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home  /  Navigators/ Removable hard drive for macbook air. How to make an external drive compatible with Mac and Windows? More about the devices presented in the catalog

Removable hard drive for macbook air. How to make an external drive compatible with Mac and Windows? More about the devices presented in the catalog

My first acquaintance with SSD happened in 2010, when a 13-inch MacBook Pro was . Yes, yes, the one that preceded the active promotion of ultrabooks and the rejection of optical drives in laptops. He also spawned a wave of clones, forcing competitors to bang their heads against the wall in an attempt to create a solution with a similar set of characteristics. We could, but only after a couple of years, but only Apple is also not standing still, releasing an ideal, in my humble opinion, laptop Retina MacBook Pro 13 ″... But back to the SSD. The solid-state drive managed to significantly increase the performance of the laptop, and the weak newcomer even against the background of the one-year-old MacBook Pro (the 1.3 GHz low-voltage Core 2 Duo in the Air was significantly inferior in performance to a full-fledged analogue even in the Pro model of the previous generation) showed miracles of speed in everyday work with OS. Applications started literally in the blink of an eye, the system was flying, everything was fine, except for one thing - an SSD costs much more than a traditional mechanical hard drive, and users who are accustomed to storing hundreds of gigabytes of information on a computer had to moderate their appetite and put things in order in their personal files. But it is far from always possible to refuse one or another content, and in this case an external drive will help. Mac can work with any device of this kind, but it's more pleasant when an accessory is created specifically for Apple technology. My Passport for Mac from WD just from this series and I will talk about it in this article.

Silver but not metal

WD specialists have tried to create a product that is as much as possible adapted for Apple devices, and we are talking not only about functionality, but also about design. Actually, this is not the first experience of the company in the production of accessories for Mac. Suffice it to recall such products as and. The shape of the novelty resembles the latter: convex top and bottom panels, corners rounded under the so-called "magic radius", and a black and silver color scheme. Although in this case there is more silver than black.

It seems that the drive is hiding in metal case, but in fact it is a high-quality plastic with an aluminum finish. Although only the top and bottom panels are silver, the side edge is black. I like this solution, the accessory looks similar in style to the MacBook, but at the same time has its own original design, which WD has been using for portable external drives for more than one year.

There are no extra holes, decorative elements or buttons on the case of My Passport for Mac. There is only a Micro-USB 3.0 connector with a power loop - it is slightly wider than the standard port:

Thanks to the use of such a connector, there is no need for an external power supply or the use of two ports at the same time in a laptop or PC (in the past external drives often equipped with a special cable with two full-size USB plugs - one of them was used to power the drive). It is also worth noting that USB port 3.0 gives out 900 mA versus 500 mA for USB 2.0, so about effective work There is no need to worry about the drive, and there are no situations when it may not be detected or not start due to a lack of energy.

In terms of size, the My Passport for Mac fits easily into your pocket and doesn't take up much space in your bag. In size, it slightly exceeds / and weighs only 150 g:

I will also add that the thickness of a 1TB drive is 15 mm, while the double capacity model is 6 mm thicker:

In work

My Passport for Mac is equipped with an interface USB 3.0 which means impressive speed. In fact, the device operates at the highest possible performance for a mechanical hard drive when the data exchange rate is 90-100 MB / s... By comparison, the built-in storage in MacBook Pro (regular models, not Retina) works at about the same speed. That is, if you wish, you can make an exact copy of the built-in Mac hard drive or SSD through the "Disk Utility" and by connecting My Passport for Mac to another Apple computer, upload your working space from an external drive. In this case, the speed of the system will be at a very good level. I did a similar experiment in the past with a USB 2.0 drive, but the speed was uncomfortable. Now there are no problems.

Importantly, the accessory in question is literally "out of the box" formatted in the file system Mac OS Extended(formerly known as HFS Extended). That is, without unnecessary body movements, you can both make an exact copy of the system, which I mentioned above, and work with Time machine by automatically creating backups personal data. Naturally, nothing prevents you from reformatting the drive to any other file system, be it NTFS, exFat, etc.

If your computer doesn't support USB 3.0, it doesn't matter. The standard is backward compatible and My Passport for Mac works seamlessly with USB 2.0. Unless the data transfer rate will be about three times lower than the maximum and will be about 30 MB / s.

Still, when the drive is operating at full speed, it is much more enjoyable to work with. DVD rips are “uploaded” in 15–20 seconds, updating of backups is carried out quickly, copying of music tracks and photos - in general seconds. At the same time, the device works quietly, does not make noise, does not buzz or vibrate. Its active status is signaled only by an imperceptible indicator near the USB port.

