Apple external hard drive for macbook air

Apple external hard drive for macbook air portable#
Apple external hard drive for macbook air mac#

SSDs are just beginning to become mainstream internal drives for computers, and their capacities arenвЂ™t yet at the вЂњmore than enough spaceвЂќ point. Similarly, donвЂ™t be surprised if a solid state drive (SSD) costs much more and offers lower capacity than a mechanical drive. TheyвЂ™ll typically last longer, which is worth something.

YouвЂ™re better off considering 2TB, 4TB or 5TB units instead.ДonвЂ™t be surprised that longer-lasting drives can cost twice as much asВ basic models. Generally, 3TB to 5TBВ would be the sweet spots between capacity and pricing, but Amazon customer reviews of the 3TB Expansion mirror comments IвЂ™ve seen elsewhereВ online: SeagateвЂ™s 3TB units had lots of problems.

Apple external hard drive for macbook air portable#

The prices for SeagateвЂ™s Backup Plus Slim portable drives are similar up until the 4TB mark, where the price doubles. By вЂњbasic,вЂќ I mean theВ popular Expansion and Backup Plus consumer-grade desktop drives shown above from Seagate, a major (but not top) drive manufacturer with a good (but not great) warranty. That said, there are sweet spots.Д®xpect to pay around $70 for a basic 1TB drive, $85 for 2TB, $100 for 3TB, $120 for 4TB, $150 for 5TB, $250 for 6TB, or $300 for 8TB.

Most people will find that that 4TB is more than enough to hold years of accumulated photos, media files, and data, but thereвЂ™s no wrong answer to the capacity question: itвЂ™s mostly a matter of personal preference right now.

Apple external hard drive for macbook air mac#

ItвЂ™s easy to pick theВ right hard drive capacityВ these days: most external drives now offer at least as much space as a standard Mac (1TB) -В and there are thousands of options to choose fromВ - and you can getВ an 8-Terabyte drive for only $300. But if youвЂ™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. It doesnвЂ™t really matter how the drive looks, just that it will work for a long time. If youвЂ™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. My advice: purchase your drive with a specific purpose in mind. ThatВ lowВ percentage may seem reassuring, but it obscures the reality that heavy drive use increasesВ failures over time, and some drives are much better-suited to heavy use than others. SoВ drive makers switched to aВ different butВ even less useful metric: Annualized Failure Rate (AFR), which estimates the percentage of total drives made that will fail in aВ year due to manufacturing defects.В All anВ AFR of вЂњ0.73%вЂќВ suggestsВ is that 7,300 ofВ 1,000,000 drives will likely develop problems in year oneВ due to defects rather thanВ abuse. Unfortunately, MTBF numbers wereВ only predictionsВ - and often inaccurately high. Desktop drives typically promised higher MTBFs thanВ laptop drives, but there wereВ exceptions. Each year has 61,320 hours, so a drive with aВ MTBF of 300,000 hours would promiseВ to lastВ 4.9В years if actively used 24 hours each day. Hard drive longevity used to be measured with anВ estimate ofВ вЂњMean Time Before FailureвЂќ (MTBF).

However - and this is really important - if you keepВ a typicalВ drive mechanism running 24 hours each dayВ for two years, itвЂ™s going to burn out. TheyвЂ™ll generally last much longer if you donвЂ™t use them every day.

Most hard drives areВ guaranteedВ toВ work for one to two years no matter what you do with them, ranging from occasional backups to continuous video streaming. So in this How-To, IвЂ™m going to discuss the big issues you need to consider, and guide you towards the best external hard drive for your needsвЂ¦ Some hard drives are really cheap but have a higher chance of failing after a year or two of heavy use. For $139!Д«utВ buying an external hard drive isnвЂ™tВ necessarily that simple.В There are a bunch of factors worth considering before making a purchase, including everything from reliability to portability, design, capacity, speed, and connectivity. Or you could storeВ aВ decade worth of digital photos alongside a giant media library. Since Apple doesnвЂ™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. For traditional drives, prices are low, options are numerous, and capacities are so high that your only choices are вЂњenough space,вЂќ вЂњmore than enough space,вЂќ and вЂњway more than enough space.вЂќ I could point you towards a gigantic 5-Terabyte $139 Seagate USB 3.0 hard drive right now and end this articleВ without another paragraph. 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 itвЂ™s ever been before.