- Cheap Portable External Hard Drive
- Cheap External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro 2011
- Mac Pro External Hard Drive
- Internal Hard Drive For Macbook
- Cheap External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro 13 Inch
- Cheap External Hard Drive Enclosure
Question: Q: best external hard drive for macbook pro i'm looking to buy a portable hard drive for my laptop because i have a lot of music and whatnot. Here's the deal though, i'm a college student and have no money, but i don't want to get something cheap that's going to break. Protect the data on your external hard drive with this cloud storage solution IDrive, the cloud storage veteran, delivers tons of storage online for an incredibly small outlay. 5TB for $3.48 for.
Apple has begun to stop installing CD/DVD drives since the introduction of MacBook Air in January 2008. Later, Apple discontinued manufacturing MacBook and iMac with optical drives in 2016 and mid-2011, respectively. With your new Mac devices, you are not able to run CDs or DVDs. For this purpose, you need to rely on external CD/DVD drives. Moreover, you need an external drive to import movies and music to iTunes. If you have got the latest MacBook or iMac (released after 2012 and 2016), you need to buy the best external CD/DVD drives.
1. Apple USB SuperDrive
Apple claims that its USB SuperDrive has everything you need in an optical drive. With simplicity, this external drive has state-of-the-art technology. You can connect this SuperDrive with your MacBook Pro with Retina display, MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac mini with a single USB Type A cable, which is built into this SuperDrive.
The design of this drive is compact as it is slightly bigger than a CD case. You can carry this SuperDrive anywhere in your travel bag or laptop bag. Use this drive on your desk or tray table. Check out the compatible devices.
USP: Compact design
Check out on Apple
Check out on Apple
2. VersionTECH
VersionTECH is one of the leading brands in manufacturing high-quality CD/DVD drives for Mac. The most useful feature on this drive is that there is no eject button. And you are not supposed to use any driver program or extra power supply as it can be powered by the USB port.
VersionTECH has created a stylish design that features a durable metal finish with an elegant silver lid. The ultra-slim drive is convenient to carry anywhere. Among other notable features, this drive boasts are embedded cable, premium wire drawing material, low noise, and high durability.
USP: Ultra-thin design
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
3. LG
LG is a renowned brand in the world of electronics. The brand has also manufactured top-notch accessories like power banks, Bluetooth headphones, keyboards, stylus and more. For your Mac, LG brings an ultra-slim DVD external drive. With its 8X DVD-R writing speed, you can quickly transfer data from your DVD or CD to your MacBook or iMac.
During the style evolution, LG’s optical drive has achieved a new status from slimmer to the slimmest. The product occupies little space on your desk and delivers the best performance every time you insert a CD or DVD.
USP: Superior data protection
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
4. Cocopa
With its high-speed interface of USB 3.0, Cocopa can quickly transmit your data at the maximum speed of 5GBPS. This makes Cocopa an excellent choice of marketing executives, who have to make presentations in offices. The strong fault tolerance gives a stable performance.
For fashion-forward users, Cocopa has used brushed texture shell that gives you a good touch feeling. With its small size, you can carry this portable DVD drive with your laptop anywhere.
USP: Stable performance
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
5. Gipow
Beating USB 2.0 and USB 1.0, Gipow has designed a USB 3.0 external drive for your Mac. Whether it is your movies, videos, or audio contents, you can quickly transfer everything to your Mac. If you don’t want to transfer audio/visual contents, you can watch or listen to the contents directly from the drive.
This CD/DVD drive is compatible with multiple operating systems, apart from macOS. It’s a plug-and-play drive you can install and use without any software or driver.
USP: Fashionable design
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
#6. Rioddas
When I opened the package, I wondered there was no cable attached to this drive. Then I realized that the cable is smartly embedded at the bottom of this drive. This intelligent design can impress any user. This is the best portable drive for Mac owners, who have to travel extensively. The drive doesn’t occupy space in your travel bag or laptop bag.
For better stability on any glossy surface, Rioddas has put a non-slip pad on the bottom. This non-slip pad prevents your drive from falling off your table or desk. The multi-functional CD/DVD drive can burn movies and music.
USP: Embedded cable design
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
7. ISKE
Unlike other external CD/DVD drives that show eject button, ISKE doesn’t have that eject button. When you want to eject a CD or DVD from the drive, you can perform this action from your Mac.
ISKE’s external drive boasts intelligent design as it offers embedded cable design; users should not underrate this feature as it can protect the cable and makes your drive more portable.