1 TB is enough for most users, both for Time Machine backups and additional content. If you want to carry everything with you, then your choice is the flagship with 2 TB disk space. You can throw a dozen TV series into it, and several dozen films, and an archive of working software, and an entire personal photo album, and your favorite music collection for hundreds of hours of sound. Also, the gadget can be used to work with large video files in Final Cut or iMovie. Amateur video editing My Passport for Mac in USB mode 3.0 is quite pulling.

You don't need additional software to work with the drive, but there is still a proprietary utility in the kit WD Drive Utilities providing access to some additional opportunities... So, the program allows you to quickly check the status of the hard drive via SMART, carry out full diagnostics, set the timer to automatic shutdown in idle mode, format or register the gadget with WD Technical Support.

Let's summarize

An external drive for the Mac user is a very important accessory that I recommend for anyone and everyone. First, you will always have a backup of your personal data. Moreover, the backup process takes place automatically thanks to Time Machine, and this is not a trivial file saving. The backup contains your entire workspace with applications, documents and settings. Suddenly something happens to your computer - anything happens in life - in this case, you can always easily and without unnecessary gestures restore the system on any other Mac in the form in which it was on your computer. The same goes for moving to another Mac.

My Passport for Mac, on the other hand, thanks to its large volume will allow not only creating and storing backups, but also neutralizing the small volume of built-in modern Mac SSD... Of course, you can order yourself a custom configuration with a 768 GB or terabyte SSD, but this is prohibitively expensive. It is cheaper and more profitable to buy an external drive, especially since, thanks to the support of USB 3.0, the speed of the hero of the review is comfortable for any task.

Although recently Apple is gradually switching to solid state drives, hard drives are still actively used in the company's computers.

Remember the good old days when you changed the battery in a couple of minutes, added random access memory and put an additional drive? If you are a user, this is all in the past for you, but upgrading your hard drive is still possible, and Apple developers allow us to do so for now. In 2010, Apple introduced its proprietary solid state drives, the "blade" SSD. The company touts their read / write speed and reliability, but rarely explains the details of the technology used in SSDs, since these drives are only intended for Apple computers.

It suddenly became clear that the obvious truths are not always true. This has never happened, and here it is again! The “second” SuperDrive, which “reads and writes CDs and DVDs,” turned out to be full of mysteries, and forgotten enough to write about it again. Answer the question "how much did SuperDrive cost then?" (at the beginning of the millennium) I cannot, at the beginning of its history it existed in a built-in version, and was not sold separately. And engineers were involved in adding it to the configuration. But I'll try - a little later.

Now almost every home has some kind of storage device: hard drives and solid state drives () in computers and laptops, USB sticks, microSD cards, and so on. True, all these devices have a common serious drawback. Due to the complexity of the technology that is used in their production, there is always a chance that the drive will fail, "burying" all available information: photos, home movie collections or music. Hard drives and SSDs have a limited data rewriting resource, which a common user cannot always track down. But even if the drive is out of order, this does not mean that the data is lost forever. In most cases, them.

Introduced last year, it improves security and speeds up data handling on both iOS and macOS. However, APFS has not yet been perfected - for example, owners of Mac computers with hybrid drives still cannot take full advantage of the new file system. But soon this problem will be solved too.

Fair, not overpriced or understated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without "asterisks", it is clear and detailed, where it is technically possible - the most accurate, final.

With the availability of spare parts, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs take much less time. The website lists the approximate duration of any repairs.

Warranty and liability

Any repairs must be guaranteed. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.

Half of the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works with suppliers directly, there are always several reliable channels and your own warehouse with proven spare parts of current models so that you do not have to waste extra time.

Free diagnostics

This is very important and has already become a good form for service center... Diagnostics is the most difficult and important part of the repair, but you shouldn't pay a dime for it, even if you don't repair the device as a result.

Repair in service and delivery

Good service appreciates your time, therefore, offers free shipping. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of the service center: correctly and according to technology, it can only be done at a prepared place.

Convenient schedule

If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient so that you can be in time before and after work. Good service works both on weekends and on holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00

The reputation of professionals consists of several points

Age and experience of the company

Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years, and it has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the SC are being restored.
We are trusted and transferred by other service centers for difficult cases.

How many masters by directions

If several engineers are always waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken over immediately.
2.you give in Macbook repair expert specifically in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices

Technical literacy

If you ask a question, a specialist must answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you have an idea of ​​what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, the description tells you what happened and how to fix the problem.

Nowadays, they are used almost everywhere cloud technologies data storage. The cloud is fast, convenient and, most importantly, always at hand. However, we still cannot do without physical storage. Hard drives and SSDs are used as system drives, and regular flash drives are still in use. Some drives are ready to go out of the box, others need to be formatted; in addition, the set includes proprietary utilities that the manufacturer recommends to use. In this article, you will learn how to properly prepare external drive to work in OS X.

