10 Best Igadgitz Mac Hard Drives
for June 2023

LaCie Rugged USB-C 4TB External Hard Drive (STFR4000800) combines the convenience of USB-C with drop, crush, and rain resistance. This drive is small enough to fit in your pocket, and at just 1.8 pounds, it's 10% lighter than the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra 4TB, making it a better choice for traveling. The drive is also fully rugged, with an IP54 rating, which means it can endure dust and water exposure and survive a 2.3 foot drop, making it a good choice for the outdoors. The drive includes built-in TSA locks, making it a cinch to travel with. The drives are also fully transferrable between Macs and PCs, so you can use one with your MacBook, and another on your PC. The drives are also Time Machine compatible, so you can use the drive to back up your MacBook to your PC. The drive also comes preformatted for Mac computers, and is formatted for PC computers by default. The drive's USB-C port also supports power delivery, so you can use the drive to charge your laptop. The drive also comes in a 2TB model (STFR4000802).

The WD 5TB My Passport Ultra for Mac is an exceptional external hard drive, offering a generous 5TB of storage, fast transfer speeds, and lots of rugged, secure features. It's the only hard drive we tested with password protection, and it's also the only one we tested with USB-C and USB 3.1 compatibility. This makes the WD 5TB My Passport Ultra for Mac a great choice for anyone looking for an external drive that they can use with an iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or other laptop with a USB-C port (or with an adapter). The drive also comes with WD's exclusive Backup & Sync app for Mac, which lets you back up all your important files directly to the drive. It's easy to use and offers a simple but powerful backup solution, and the app even lets you schedule regular backups if you want. It's also the only hard drive we tested with a USB-C port, making it a great choice for anyone looking for an external drive they can take with them on vacation. The drive is durable, too; it survived repeated drops from about 6 feet without sustaining any damage. It's also very portable, so you can take both your backup drive and your MacBook with you wherever you go.

The WD Elements 5TB drive has more storage than our previous top pick, the Seagate Expansion, for less money. The Elements drive is very similar in size and shape to the Expansion drive, but it costs less. Both drives have a five-year warranty and come with a three-year limited warranty. The Elements drive (as with the Expansion) is formatted for Mac computers, so it will not work with Windows PCs. The Elements drive is formatted for NTFS, while Mac computers are formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The Elements drive has the same 500GB hard drive as the Expansion, but a SATA III interface. The Elements drive is backward compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1, so it works with older computers. The Elements drive is slightly faster than the Expansion drive, transferring 5GB of files at 10MBps. The Elements drive has a USB 3.0 interface, which is faster and more reliable than the old USB 2.0 interface. The Elements drive has 78MBps read speed and 79MBps write speed. The Elements drive has 320MBps read speed, which is lower than the Expansion drive's 363MBps read speed, but higher than the Expansion drive's 240MBps write speed. The Elements drive has 205MBps write speed, which is lower than the Expansion drive's 297MBps write speed, but higher than the Expansion drive's 158MBps read speed. The Elements drive has 10,000 RPM hard drive, which is faster than the Expansion drive's 7200 RPM hard drive. The Elements drive has 3MBps seek speed, which is lower than the Expansion drive's 12MBps seek speed. The Elements drive has 0.2ms seek speed, which is higher than the Expansion drive's 0.3ms seek speed. The Elements drive has 2.8ms shock tolerance, which is higher than the Expansion drive's 2.1ms shock tolerance. The Elements drive has 54-degree operating temperature, which is lower than the Expansion drive's 60-degree operating temperature. The Elements drive has 0.8ms power on, which is lower than the Expansion drive's 1ms power on.

The WD Black 5TB Game Drive is the fastest external hard drive we've tested, and it's one of the fastest we've seen for any console. It's even faster than some hard drives designed for desktop computers. Although the hard drive is faster than most, it performs well only if you connect it directly to a PC. If you connect it to PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, it slows down, which makes sense, since all modern consoles rely on USB for console-to-console communication. (The Black 5TB Game Drive is also backward compatible with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but it is slower on current consoles.) It's fast for console storage, but it's not the fastest hard drive for PCs, either. The Seagate Expansion Desktop hard drive we tested is the fastest hard drive we've tested for any computer, and it's even faster than the Black 5TB Game Drive for consoles. The Seagate Expansion Desktop hard drive, however, is expensive, and the Black 5TB Game Drive is less expensive. The Seagate Expansion Desktop hard drive is faster for PCs, but the Black 5TB Game Drive is faster for consoles. The WD Black 5TB Game Drive is also compact and portable, so it's great for backing up your console, but it's less portable than the Seagate Expansion Desktop hard drive, so it's less convenient if you need to travel.