USP: No eject button
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
8. Botee
Botee has come up with a unique feature: voltage stabilization system. This system avoids high or low voltage lead. Thus, it can protect your computer from any damage. Bootee offers you free lifetime product warranty, 30-day product replacement or refund.
Universal compatibility of this drive enables it to work with multiple operating systems aside from macOS. This means you can smoothly transfer your data from Windows computer to Mac or vice versa.
USP: Voltage stabilization
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
#9. ivkey
ivkey presents unique design in its external CD drive that works with USB 3.0 high-speed interface. For faster data transmission speed, use this product and achieve a maximum speed of up to 5GBPS. Along with speed, you get stable performance and strong fault tolerance.
Ivkey has unparalleled intelligent burning technology and brand new chip to correct the errors. You can play your audio/visual contents without any log or distortion.
Cheap Portable External Hard Drive
USP: Intelligent burning technology
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
10. VicTsing
VicTsing brings a multi-function external CD/DVD drive with which you can watch DVD movies, burn files, music, videos to another CD or DVD. You can also install software and create backup discs etc.
VicTsing offers robust anti-shock and noise-reduction technology. The drive consumes low power, and it can be powered by the USB port; you are not supposed to use any external adapter. Don’t miss its slim and lightweight design, which provides a stylish appearance.
USP: Error-correction ability
Check out on Amazon
Check out on Amazon
That’s all!
Summing up…
How to design a logo on macbook air. For smooth, hassle-free, fast, and secure transmission of your data, external CD/DVD drive is the best solution for your Mac. Note that you can buy any CD or DVD with maximum data storage capacity and then transfer your data from one computer to another.
You may also like to refer:
Which external CD/DVD drive would you like to buy for your Mac?
Jignesh Padhiyar is the co-founder of iGeeksBlog.com who has a keen eye for news, rumors and all the unusual stuff that happens around Apple products. During his tight schedule, Jignesh finds some moments of respite to share side-splitting contents on social media.
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Getting a new, more capacious external hard drive for Mac is good idea. Let’s admit it: cloud storages aren’t for everybody. After all, a “cloud” is just another term for somebody else’s computer. And they cost money. On the other hand, you could upgrade your Mac’s current drive but this is a too extreme approach in complexity. So below we’ve collected a few tips to help you choose the best external hard drive for Mac so you can get most value and a bigger bang for your buck.
But let’s start off with the list of basic parameters. These will outline your search for backup hard drive for Mac:
- Storage capacity
- Data security and backup
- USB speed and data transfer speed
- Raid configuration
- Protective physical layer
- Buffer size
- Failure rate stats
- Warranty
- And yeah, cost, obviously
Tip # 1. Decide between SSD and HDD
External storage solutions come in these 2 varieties. SSD (solid state drives) are like big USB flash drives with multiple memory chips to store data, whereas HDDs are rotating magnetic disks. If you need more room to store gigabytes of data (videos or photos), you should consider getting an HDD. If your purpose is to get more memory for your Mac’s operating system and apps, then an SSD would be just the right option.
SSD: more speedy, more resistant to shocks, thinner (lighter)
HDD: slower, louder, offer more capacity, cheaper (per 1 GB of storage)
To make your choice even trickier, there also hybrid drives. These are regular HDDs with an SSD memory block attached, so you get the best of both worlds — speed and capacity within one device. At this point, think why do you need an external hard drive for your Mac in the first place: if it’s for backup and storing the sensitive data, simply go with an HDD.
HDD: slower, louder, offer more capacity, cheaper (per 1 GB of storage)
To make your choice even trickier, there also hybrid drives. These are regular HDDs with an SSD memory block attached, so you get the best of both worlds — speed and capacity within one device. At this point, think why do you need an external hard drive for your Mac in the first place: if it’s for backup and storing the sensitive data, simply go with an HDD.
Tip # 2. Free up space on your existing drive
Before getting an external Mac storage device, plow through the garbage on your existing one. This might save you dozens of gigabytes worth of data. For the most part, it’s old downloads, large media files (and their duplicates), application cache, old iOS backups and, finally, old apps you never use.
In my experience, the best cleanup results are achieved with a dedicated app. I was skeptical about Mac cleaning apps until I came across CleanMyMac X, as it’s the easiest of all. And really does the job as advertised. My first scan got me around 50 GB back under wrongly deleted volume — I was wondering where my disk space was going!
Here you can download the free version from developer’s site.
Tip # 3. Consider getting a NAS external hard-drive for Mac
There are lots of alternatives even within the HDD domain. If you need to process anything over 2 TB of storage, consider a NAS drive. Network-Attached-Storage (NAS) is a shared storage connected to your network router that everyone within your network can access. It’s a good solution for manipulating large size data, like your media backups.
