Best Hard Drives For Mac Backup Use

Macintosh users have an eye for style, and like accessories and peripherals to match and compliment their Mac system. Sure, there's alot of external Apple compatible hard drive options out there to choose from: Some elegant and stylish - other's bulky and downright ugly.
     

Stylish Value Drive	Monster Mac Backup	FireWire-USB Combo Drive
Prestige External Drive 500GB Under $75	Quad Interface Drive 2TB 7200 RPM	Iomega eGO Drives FW 800 + USB2 1-2TB

USB 2.0 Ports, FireWire or Quad-Interface Drives

For peak Mac backup performance, Apple users should look for multi-interface drives for the most flexibility - and speed. FireWire 400 tends to outperform USB 2.0 in any instance. For the fastest Mac backup speeds, look to FireWire 800 drives as on the compact, laptop size Western Digital My Passport Studio series. It's an ideal Time Machine backup drive choice often shaving 30% or more off your copy/backup times.

Select Professional users with either an eSATA ExpressCard in thier MacBook Pro laptop -- or PCI Slot eSATA card in thier Mac Pro tower may consider eSATA interface external drives for the absolute fastest external transfer rates possible. Ideally the internal mechanisms should have a large 8MB - 32MB cache and spin at 7200 RPM. Simply put, eSATA matches transfer speeds as if the drive was internally and directly connected to the SATA bus.

Compact Mobile Backup Drives for Mac Laptops

High capacity in a small-form factor drive - Mobile backup solutions are often preferred for not only MacBook owners - but many Mac desktop users as well. Their low-power requirements can operate from a single USB 2.0 or FireWire cable. This eliminates the need for additional wires or power-supplies and transformers clogging up your life or hogging desk space. Apple compatible mobile backup drives can tuck away behind your Macintosh setup - or slip into a laptop travel case for peace of mind on the go.
Two out of three Macintosh users choose an Apple laptop as their primary computer, and like mobile accessories and peripherals to match and compliment their MacBook. Sure, there's alot of external Apple compatible portable hard drive choices out there. If you're on a budget, USB portable drives are most affordable. If you want performance, look for mobile drives with FireWire 800 interfaces (and use a FW 400 to 800 adapter cable if needed for older MacBook Pro and iBook models.)

Best Portable Hard Drives For Mac Backup

     

Laptop Drive Enclosure	Seagage Laptop Drive	USB Hub + Dock For Seagate
DIY 2.5" Drive Case USB2 + FW400-800 Interface	Seagate FreeAgent Go Series FireWire 800 + USB2	3-Port Hub + Dock For FreeAgent Go Drives

Apple Backups 101

For insights and issues to be aware of when choosing a backup disk for your Macintosh setup - check out this MacWorld.com article: External Back-Up Drive Overview. Remember, for OSX Leopard TimeMachine backup you've GOT to have - or buy - a hard drive that's LARGER than the one built into your Mac so that it can store the entire contents of a full disk - and still have extra disk space for incremental backup file changes from day to day.