Apple External Hard Drive For Mac Best Buy
Best Overall Mac External Hard Drive – Runner Up 4.8 / 5 Product Rating With its 1 TB capacity and 5400 RPM speed, this backup drive is a top pick because it provides ample storage and comes in a sleek design. It does mean the price is higher, but if transfer speed is the most important consideration when looking for the best external hard drive for your Mac, then this is the drive to go for.
BestBlu-ray Drives for MaciMore2019
Blu-ray discs are the gold standard in physical video formats right now. You probably have a decent Blu-ray collection of your favorite movies, but without a Blu-ray drive, you can't play them on your Mac. Blu-rays aren't just great for movies; they also make great storage devices for backups or other relevant data as well. If you want to play, read, or write Blu-ray discs with your Mac, you're going to need to start off with an excellent Blu-ray drive. Here are our favorite Blu-ray drives for Mac.
Fast write speeds: Pioneer BDR-XS06
The Pioneer BDR-XS06's 6x write speeds on single-layer and dual-layer discs, and up to 4x max write speeds on quad-layer discs, which makes it one of the faster drives around. Compatible with Mac right out of the box, it also has a quiet mode, so it won't make a ton of noise when you're using the drive.
From $142 at AmazonBudget option: SEA TECH Blu-ray drive
Completely compatible with Mac, you won't need to reformat or install anything to get the SEA TECH Blu-ray drive to talk to your Mac. Plus, it uses a USB 3.0 connection, meaning all your data transferring is happening at the fast speed of USB 3.0!
$87 at AmazonWindows and Mac compatible: ASUS BW-16D1X-U
The ASUS 12X Blu-ray drive has a 16X burning speed, which is among the fastest of the optical drives out there. Plus, by using a USB 3.0 connection, the ASUS BW-16D1X-U Blu-ray drive can also write data much faster than other drives that still use USB 2.0. The drive is formatted both for Mac and Windows, so you don't have to worry about reformatting the drive if you want to switch back and forth between operating systems.
$148 at AmazonIncludes Cyberlink Media Suite: Buffalo MediaStation 6x Portable BDXL Blu-Ray Writer
Top External Hard Drives For Mac
For both Mac and Windows, this beautifully designed reader offers BDXL support for high capacity disc-writing for Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs. It also includes M-Disc support for longer life recordings. Included is the Cyberlink Media Suite which offers Blu-ray and DVD burning and playback tools.
$100 at Amazon
Don't forget the software
When it comes to playing Blu-rays on your Mac, you're going to need software as well as an external drive, and sometimes that software can be expensive. For that reason, I think the SEA TECH Blu-ray drive is worth a look for people who just want to watch Blu-ray movies.
Of course, if you do plan on using Blu-rays for hard copies of your work, document, files, and general back up, it's probably worth the dishing out the extra cash for a drive like the ASUS BW-16D1X-U. It just has way more power than those slimmer drives and will help you transfer all your data to disc a lot faster.
Either way, you'll need one of the great drives listed above if you want to watch or burn any Blu-rays on your Mac.
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The advantage of the MacBook Pro is that it uses the same hard drive as any other PC: a 2'5' SATA hard drive with 5400 or 7200 rpm speed.
You can buy a hard drive for your Mac at OWC > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ You shouldn't have any problem to install a 750 GB or 1 TB hard drive on it. Also, note that 7200 rpm hard drives will give you better performance compared with your 5400 rpm hard drive that your MacBook came with. Seagate and HGST drives have good reputation. OWC gives you the videos to install it
Also, there's an option to put a SSD, faster but very expensive and with smaller storage
Aug 20, 2013 12:44 AM
