Best Hard Drive For Backup Upgrade Your Storage

If you ever lose the files in your Photos library, you can restore them from the Time Machine backup.

For more information about setting up Time Machine, see Back up your files with Time Machine.

WARNING: If a Photos library is located on an external drive, dont use Time Machine to store a backup on that external drive.

The permissions for your Photos library may conflict with those for the Time Machine backup.

Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy.

If you have more than one photo library, be sure to back them all up.

Important: If any of your image files are stored outside your photo library, those files (known as referenced files ) arent backed up when you back up your library.

To make it easier to back up all your image files at once, you can consolidate referenced files into your library.

See also Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac Repair your library in Photos on Mac.

By default, the 4TB hard drive uses the NTFS format for Windows PCs, but theres a Help file included on the drive that provides information for Mac users so that you can reformat the drive and set it up for your Time Machine backups.

Find out which hard drive can help increase your storage or safely back up your Mac.

Getting external storage can solve a lot of problems and even make life easier.

Below the reviews weve got general buying advice that explains what you should be looking for.

Theyre available in two colours: moon silver and, of course, space grey that is intended to match the latest Mac models.

The diamond cut design simply refers to the exaggerated angular edges and corners; looks aside, the aluminium casing feels really sturdy - in fact, the 5TB model that we tested weighs in at 400g, and could give someone a serious concussion if you whacked them over the head with it.

Those two drives measure just 10mm thick, 88mm wide and 122mm long, and weigh a more modest 200g.

Theres also a 4TB model, which is the same size and weight, but slightly less expensive.

This is a good option if you use your Mac at work, and have individual projects organised in their own folders.

Any folder that is mirrored is automatically backed up and updated as soon as you make any changes to any file within that folder.

This ensures that your backups are always up to date with the most recent versions of your files (whereas Time Machine still leaves a one-hour gap between backups).

If you just want lots of extra storage at a competitive price then the Backup Plus Portable Drive offers either 4TB or 5TB.

Those large drives are a bit on the chunky side - 21mm thick - so Seagate also offers the Backup Plus Slim with either 1TB or 2TB storage instead.

The Slim drives measure just 12mm thick, and has 1TB storage or 2TB capacities.

Its slightly more expensive, but has a stylish design that makes it a good companion for your MacBook, and also offers encryption to provide extra security for your important files and data.

Its available in either black or white, and finished off with a smart woven fabric that makes a nice change from the dull monochrome colours of most hard drives.

Theres a standard USB 3.0 port on the back of the drive, and a USB 3.0 cable that will work with any Mac or PC, but Seagate also includes a USB-C adapter so that you can use it with new computers that have USB-C as well.

The drive can be used for automatic Time Machine backups on your Mac, but you can also use the mirror option in the ToolKit app to automatically back up individual folders so that theyre always right up-to-date (and dont have to wait for Time Machines hourly backups).

It recorded write and read speeds of 125MBs and 130MBs in our tests, and took 110 seconds to back up a 5GB batch of iTunes music files.

Even so, that performance will be fine for routine backups when youre travelling, and the encryption option will be really useful if you want to make sure that your private data stays private even if the drive is lost or stolen.

Its not just for gamers, though, as the Gaming Dock is a seriously versatile storage device and Thunderbolt dock that has a lot to offer owners of the latest Macs with Thunderbolt 3.

It weighs 2.67kg - which is more than most Apple laptops - and also includes a separate power brick for mains power.

Fortunately, its low-profile design does at least allow you to place it underneath the screen of an iMac or desktop display without taking up too much space.

Best Hard Drive For Backup Upgrade Your Storage

The size - and the need for a mains power supply - is due to the fact that it contains both a 4TB hard drive and an additional expansion slot that allows you to upgrade your storage by installing one of the latest NVMe solid-state drives.

Best Hard Drive For Backup Mac