Finest Exterior SSD For Mac 2024

We appreciated the sturdy little XS2000 drive that Kingston launched again in 2022, however it was fairly costly and used a model of USB referred to as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which isn’t totally supported on the Mac for the time being. Drives that use ‘Gen 2×2’ will nonetheless work with a Mac, however the Mac received’t get the complete pace that the drive is able to. Nevertheless, Kingston has now launched a extra reasonably priced mannequin referred to as the XS1000. It is a extra typical USB-C drive, utilizing normal USB 3.2 Gen 2, so it’s a superb, reasonably priced possibility for Mac customers who simply desire a compact, light-weight backup drive.

The XS1000 is without doubt one of the smallest and lightest SSDs that we’ve seen to date – in truth, it seems to be extra like slightly USB thumb drive, relatively than a high-capacity backup drive. It measures simply 13.5mm thick, 32.5mm vast and 69.5mm lengthy, and weighs solely 28.7g, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your shirt or trouser pocket whenever you’re touring. It’s not fairly as rugged because the costlier XS2000 – which had an IP55 ranking for water and dirt resistance – however the plastic and steel casing feels sturdy sufficient to deal with a couple of knocks whenever you’re touring, and Kingston gives a five-year guarantee as properly.

It’s very competitively priced too, costing $84.99/£74.99 with 1TB of storage, or $109.99/£99.99 with 2TB. The drive’s USB interface gives a quoted write pace of 1000MBs, whereas the learn pace is barely greater at 1050MB/s. It didn’t fairly match these speeds in our checks, however its write pace of 875MB/s and skim pace of 950MB/s will nonetheless be positive for routine back-ups with Time Machine. Our solely criticism is that Kingston solely features a USB-A-to-USB-C cable with the XS1000, so that you’ll want to purchase an adaptor or a brand new cable in case your Mac solely has USB-C. Skilled customers may desire a sooner drive, or a extra rugged design, however when you simply need an reasonably priced backup drive that may go touring with you then the XS1000 is nice worth for cash.

Many transportable drives use a normal USB-C port for connecting to a Mac or PC, however SanDisk’s Professional-G40 opts for a high-speed Thunderbolt 3 port to offer most efficiency for skilled customers who must work with massive video and graphics information (and, in fact, it’s backward-compatible with USB-C as properly).

The Professional-G40 was first launched in 2022, and was already on our checklist of the very best SSD drives for Mac, however this present mannequin gives each improved efficiency and better capability to your work information. The design hasn’t modified although, with a compact, transportable drive that measures simply 12mm thick, 58mm vast and 111mm lengthy. It weighs simply over 120g – relying on the capability you select – so you’ll be able to slip it right into a jacket pocket or right into a carrying case alongside your MacBook with no hassle in any respect. The drive can also be extraordinarily powerful, with a sturdy steel case that’s rated IP68 – one of many highest rankings doable – for resistance to water, mud and different particles. Western Digital, which now owns the SanDisk model, additionally claims that the drive can survive drops from a top of 3m, and might stand up to crushing strain of as much as 4000lbs. The drive even features a five-year guarantee as properly.

The 2022 model of the Professional-G40 offered learn and write speeds of 2700MB/s and 1900MB/s respectively when utilizing the Thunderbolt cable included within the field, however the present mannequin is rated at 3000MB/s for learn and 2500MB/s for write speeds. Our checks confirmed it to be completely spot-on for write efficiency, persistently hitting 2500MB/s. The learn efficiency didn’t fairly hit the quoted 3000MB/s, settling at simply over 27000MB/s, however that’s nonetheless far sooner than most USB-C drives, and gives the form of efficiency that skilled customers want for backing up their work information.

