LaCie Rugged SafePortable hard drives are small and easy to tote around than typical international desktop drives . Some feature instance plan that slim encroachment shock .
With portable operose drives , USB is king , though there are FireWire and eSATA options ( Macs do not come quip with eSATA ports ) . Some drives arebus - power , which means they draw index from a FireWire or USB connection on your laptop , with no exponent arranger required . But some old laptops do not supply enough USB bus might , so you ’ll have to either use a special cable that connects the surd drive to two USB ports or expend the driving ’s world power transcriber .
There ’s always the probability that you ’ll lose your hard drive , so it ’s wise to secure your data . data point Lockeroffers portable USB 3.0 hard drive that feature computer hardware encryption options and a numeric touch covert where you go into a PIN to unlock the parkway . TheLaCie Rugged Safe($200 to $ 800 ) provides unattackable storage through hardware encoding and fingerprint authorization .
LaCie Rugged Safe
If you do n’t want to spend additional money for a unassailable hard drive and you have Lion on your Mac , you canencrypt a stock portable heavy drive using Disk Utility . There ’s also third - company software package , like the freeTrueCrypt , that cypher content on just about any external drive . Though it ’s not as secure as hardware - based encryption , software encryption can stop all but the savviest hacker from accessing sensitive data point .
Portable hard drives buying advice
CapacityCapacities lay out from 160 GB to 1 TB . If you have slew of medium or graphics files , more is near . More content unremarkably means a bigger snack out of your billfold .
WD My Passport Essential for Mac
surd disk or SSDHard drives , the mechanisms most people expend to store datum , have disk platters that spin inside the case . Asolid - res publica drive(SSD ) expend silicon chip and has no be active section . SSDs are much faster than disk - based drives , but they are more expensive . SSDs also do n’t come in the turgid capacities that you ’ll notice with disk - based parkway .
WD My Passport Essential for Mac
the great unwashed who require the fast data throughput ( telecasting editors , multimedia creators , audio editors ) will gain from SSDs . Most people will do fine with a unconstipated hard drive .
ConnectivityYou’ll use USB or FireWire 800 to link to you Mac . Many portable hard drives are equipped with USB 3.0 interface . While the Mac uses USB 2.0 ports , you may still employ USB 3.0 drives on USB 2.0 ports , but you wo n’t get the speed increases USB 3.0 offers . Many movement feature multiple port wine , but some offer only one ( usually USB or FireWire 800 ) .
USB is a must if you ’re partake the drive between Macs and personal computer , and it ’s your only choice if your Mac does n’t have FireWire .
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini
If you buy a Mac free this class , it probably has a Thunderbolt connector . There ’s only one portable Thunderbolt drive that we are aware of , theLaCie small Big Disk Thunderbolt Series . Keep in psyche that this drive has only Thunderbolt connecter , so you ca n’t connect it to a Mac that does n’t have Thunderbolt .
SpeedThe faster the disk in a strong ride spin , the better the carrying into action is . Most portable hard parkway feature 5400 - rev drives , but faster 7200 - revolutions per minute drives are seem . SSDs are much faster than hard drives , but also more expensive .
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual miniskirt
ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD 120GB
DurabilityFalling off tables , surviving coffee bean spills , getting tossed with the bum at the bottom of your suitcase — these are just a few things portable movement face while serving obligation . If you ’re accident - prone , look for case designs that foreshorten impact shock , preclude sliding , and provide protective port covers to prevent dust bunnies from wreak havoc on your connection .
Added featuresAlmost all USB or FireWire extraneous hard drive are compatible with Time Machine , as long as the drive is HFS+ format . A drive specifically denounce as one for the Mac is normally preformatted using HFS+ . It ’s the ride is n’t formatted for the Mac , you could format it using Disk Utility .
Some drives include extras such as bundled computer software , one - feeling backups , software encryption , and carrying cases .
Our favorite portable hard drives
TheWD My Passport Essential ( ) is a portable hard crusade that fits well into your jeans air hole . It ’s unproblematic to use , really quiet , and offers translate speeds that nearly rival other drives in its class . Read our full review . [ $ 130 for 500 GB ( Get best current price for the WD My Passport Essential);Western Digital ]
TheMercury Elite Pro threefold miniskirt ( ) , Other World Computing ’s portable storage gimmick , is a RAID array that zoomed through our Photoshop examination and register telling speed in our other exam . register our full review . [ $ 220 to $ 1718 , 240 GB to 2 TB ; ( grease one’s palms the Mercury Elite Pro double mini directly;OWC ]
ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD 120GBTheioSafe Rugged Portable SSD 120 GB ( ) is an SSD that is n’t cheap , but it comes with an extensive warranty , and it ’s a perfect sizing for travelling . It does n’t skimp on speed , either . Read our full review . [ $ 499;Buy the ioSafe broken Portable SSD 120 GB directly;ioSafe ]
[ Kris Fong , Roman Loyola , and Mauricio Grijalva bring to this guide . ]
