drive and unplug it from your computer. You can get an apple external hard drive in any size ranging from about 60gb to 20tb, depending on your needs. And once it is connected, how do i find it to see what is on my external hard drive. Buying an external hard drive for your mac is not all that different from buying one. Then the macbook is set up to show up the external hard drive on the desktop and in the finder. Unlike an internal drive which resides hidden inside your macbooks case an external drive is a lean, mean. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Connect the external hard drive to your mac and copy the important data to the mac pc. Connecting an external hard drive to my macbook air. If you want a reliable external hard drive that has a decent amount of storage, is super easy to carry around and has a very affordable price tag, the seagate backup plus slim is the best option for most people.
If the wire has defected, then mac wont recognize the external hard drive on mojave. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. Gtechnology 1tb g drive mobile ssd rseries storage previous gallery image. But buying an external hard drive isnt necessarily that simple. External hard drives, thumb drives, usb drives, flash memory cards, and devices like ipod are examples of storage devices that you can connect to your mac using thunderbolt, usb, or firewire cables, or connect wirelessly using bluetooth. How to make any external hard drive mac compatible abt electronics. Or your thunderbolt or firewire cable to your hard drive.
Do i really need a macspecific external hard drive. How to move apple photos library to external hard drive duration. If you want to make use of your mac s thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. While apple has been going the way of usbc and thunderbolt 3 for a while now. Managing files on your apple macbook hard drive wsu. Best external hard drive for 2011 macbook air more less. Bluray discs are the gold standard in physical video formats right now. Lacie 2tb mobile drive external hard drive usbc usb 3. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc users in. Kindly note that the products chosen below are mainly based on our personal preferences and the guidelines as shown above. So, it doesnt matter if you want a clean slate on a secondhand macbook or if you replaced the drive in your ageold machine, weve got you covered.
Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute rpm, based on how fast the drive can spin. External hard drives, thumb drives, usb drives, flash memory cards, and devices like ipod are examples of storage devices that you can connect to your mac. I recently updated my macbook to the newest update which is macos sierra version 10. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. On its website, apple does sell and recommend the gtechnology made by western digital and lacie external hard drives. I have a seagate 1 terabyte external hard drive that i use regularly on my macbook. Discover the world of portable hard drives for mac. Use external storage devices with mac apple support. Lacie rugged mini 1tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Best external hard drive for 2011 macbook apple community. Meanwhile, imacs, mac pros, mac minis, and the entrylevel macbook air all. If you do need additional hard drive space, consider using an external drive. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Buying an external hard drive for your mac is not all that different from buying one for.
636 752 502 733 1097 658 1271 179 875 1497 440 1209 1001 1576 1149 883 326 6 233 733 1248 1157 950 429 472 1284 111 125 224 1157 1118 507 132 1465 327