That mixture of excessive efficiency and ultra-rugged design does imply that the Professional-G40 is kind of a bit costlier than many USB-C drives, so it’s in all probability overkill when you simply want an reasonably priced transportable drive for backing up private information. Nevertheless, skilled customers will probably be happy to seek out that the value of the Professional-G40 has been lowered not too long ago, with the 1TB mannequin now costing $299.99/£294.99, whereas the 2TB model is $449.99/£441.99. And, as talked about, there’s a brand new 4TB model to offer further capability, priced at $699.99/£687.99.

We usually manage evaluations of transportable drives and desktop drives individually, however the brand new SanDisk Professional Blade is a modular SSD storage system that could be very a lot designed for skilled and inventive customers, and permits you to swap between transportable and desktop modes as required.

You can begin by shopping for the Professional Blade SSD Magazine, which is a solid-state storage module that’s obtainable in 1TB, 2TB or 4TB sizes (the 1TB was discounted from $179.99 to $119.99 on the time of our overview). The SSD Magazine is pre-formatted in APFS format for Mac customers, and is hard sufficient to face up to being dropped from a top of three meters or 9.8 foot, and stand up to 4000lb (1814kg) crush strain, making it ideally suited for out of doors use. Nevertheless, the SSD Magazine modules can’t connect with a pc on their very own, so SanDisk gives two choices for transportable and desktop use.

For transportable use you should purchase the Professional Blade Transport, which is a compact case for the SSD Magazine, and is supplied with a USB-C port for connecting to your Mac. The Transport measures simply 130.4mm lengthy, 71.5mm vast and 16mm thick, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your pocket or a carrying case similar to another transportable drive. It’s additionally doable to attach the Transport to a digital camera that has a USB-C interface to be able to document high-res video relatively than having to hold a lot of smaller SD reminiscence playing cards.

While you get again to the workplace you even have the choice of inserting the SSD Magazine modules into the Professional Blade Station ($499.99/£490.99). This desktop storage system doesn’t embody any built-in storage of its personal, however it has 4 slots that help you insert SSD Magazine modules (not included) offering as much as 16TB of high-speed solid-state storage. The Professional Blade Station has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, with one used to attach your Mac, whereas the opposite port can be utilized to daisy-chain extra storage units if required. The Professional Blade Station is pretty costly – provided that it doesn’t embody any storage of its personal – however it offers you the choice of making a high-speed, high-capacity SSD storage system to be used in your workplace, while additionally having the ability to take away the person SSD Magazine modules and use them as transportable drives every time you might want to.

Western Digital – which owns SanDisk as of late – claims that the Professional Blade Station can present learn and write speeds of 3000MB/s and 2600MB/s respectively. Our checks really recorded a learn pace of 2600MB/s and write pace of 2300MB/s, however that’s nonetheless one of many quickest SSD drives we’ve ever seen, making it a superb possibility for artistic customers who want a quick storage system that they will use each within the workplace and on the highway.

The LaCie Transportable SSD is an possibility for individuals who don’t want James Bond ranges of safety. Accessible with 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage, the Transportable SSD has a brand new design in comparison with its predecessor. Moderately than sharply angular corners and edges of the now discontinued LaCie Cell SSD, the compact Transportable SSD has easily spherical corners – maybe following Apple’s latest fetish for rounded corners on icons in Large Sur and Monterey.

It’s smaller and lighter than earlier drives from LaCie too, measuring simply 0.4in/10.6mm thick, 1.9in/50mm vast, and 3in/80mm lengthy, and it weighs a mere 1.5oz/45g, so it’s ideally suited for carrying round together with your MacBook or iPad whenever you’re touring.

The drive has a single USB-C interface, and features a USB-C cable, however the low price implies that there are not any added extras, resembling an adaptor for older Macs which have USB-A (3.2) connectors.

LaCie hasn’t lower another corners, although. The Transportable SSD has a strong, sturdy design that ought to be capable to deal with a couple of bumps in a backpack or briefcase, and it performs very properly too.

