The only downside to these drives is that they are not formatted for macOS out of the box. It’s small enough to fit in your hand (a little bigger than a deck of cards), and being bus-powered means it doesn’t need a separate power source - you just plug it into your computer’s USB port and you’re good to go. We’ve used several of these drives for a couple of years without a single hiccup.

While I wouldn’t drop it off a bridge, the exterior case isn’t flimsy in any way. The bus-powered USB 3.0-compatible drive is fast, quiet, and rather rugged.

If you need an external drive that’s small and easy to fit in your bag and go, the 4 TB WD My Passport Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive is the one to get. You just plug it in and can begin using it immediately. The WD My Book is ready to go with Time Machine or SuperDuper! without any hassle. If you’re running a newer computer, you’ll see a huge speed increase thanks to USB 3.0. This drive connects directly to your Mac through USB. The best external desktop drive is the WD 4TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive – USB 3.0. So we have two suggestions: Our favorite external desktop hard drive Purchasing the “best” hard drive is all about what you need out of it. There are many good tools on the market, but having a dependable hard drive on the receiving end as important, too. When it comes to backups, software is only part of the equation.

Set up wd external hard drive mac