For those in need of an ultraportable external hard drive for photos with the stability of a solid-state drive and dainty design, this model would be among the best offers. In the manufacturer’s series of devices, this one combined the fastest drives with the narrowest body even for the standards of very compact SSDs, sitting comfortably in a. A hard drive is perfect for music, video files and photos. In this article we round up the best hard drives for every Mac owner, whether your priority is portability, speed, ruggedness, extra. The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro external drive is designed for professional videographers and others who work in the field with Thunderbolt 3-equipped computers (most often Macs). Small, light, and even.
To properly backup and archive your pictures, the best external hard drives for photographers are key. These must-have gadgets can store all your work, and you'll never have to worry about running out of space.
Both portable and desktop versions exist, so as you look for the one that's right for you, think about how you plan to use your drive (and where). The portable ones are more compact, still boasting at least 1 terabyte of storage, while bigger desktop versions designed to stay put provide even more storage space. For reference, you can store more than 13,000 RAW photos on a 1-terabyte external hard drive. Beyond your storage needs, if you plan to take your hard drive out on shoots, especially outdoors, it's a great idea to invest in a waterproof one with shock resistance.
Although storage and travel-friendly specs are important, don't forget to double check a hard drive's formatting options prior to making a purchase. It should be compatible with your PC or Mac and have 3.0 USB or higher connection for maximum speed.
Best External Hard Drive For Mac Photos And Videos
Keeping all this information in mind, here's my list of the best external hard drive for photographers featuring both portable and desktop options. Read on to find a new home for all your hi-res images.
External hard drives are an inexpensive way to store our digital photos. For Mac users like me, external storage is often the only way to hold an image library that contains thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of digital images. Although any brand or model of external disk will suffice for image storage these devices are not all the same.
I use external hard drives for two very different purposes. For my primary image storage, meaning the copy of my images that I work on everyday with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop CC, drive performance matters. For my primary storage, for the drive that holds my Photos Go Here folder, I am willing to spend more for features like a faster rotational speed and Thunderbolt connectivity.
I am willing to spend a lot more for my primary photo storage disk because time is money. Sitting around waiting for this external hard drive to do something is not a productive use of my day. USB does not compare to Thunderbolt in terms of real-world drive performance. The read-write speeds that USB drive connections permit are less than ideal for professional-grade daily use for my primary image storage drive.
The opposite is true though for the series of external hard drives that I use to protect my work. For my backup system, high-speed connectivity do not matter at all. For my backup system, inexpensive USB external hard drives are just fine. Drive performance does not matter to me here since my backup software is scheduled to run automatically at hours when I am not awake or working at the computer.
Let’s briefly discuss one more issue before I suggest specific brands and models of hard drive; portability. The external hard drives that are the most portable, those little drives that fit easily in a shirt pocket and that do not require a separate power supply, are always more expensive than their full-size cousins. Small and light is wonderful but I would not choose to rely on this type of external hard drive unless you really are out on the road working all of the time. “Pocket” style drives are also more prone to errors and to overheating than their larger cousins.
With these distinctions in mind then here are the drives that I recommend for primary image storage and for use in a rotating external backup drive system.
Best External Hard Drive For Photos On Mac
Primary Storage (Thunderbolt 3 / Thunderbolt 2)
Backup Disks (USB-C / USB-3.0)
If needed, look into adapters like this Amazon Basics USB Type C to USB 3.0 Adapter to use older USB 3.0 / 2.0 devices with a computer that uses a new USB-C port. Likewise, many Mac users might find a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter essential for connecting to a brand new Mac.
You might notice that I have not included any RAID drive systems, or multi-drive enclosures, in this list. While I do believe that these high-end fancy systems have some value I don’t think that they are an appropriate choice for most photographers. In my opinion, devices like the Drobo backup system are way too expensive and complex for my storage / backup needs.
Remember that any external hard drive, regardless of the brand or model, must be formatted properly for use with the Mac Operating System before you put anything on to it. See how to format an external drive for more details.
Most of all, please don’t forget to back everything up. All hard drives will inevitably fail. It doesn’t matter how much you paid for your external drives. Sooner or later, all things electric will fail and no external hard drive manufacturer will ever compensate you for your lost data.
Hard drive warranties cover the cost of the hardware only. It is your job to properly prepare for the inevitable by building a robust on-site and off-site backup system to protect a lifetime’s worth of great photography.