LaCie quotes learn and write speeds of 1000MB/s, however repeated checks with the BlackMagic pace take a look at app confirmed the Transportable SSD comfortably cruising alongside at round 1,300MB/s with no hassle in any respect.

That mixture of pace, compact design and aggressive pricing makes the Transportable SSD an ideal possibility for anybody that wants a conveyable backup drive for his or her Mac or iPad.

Learn our full overview.

Seagate’s OneTouch arduous drives are a preferred selection with many customers. The OneTouch SSD is the smallest and lightest transportable drive we’ve ever seen and is accessible in black, silver or blue.

When sitting flat on the desk it measures simply 2in/50mm vast, 2.7in/70mm deep and a mere 0.4in/10.6mm thick. And it weighs solely 2.6oz/74g, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your pocket and carry it round together with your laptop computer or iPad whenever you’re touring. It’s sturdily constructed too, with Seagate claiming that it may possibly stand up to being dropped from a top of 6.5 foot/2m.

The OneTouch drive has a USB-C interface, however Seagate contains each USB-C and USB-A cables to be able to use it with most Macs and PCs straight out of the field.

It really works with Apple’s Time Machine for automated backups, however Seagate additionally contains its personal ToolKit app, which has a ‘sync’ possibility for backing up particular folders. The drive additionally features a one-year free subscription to the Mylio photo-organizer app, and 4 months with Adobe’s CC Images plan, usually $9.99/£9.98 a month on an annual plan (learn our information to getting the very best deal on Adobe Inventive Cloud).

The drive is accessible with 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage, so it gives loads of room for backing up massive libraries of pictures, movies or music. It doesn’t fairly match Seagate’s quoted pace of 1GB/s, however it recorded learn and write speeds of 835MB/s and 915MB/s respectively in our checks, which nonetheless put it among the many quickest solid-state drives that we’ve examined not too long ago. And, with its ridiculously mild and compact design, the OneTouch will probably be ideally suited for backing up all of your vital information whenever you’re on the transfer.

LaCie’s Rugged drives have been in style with Mac customers for a few years, because of their mixture of high-performance and that now-familiar orange sleeve that helps to maintain the drive protected whenever you’re working open air. Nevertheless, the Rugged vary has largely used typical arduous drives previously, that are slower than the newest solid-state drives, in addition to being greater and heavier. Welcome the Rugged Professional SSD, which is primarily geared toward artistic customers.

The Rugged SSD vary begins at round $180/£180 for a mannequin with 500GB storage, however we have been in a position to overview the SSD Professional, which stands out from the remainder of the vary with its matte-black sleeve. It’s fairly costly, costing £409.99/$419 with 1TB of storage, and a hefty $739.99/£699.99 for the 2TB mannequin, however it justifies that worth with a fair more durable design and the newest, super-fast solid-state drives designed for skilled video work.

Switching to a solid-state drive implies that the SSD Professional is now the smallest mannequin within the Rugged vary, measuring simply 3.8in/98mm lengthy, 2.5in/65mm vast and 0.6in/17mm thick. It solely weighs 100g/3.5oz, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your pocket or bag whenever you’re touring and barely even discover that it’s there.

Regardless of its compact design, that new black sleeve is critically powerful and rated IP67 for resistance to water and dirt, permitting it to outlive in 3.2 foot/1m of water for as much as half-hour. It could deal with being dropped from a top of 9.8 foot/3m, and might even resist the load of a two-tonne automobile driving over it. It features a five-year guarantee in case something does go fallacious, which incorporates one go to to LaCie’s data-recovery labs if you might want to retrieve vital knowledge.

The Rugged SSD Professional contains only a single Thunderbolt 3/USB-C interface, however most of its excessive worth is right down to the usage of the newest NVMe solid-state drives, which offer high efficiency for high-end video purposes, resembling modifying 8K or super-slow-motion video information (which will be monumental, as they shoot at as much as 240 frames per second on the newest iPhones). The drive didn’t disappoint, recording constant write speeds of 1780MB/s, and a fair sooner 2480MB/s for learn speeds – with each figures leaving nearly each different SSD drive we’ve ever examined trailing in its wake. And, when backing up our iTunes music library, the Rugged SSD Professional blew us away by backing up 5GB of music information in simply 5 seconds – look away for a few seconds and also you’ll miss it!

