

To give you an idea, the maximum storage capacity of an external hard drive typically doesn’t go beyond 10TB right now. Well, it varies based on the activities of the user. You might be asking yourself, “What is the ideal storage size of an external hard drive?”

No matter how good the features of an external hard drive are, it can be rendered pointless if it doesn’t have enough storage space to keep your files. Let’s discuss each of these factors below.Īs we mentioned earlier, an external hard drive’s storage capacity is the most significant spec to consider for most people. Since one of your main goals in buying an external hard drive is to have an extension of your computer’s internal storage, checking out its storage capacity should be your priority.Īfter this, the transfer speed, security, portability, and durability are also worth noting. Vx560 External SSD Factors to Consider When Buying an External Hard DriveĮxternal hard drives may look trouble-free on the surface, but there are a lot of things to consider if you want one that won’t be a disappointment. Maybe I could just run a long USB to a bottom drawer in my desk and put foam around them so they don't resonate.12. The problem with that is my 1Gbps connection would cut their speed a little. In the future I might look into getting a networked solution now that I have a desktop that is always on ethernet and stick them in a closet. I used to build PCs back in the day so I'm used to a certain amount of noise but they like start to resonate with each other and the vibration sound can start to annoy me in a way that fans normally don't. The only annoying thing is when I'm sitting quietly at my desk and my iMac isn't making a sound but the drives are vibrating on the desk. My most important documents and photos are backed up on Dropbox as well in case my house burns down I won't lose wedding and baby photos, even though most of my kid's baby photos are in iCloud taken on my iPhone. I have even older files stored away on some 2TB drives. That 4TB gets mirrored to my dedicated 4TB drive for redundancy using CCC. The 4TB one is cold storage and a backup of my 2TB external SSD. The 2TB partition handles Time Machine for my 2TB internal SSD on my 2019 5K iMac. The 6TB one is partitioned into a 2TB and 4TB drive. Just make sure you always keep backups because it's not a matter of if you'll ever have a drive failure, but when. They're nothing fancy but they're inexpensive and seem to be reliable. But what I use for more of a "cold storage" that I don't use as much is a 6TB WD MyBook and a 4TB WD MyBook. Still kinda pricey but has come down by like half since I bought my first one which was the 2TB. One of the best and easy to tuck away is a Samsung T5.
#BEST CHEAPEST AND SAFEST 2TB EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MAC FREE#
The other nice thing is because it is TB3 rather than USB trim is supported so you could use a drive as a boot drive if you wanted.Įssentially this will give you a hub you can daisychain from and attach a secondary display and free up one of the dedicated TB3 ports on the machine. The issue with the iMac is if you have an external display you need to use a TB3 port and you have any drive faster than USB 3.0 you have to use the other unless you buy a thunderbolt dock that will cost £300. Secondly and most importantly it has Display port and a daisychain TB3 port so you could plug a hub into it for more peripherals.

It also has an M2 port for fast storage, scratch, or even could be used as a boot drive if anyone bought the Fusion. Even in a raid 5 for safety you would see 680mb/s reads or if all SSD up to 1500mb/s. It has 6 bays you can choose to put HDDs or SSDs in either 2.5 or 3.5 because it has so many bays you can raid for better performance or for safety. You would be far better off buying something like the Thunderbay 6 from OWC
