What is the best external hard drive for Macbook Pro?

aidan

I want one that can act as an external hard drive and at the same time be used for Time Machine. (if it's possible) I would also like it to be aesthetically pleasing and be fast with a good amount of storage. About one TB. I don't want it to be too expensive. I know I am asking for a lot, but if someone could make a list of ones that fit various parts of my requirements that would be great!
I Just didn't want someone showing me one for like $300 dollars @ 3TB and require a seperate $600 housing unit. I'm just looking for something for extra storage and a backup copy for my Mac for use with TM.

Answer
The best is SSD and aluminum enclosure with Firewire 800 and USB 3.0 connectors. That's the last two links at "Sources". OK, I lied. An aluminum case for Thunderbolt goes for 300 bucks, add your own drives: http://www.amazon.com/Akitio-Neutrino-Thunder-Duo-Enclosure/dp/B00D4EBIV4/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1382911631&sr=8-13&keywords=thunderbolt+enclosure

If you want a high-quality drive and case, buy these two items (hard drive and enclosure), and with a small screwdriver you put them together....
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-Internal-0J22423/dp/B00B4QESVQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370072848&sr=8-1&keywords=HGST+HTS721010A9E630 (2.5â HDD, 7200rpm, 1TB)
http://tinyurl.com/3okh75r (enclosure with Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 connection)
It does not include A.C. power adapter, but you can buy an adapter at Radio Shack or Wal-Mart, if it ever fails to have enough power from the USB connection.

Another option is to buy this case-HDD combo that does include power adapter...
http://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-External-FireWire-Portable-Silver/dp/B0067N0DME/ref=pd_sim_pc_2 (1TB, 7200RPM HDD in aluminum enclosure that has both Firewire 800 and USB 3.0 connections.

The reason for aluminum case is to dissipate heat. Less heat held in means longer life for the drive inside.

For the possibility of future needs, get a 3.5" drive and case. You can step up later to a larger capacity drive and keep using the same case. Again, aluminum for heat dissipation, Firewire 800 for fastest use with a MacBook Pro, and USB, just in case you want to connect it to a PC or a Mac that has no Firewire port...
http://www.amazon.com/3-5-Inch-Aluminum-SuperSpeed-Enclosure-G-S350SU3B2/dp/B00B7MWQE8/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1377045151&sr=8-15&keywords=drive+case+3.0+USB+firewire+800 (top quality enclosure)
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Cache-Desktop-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1346127194&sr=8-46&keywords=3.5%22+1tb+hard+drive (1TB, 7200RPM drive)

or... http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000DM001/dp/B005T3GRN2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1363446712&sr=8-6&keywords=3.5%22+2tb+drive (2TB, 7200RPM drive)

TM doesn't care what brand of drive or what size, but larger is better.

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What is the fastest usb 2.0 2tb external hard drive?

Dan

i have a acer revo r3700 with an ssd in it which will only store executables so i need 2 external harddrives one for backup and one for storing my media.

What is the fastest usb 2.0 2tb external hard drive? this i would use for media. tell me why you'd choose it, if there isn't a specific one please let me know a few good ones with different prices.
what spec should i look for when searching for a very fast hard drive.

what drive should i choose for backup?

I intend to put both drives in a dual enclose ( if they exist?) and i'll be carrying them around alot

Also how do i need to set up my harddrives so that the read/write speeds stay as high as possible?. and so that my ssd does not slow down or fill up?

Answer
When it comes to external hard drives there isn't any easy answer to which is fastest. This is because no external model will be fastest at both reading and writing data. When technology mags review external drives for speed then they are usually tested in four ways. Speed of reading and writing a limited number of large files and speed of reading and writing hundreds of individual small files sequentially.
For the fastest performance you should be looking to USB 3 as it is up to 5 times faster in real world use than USB 2. Even if your system has no native support USB 3, it is easy to add a PCI card to a desktop PC that does. There is a newer technology that is just emerging, invented by Intel, called Thunderbolt. But very few systems currently support and not many external drives do either.
The Western Digital MyBook range are very fast and within that range there are drives which support both USB 2 and USB 3 connections with capacities ranging from 1TB to 3TB. See here: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=240
The MyBook essential range have good read and write speeds for both large and small files but aren't necessary the top performing external drive in any one category. The different models include those with Smartware backup software and optional 256Bit AES encryption. If you look at the whole range from the above link i am sure will find a model that suites your needs.
If you need portability [as you suggest] then you will have to sacrifice a little speed but WesternDigital also have a good range of "MyPassport" and WD "Elements" drives, geared towards portability and vary in size up to 1TB. Very few portable drives exist with over a Terabyte of storage so you will need to balance your need for portability against the size of storage available.
You can see the WD portable ranges [and compare features] here: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/portable/

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