How do they work? NAS boxes are connected to your router via an Ethernet cable. It’s worth mentioning, that some NAS drives are Mac-friendly and pre-configured to store Mac’s native Time Machine backups. This comes handy to free your macOS from extra copies of itself.
Apple’s Airport Time Capsule (though now discontinued by Apple) is a pretty expensive NAS solution, basically, a WI-FI router and NAS drive in one body. What’s good about it is its native integration with Mac, which makes the messy backup business at least partly human. Discus cd labeling software mac. It can even backup from with multiple Mac hard drives within your network.
Tip # 4. Read about RAID drives before buying HDD for Mac
Cheap External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro 2011
Having to choose external hard drive for Mac, take a minute to learn about RAID drives. RAID are multiple hard drives that can be combined in one set. If combined properly, 2 hard drives may double write and read speeds because the data gets split between the two. Variations of RAIDs (RAID0, RAID5 etc) specify how exactly the data is split between your Mac external hard drive.
Mac Pro External Hard Drive
One more use is protection against data loss. Should one drive fail for some reason, the data will be duplicated on a second one. Also, the space issue. 2 hard disks will store 2 times more data, so from your Mac’s perspective, it will look like one single HDD twice as capacious.
Should you bother with RAID when choosing best external hard drive for Mac? Probably not, unless you’re using a ton of data and a quick data extraction is critical to you. For individual use, standard HDD will do just fine.
Tip # 5. Study the failure rate of your external drive
Internal Hard Drive For Macbook
Each manufacturer claims their HDD is the most reliable but the fact is, some hard drives fail more often than others. AFR (annual failure rate) is a scientific method to prove that. According to Google, annual failure rate is 8% for drives after 2 years in service. In other words, one out of 12 drives will fail. Here is a chart by Backblaze that should give you an idea which team wins in the reliability tournament. As you can see, even for one manufacturer the failure rate varies from model to model.
Tip # 6. Choose your preferable speed
It’s not as if it’s Formula One case, but HDD spindle speed issue is pretty vital. There 4 standard options: 5400, 7200, 10000, 15000 rpm. If you make music or videos on your Mac, you might go for the best speed available on the market which is 10.000 — to 15.000 rpm. Though, the faster an external drive for Mac is, the less capacity it offers.
Tip # 7. Buy an HDD that sports USB 3.0 (or better)
Cheap External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro 13 Inch
Your external Mac hard drive will have many connection options. Anything lower than USB 3.0 is already outdated nowadays, so it should be your minimal starting point. Thunderbolt 3 or USB Type-C is the fastest port on Mac. It’s advertised as being able to copy 14 hours of HD video in less than a minute. So make sure your portable hard-drive for Mac is Thunderbolt-3 compatible.
Tip # 8. Consider portability
Depending on their physical size there are several external drive options. We assume you are not a company and don’t need the large enterprise-class drive (used for running servers). This means you’ll likely be choosing between standard desktop-class drive (with spinning platters) and slimmer SSD options, more resembling USB drives.
Standard desktop drives offer capacities of around 8 TB which should be perfect to store your movies and photos collection. These desktop-class external hard drives for Mac rely on wall power supply and they lack portability. Portable hard drives for Mac, on the other hand, are powered by your computer and can be surprisingly tiny nowadays. Here’s the golden formula to keep in mind: considering capacity, size and cheap price, be prepared that you can’t have all 3 at the same time. Want your drive to be very small and very capacious? Then, there’s no way it can be cheap. And likewise, if you aim at a cheap and capacious drive, it can’t possibly be small in size — you get the idea.
Standard desktop drives offer capacities of around 8 TB which should be perfect to store your movies and photos collection. These desktop-class external hard drives for Mac rely on wall power supply and they lack portability. Portable hard drives for Mac, on the other hand, are powered by your computer and can be surprisingly tiny nowadays. Here’s the golden formula to keep in mind: considering capacity, size and cheap price, be prepared that you can’t have all 3 at the same time. Want your drive to be very small and very capacious? Then, there’s no way it can be cheap. And likewise, if you aim at a cheap and capacious drive, it can’t possibly be small in size — you get the idea.
Cheap External Hard Drive Enclosure
Extra tips before buying external drive for MacBook Pro
- Locate large hidden files on your Mac with CleanMyMac X. You can download the free version of the app here.
- After purchase, don’t convert your Mac external HDD to APFS — it’s not supported yet
- Buy a drive that has larger cache (or buffer) size, 32 MB is a golden middle
- Never trust all your data to a single backup volume, it too may fail
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