Best External HD for Mac

I've been using Western Digital My Passport portable external hard drives with my 2011 MacBook Pro for several years. The one I currently have often fails to be recognized by my laptop - I sometimes I have to unplug and replug it in several times or restart my computer for it to show up in the Finder. When it finally does show up it works fine, but its quite the nuisance. I use an external card reader and printer that both get plugged in via USB to the MacBook and rarely have issues with them not showing up, so I think its a drive issue or drive/Mac compatibility issue.

It's time to buy another external drive, and as much as I like the reliability, each of use (when actually recognized), and price point of the WD My Passport drives, I don't want to buy another drive with similar issues. Thoughts?

I've had good success with HGST Touro drives.

Hey Kari
Just a thought, but have you tried a different a different USB cable to connect it. Sometimes a wire in the cable can break or disconnect and cause it to not connect to your computer.

Joe

SantaFeJoe wrote:Hey Kari
Just a thought, but have you tried a different a different USB cable to connect it. Sometimes a wire in the cable can break or disconnect and cause it to not connect to your computer.

Joe

No, but that's a good idea!

Kari Post wrote:I've been using Western Digital My Passport portable external hard drives with my 2011 MacBook Pro for several years. The one I currently have often fails to be recognized by my laptop - I sometimes I have to unplug and replug it in several times or restart my computer for it to show up in the Finder. When it finally does show up it works fine, but its quite the nuisance. I use an external card reader and printer that both get plugged in via USB to the MacBook and rarely have issues with them not showing up, so I think its a drive issue or drive/Mac compatibility issue.

It's time to buy another external drive, and as much as I like the reliability, each of use (when actually recognized), and price point of the WD My Passport drives, I don't want to buy another drive with similar issues. Thoughts?

Kari, 

I don't recall if the 2011 MBP had Thunderbolt ports or not, but if it does you really can't go wrong with the LaCie Rugged series HDD. Thunderbolt has a huge speed advantage over USB and for compatibility the new units have a secondary USB 3 plug. A bit pricey over the WD but I have drug these drives all over the world and the two I bought in 2014 with my MBP are still going strong. (I use two as a redundancy. One in my carry on bag with my laptop. One literally in a small neck wallet/satchel with my passport and cash.)

Tombenson wrote:

Kari Post wrote:I've been using Western Digital My Passport portable external hard drives with my 2011 MacBook Pro for several years. The one I currently have often fails to be recognized by my laptop - I sometimes I have to unplug and replug it in several times or restart my computer for it to show up in the Finder. When it finally does show up it works fine, but its quite the nuisance. I use an external card reader and printer that both get plugged in via USB to the MacBook and rarely have issues with them not showing up, so I think its a drive issue or drive/Mac compatibility issue.

It's time to buy another external drive, and as much as I like the reliability, each of use (when actually recognized), and price point of the WD My Passport drives, I don't want to buy another drive with similar issues. Thoughts?

Kari, 

I don't recall if the 2011 MBP had Thunderbolt ports or not, but if it does you really can't go wrong with the LaCie Rugged series HDD. Thunderbolt has a huge speed advantage over USB and for compatibility the new units have a secondary USB 3 plug. A bit pricey over the WD but I have drug these drives all over the world and the two I bought in 2014 with my MBP are still going strong. (I use two as a redundancy. One in my carry on bag with my laptop. One literally in a small neck wallet/satchel with my passport and cash.)

There is no real world speed advantage over USB 3 by the first generation of Thunderbolt which a 2011 computer would have.  On top of that, a single non-stiped portable HD is the transfer data rate limiter which and is much slower than either interface.  Now if she were asking about a fast modern SSD or a striped disk array on Thunderbolt 2 or 3 then definitely the Thunderbolt drive has an advantage

Hi Kari, check out the Samsung line of SSD external hard drives. Yes, they cost more, but they are much smaller, lighter and probably faster. I use a 1 TB, T3 is the model name as I recall. I believe they are all require USB ports.

Joe

Just checked and the 2011 MacBook Pros only have USB 2 ports and has one Thunderbolt port. USB 2 is glacial in it's speed compared to Thunderbolt or USB 3 so definitely do not get a USB drive. The speed is literally 1/10 of the newer interfaces.