After all, not everybody will want that form of efficiency – particularly at this worth – however when you work with high-res video and wish a quick, powerful drive for out of doors work then the Rugged SSD Professional is in a category of its personal.

LaCie’s Rugged vary of arduous drives and SSDs has lengthy been in style with individuals who want a sturdy back-up drive that may deal with tough climate and situations when working open air. The Rugged drives have all the time tended to be relatively massive and ponderous, although – just like the Rugged SSD Professional (beneath) – so LaCie has now produced a extra compact possibility within the type of the brand new Rugged Mini SSD.

As you may anticipate, the Rugged Mini seems to be very very similar to its rugged family members, with LaCie’s distinctive vivid orange rubber sleeve serving to to maintain the drive protected. However, in fact, it’s loads smaller than earlier fashions, measuring simply 17.3mm thick, 66.9mm vast, 105mm lengthy. It solely weighs 114g as properly, so you’ll be able to simply slip it right into a jacket pocket or backpack whenever you’re touring.

Regardless of that compact design, the Rugged Mini remains to be powerful sufficient to deal with some tough remedy. It’s rated IP54 for water and dirt resistance, so it ought to be capable to deal with life open air when you’re engaged on location for a photo- or video shoot. And, because of that rubber sleeve, it may possibly deal with drops of as much as 3m and even survive being pushed over by a 1-tonne truck. And if that’s not powerful sufficient, the drive comes with a three-year guarantee that features LaCie’s Rescue Knowledge Restoration Service, to assist restore any misplaced knowledge.

The drive’s USB-C port will work with any Mac or PC that additionally has USB-C or Thunderbolt. However, like numerous drives that we’ve seen not too long ago, it makes use of a model of USB referred to as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which isn’t totally supported by Macs for the time being. Which means that Macs received’t be capable to get the complete 2000MB/s speeds supported by that interface, and our checks confirmed this, recording write and skim speeds of 900MB/s and 970MB/s respectively. We’ve seen stronger efficiency from some rival drives, however these speeds ought to be completely satisfactory for routine backups whenever you’re on the highway, and the sturdy design of the Rugged Mini makes it a superb possibility for individuals who want a drive that they will use open air frequently.

Pricing is slightly complicated, although. Within the US, the Rugged Mini prices $84.99/£74.99 (1TB), $109.99/£99.99 (2TB), and $159.99/£149.99 (4TB). We’ve seen a lot decrease costs from Amazon and different on-line retailers, so it’s undoubtedly value buying round earlier than shopping for.

Western Digital’s Passport drives have all the time offered transportable, light-weight designs, and the My Passport SSD combines compact design with robust efficiency and extra security measures.

Accessible in a wide range of colours, the My Passport SSD gives as much as 4TB of solid-state storage, though the 1TB mannequin that we overview right here prices $74.99/£94.99.

The drive measures simply 0.35in/9mm thick, and weighs 1.6oz/46g, so it’s sufficiently small to slide right into a jacket pocket whenever you’re on the transfer. Nevertheless, it’s additionally powerful sufficient to outlive being dropped from a top of two metres.

The drive is supplied with a USB-C interface, however WD features a USB-C cable and a USB-A adaptor with the drive, so you’ll be able to nonetheless use it with older Macs that don’t have USB-C. The solid-state drive gives good efficiency too, recording a write pace of 935MB/s and skim pace of 908MB/s, making it an ideal possibility for backing up your vital information on the transfer.

It’s safe too, as WD’s Discovery app permits you to set a password for the drive so as maintain your information protected. There’s a second app as properly, referred to as WD Unlocker, which is constructed into the drive itself, and permits you to enter the password to be able to use the drive with one other Mac or PC if you might want to.

