Best External Hard Drives For Apple 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	Versatile Mac Backup	FireWire-USB Combo Drive
Prestige External Drive 1-3TB Backup Storage	Quad Interface Drive 1TB Hitachi 7200 RPM	Iomega eGo Mac Edition FW 800 + USB2 2TB

Apple Backups USB 2.0 Ports, FireWire & Quad-Interface Drives

For peak Mac backup performance, Apple users should look for multi-interface drives for the most flexibility - and speed. FireWire 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 or USB3 ExpressCard in thier MacBook Pro laptop -- or USB 3.0 PCI card in thier Mac Pro tower may consider USB 3.0 or 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, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 or 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. A portable hard drive's low-power requirements can operate from a single USB 2.0/3.0 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 and data security on the go.

Two out of three Macintosh users choose an Apple MacBook 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

USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Apple Backup Drives

USB3 is in the future of High-Speed PC and Mac accessories. Enjoy backward compatibility with legacy USB 2.0 ports, then step up to higher speeds when Apple offers built-in USB3 ports. You can also equip your 15 in or 17 in MacBookPro with a LaCie 34mm USB3 ExpressCard or Macintosh Pro tower with a PCI-e USB3 card. Currently, they're the only major company who've written OSX USB3 drivers for it's Mac Compatible LaCie USB 3.0 accessories. Note: you must pair both a LaCie brand card AND external drive - since their SuperSpeed OSX Leopard drivers only support LaCie hard drives!
           

PCI-e USB3 Card For Mac Pro	Mac Compatible USB 3.0 Drive	MacBook Pro USB3 ExpressCard
USB3 Card For Mac Pro 2-Port SuperSpeed Card	USB3 Mac Backup Drive 500GB and 1TB Drives	USB3 For MacBook Pro SuperSpeed ExpressCard/34

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.