Need a External Hard Drive for my Macbook Pro that will work with Time Machine

Community
1

Hey everyone I need some help.

I have a Macbook Pro and am trying to find a good external hard drive for backing up using Time Machine. I would like to be able to transfer the files over as fast as possible. I need a external hard drive that will last and is of good quality. I keep hearing that other peoples drives have died.

I’m not sure whether I should buy a AC powered one or get a portable one that only connects via USB.

I can only purchase something from Best Buy because I have a $70 card there.

Thanks in advance for any help

2

Hi R37. Welcome to SitePoint. :slight_smile:

I’ve used various different ones and they were all fine, such as LaCie and Western Digital. If you do not need the drive to be portable, get and AC powered one, and I think of them as more robust. I used to get firewire ones, but the newer USB2 ones are great.

3

Another option is to use an external hard drive caddy/dock (http://www.maplin.co.uk/computing/hard-drive-enclosures/3.5inch-hard-drive-enclosures for a few examples), then you could use whatever brand hard drive you wanted

4

I have a couple of Buffalo MiniStations which have served me well for several years. They’re powered via USB, and I’ve never had any problem with them.