When the drive was first launched there have been complaints that the WD apps hadn’t been correctly up to date to 64-bit code for the newest variations of the macOS, however we examined the drive with our workplace Macs and didn’t encounter any issues.

Learn a full overview over on our sister web site Tech Advisor.

SanDisk has been making a push for the skilled market with a few of its latest merchandise, however it’s additionally well-known for merely offering good worth for cash with merchandise such because the SanDisk Transportable SSD. In reality, the Transportable SSD is so low-cost that SanDisk doesn’t even hassle promoting a 500GB mannequin on its web page, leaping straight as much as 1TB for a really aggressive $101.99/£104.99, whereas even the 2TB mannequin prices simply properly below $200/£200.

The Transportable SSD lives as much as its identify too, because it measures simply 10mm thick, 47mm vast and 97mm lengthy, so you’ll be able to slip it right into a jacket or perhaps a shirt pocket and barely even discover that it’s there. The light-weight plastic case doesn’t really feel fairly as sturdy as we would have appreciated, {and professional} customers who work open air loads may desire a drive with a extra rugged design. Nevertheless, SanDisk states that it may possibly survive being dropped from a top of two metres, and there’s a helpful little rubber hook on one nook to assist maintain it protected, so it ought to be capable to survive basic day-to-day use whenever you’re out and about together with your laptop computer. The one oddity is that the drive has a USB-C interface, however SanDisk solely gives a USB-C-to-USB-A cable, so that you’ll want your individual adaptor or cable in case your Mac or PC solely has USB-C ports.

It’s not the quickest solid-state drive round and, to be sincere, even SanDisk’s  quoted pace of 520MB/s appears slightly optimistic. The drive’s write efficiency was slightly erratic, however averaged round 300MB/s, whereas learn efficiency was greater and extra constant at 430MB/s. Once more, skilled customers may desire a sooner drive in the event that they’ve obtained deadlines looming, however the Transportable SSD remains to be loads sooner than a standard arduous drive, and it’s a superb possibility for anybody that simply desires a light-weight, reasonably priced back-up drive for his or her Mac.

There are three variations of Samsung’s T7. The usual T7 is a compact, light-weight SSD that appears similar to the outdated T5 – though it boasts greater efficiency, so be sure to test the mannequin numbers earlier than shopping for. We examined the T7 Defend, which is a extra rugged mannequin, wrapped in a sturdy rubber sleeve designed for out of doors use. Each of these fashions can use Samsung’s Transportable SSD app so as to add password safety to your information, however there’s additionally a 3rd mannequin referred to as the T7 Contact that has a built-in fingerprint sensor for further safety and comfort.

Accessible in black, blue or silver, the T7 Defend prices $129/£110 with 1TB of storage, however we’re seeing nice reductions now it’s been out some time. It has a USB-C interface for connecting to your Mac, however Samsung features a USB-C cable and a USB-A adaptor to be able to use it with older Macs which have USB-A. The rugged protecting sleeve implies that it’s slightly bigger than the opposite T7 fashions, measuring 0.5in/13mm thick, 2.3in/59mm vast and three.4in/88mm lengthy, and weighing 3.4oz/98g. Even so, it’s nonetheless sufficiently small to slide right into a jacket pocket or backpack with no hassle in any respect, and many individuals will respect the additional safety that it provides.

The T7 Defend is rated IP65 for water- and dust-resistance, and Samsung claims that the shock-resistant rubber sleeve can survive drops from a top of three meters.

It’s a superb performer too. Samsung quotes learn and write speeds of 1,000MB/s, however our checks with the Blackmagic disk software really recorded a learn pace of 1,780MB/s, and a write pace of 1,300MB/s, which makes the T7 Defend an ideal backup possibility for individuals who must work open air with their laptop computer.