The Toshiba Canvio Flex 2TB portable hard drive offers a lot of storage in a small package -- it's the smallest 2TB drive we tested, and it's the smallest USB 3.1 drive we tested. But if you are looking for a large drive you can plug into a USB port on a PC, the Canvio Flex is not for you. This drive is designed for tablets and smartphones. It has a small footprint, so it won't stick out from your device, and it's lightweight (3.1 ounces), so you can throw it in your bag or purse without weighing it down. The drive is formatted for exFAT, which makes it easier to move files from the drive between devices. The drive is capless, so it's easy to insert and remove, and it has a rubber exterior so the drive won't slip out of your hands. The Canvio Flex's USB-C connection is USB 3.1, so it's faster than the USB 3.0 connection used by the hard drive we previously rated as the best portable hard drive for tablets. The drive also has security features, such as password protection and auto-backup, so your data is protected. The drive has a small LED light on the front, so you can easily tell when the drive has power. The drive has a 1-year warranty.

The LaCie Rugged Mini 2TB external drive offers more storage than all but the most expensive drives we tested. Its USB 3.0 connection is faster than USB 2.0, and it supports up to 4TB of storage. Like most hard drives, it's a bit slow at reading and writing data, but it's fast enough that you won't notice much of a difference. The drive is light and portable, which makes it easy to carry, and it's rugged enough to survive drops and spills. It has password protection, and an internal battery that backs it up in case something goes wrong with the power. The drive's ruggedness is both good and bad: It's waterproof and dustproof, so it's a good choice for people who work in messy or rainy environments. But it's also thicker than most drives, and it's a little heavier, so it's harder to carry around with you. The included USB cord is too short, and the internal battery is tiny, so connecting a monitor or keyboard or mouse to the drive can be difficult, but LaCie includes an extension cable and an external battery pack with the drive, so you can configure it the way you want.

The WD My Passport for Mac is one of the simplest and most affordable external drives we've tested. It also boasts one of the fastest data transfer rates, which is helpful since most portable hard drives use USB 2.0 cables. The My Passport for Mac comes with a Mac-friendly version of the WD Discovery software, which manages your drive and automates backups. WD Backup also lets you create regular, incremental, and differential backups, with schedule-based backups available as well. The My Passport for Mac is also password-protected, so personal data is more secure. The drive is portable, and it's small and light enough that you can carry it in a purse or backpack. It's mostly made of plastic, but it weighs 2 pounds, which is light enough to hold comfortably in one hand. The drive comes with a 2-year warranty.

The Seagate Portable Drive is a portable, affordable, and durable hard drive. The drive comes with a two-year warranty and a one-year Rescue Data Recovery Services program, so if anything goes wrong, you can ship the drive in to Seagate's repair center, and Seagate will fix it or give you a full refund. The included software, Seagate Backup and Restore, makes it easy to backup files. The drive's USB 3.0 interface makes it fast. The drive is portable, so it's easy to carry with you. And the drive's rugged design makes it tough. The drive is slightly larger than the Passport drive we recommended last year, but the drive's heftiness is made up for by its durable case. The drive's hard drive is smaller and slower than the Passport drive's hard drive, but it's plenty fast for backing up photos, videos, and documents, and storing software. The Seagate Portable Drive is a good buy.

The WD 12TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive is, by far, the sturdiest and most reliable hard drive we tested. That combination of features makes it our top pick, and it's also the only drive we tested that comes with a USB 3.0 cable. The Elements features 7200rpm drives, which deliver faster data transfers and are better at handling deep, long-term storage, so it's a great drive for archiving and backing up large files. The Elements' USB 3.0 interface gives you the fastest speeds available, and it's also the only drive we tested that can support dual-drive redundancy. (The other three drives we tested required you to buy separate cables and hard drives, which added extra cost and complexity.) The Elements also comes with WD's Backup and Recovery software, which makes it easy to back up locally and across networks. The Elements has a 60-day refund policy and a 2-year warranty.

The SanDisk Professional 12TB G-DRIVE Enterprise-Class Desktop Hard Drive is one of the only products we tested that offers USB-C connectivity, and it's the only drive that can charge your laptop via USB-C. While it also offers the fastest transfer speeds we tested, its enclosure is a little bulky for desktop use and it's somewhat over-priced (it costs more than $150 more than the next most-expensive drive). However, it's the only drive we tested that is capable of charging a laptop via USB-C, and its performance is very impressive. The drive's transfer speeds rivaled the WD Black, and were nearly 50% faster than the Seagate Desktop and WD RED drives. It has 12TB of storage space, which rivals the WD Blue's 10TB and Seagate Desktop's 8TB, and its 7200RPM drive speeds are the fastest of the three we tested.