The first time you connect an external drive to your Mac, it will automatically be mounted and ready to go. However, there are a few important things to check before relying on it.

Note... I don’t have a drive to mock at, so I’ll show everything using an old USB flash drive as an example, but don’t worry, in the case of a hard drive, the setup procedure will be the same.

The first point to take into account is that most likely your new disc will be formatted in FAT32, instead of the more common extended and ntfs (for Mac and Windows, respectively). FAT32 is nice because it has both read and write support on both OSes. This is the easiest way if you need a universal disk, although it has some limitations.

First, FAT32 lacks journaling support to help prevent data corruption. Second, it does not support assigning file system permissions. In addition, FAT32 drives usually have an MBR partition scheme that does not work with Apple CoreStorage, and therefore will not allow disk encryption. Thirdly, the FAT32 file size limit is 4GB, which is very, very bad by modern standards.

Sometimes a disk comes with special software that can be used to partition the disk and create backup copies of data. It may be handy, but I would still not recommend using it as OS X has all the tools you need to do it. Third party funds for disk management may cause compatibility issues that result in data loss.

If you are only going to use your external drive with yours or others Mac computers then it is best to format it in extended format, which is the default for OS X. If there is a need to connect to Windows machines, then definitely use FAT32.

Disk layout

For all manipulations with drives, OS X uses Disk utility which is located in the folder Programs - Utilities... Well, let's fire it up and start partitioning our external drive.

Step 1. Selecting a disk and the number of partitions

We select our disk in the sidebar on the left and indicate the partition table. If you need several volumes, indicate their number in the drop-down menu Partition scheme or using the button + if there is an unallocated area on the disk.

prompt... If you select a drive in the sidebar, then Disk Utility will display all its partitions. They will be greyed out for your primary disk as it is not possible to format or modify the partition table for boot disk... For all other connected devices, these options will be available.

Step 2. Specify the partition scheme

By default, the GUID is usually the partition scheme, but it is better to open Options and check that this is indeed the case. And in general, during any operations with a disk, the proverb “Measure seven times - cut once” is relevant as never before, especially if the disk already contains any data.

Step 3. Check and confirm all changes

After you check all the settings, the final touch is to apply them. We press the appropriate one and wait for the end of the process of splitting our disk.

Once the changes take effect, the drive will be ejected and re-mounted to your Mac's file system. It is now fully operational.

Something else

If you want to go further, you can test the drive to make sure there is no broken sectors and other errors. To do this, you can use third party applications, such as Drive Genius or Tech Tool Pro, because Disk utility does not have this functionality. But there is still one trick that can help you check disk errors with its help. This method is based on Safely erasing a disk... As you probably know, this erasure is done by writing each sector with zeros, thereby allowing us to understand if there are bad sectors in the event of an unsuccessful operation.

It is worth noting that the safe erase procedure and other similar operations with the hard disk, which check each sector of the disk, take a lot of time (several hours).

I wish all your disks a trouble-free operation, let them work quickly and please you, dear readers. If you still have any questions about the setup external hard disk on Mac - ask them in the comments.

Now on the market there is a large selection of external hard drives... When choosing, it is worth considering speed, strength, size and much more. We have collected for you best HDD and SSD drives for Mac and PC.

Before the purchase hard disk you must understand what you will use it for and what characteristics are more important to you. Let's consider the main ones.

SSDorHDD

SSDs or solid state drives are very popular. They have no removable parts, unlike HDDs (hard drives) with a rotating plate inside.

SSDs will last longer due to the lack of moving parts, but you will get less memory if you are not willing to pay more.

SSDs are also significantly faster than traditional hard drives.

Ports

It is very important which ports are in your computer - Micro USB, USB-C or Thunderbolt 3. Data transfer speed is also important.

New hard drives contain USB-C port and a USB-C / USB-C or USB-C / USB-A cable included to work with virtually any computer.

Thunderbolt 3 is the newest and most fast technology, but drives with such a connector are more expensive than others.

RAID

There are a few different types hard disks are RAID, but the most popular of them is RAID 0.

If there are two disks inside the device, it reads and writes to both at once, increasing the speed almost twice. RAID drives 0 are fast and efficient.

Now let's move on to the list itself.

If you do not know how to buy on Amazon from Russia, then you can read our instructions:

Western Digital My Passport SSD

The Western Digital My Passport is one of the most popular options as well as one of the most affordable.

Have new version USB-C connector, and comes with an adapter for old computers.

It's an SSD, so the drive is fast. The only negative is that there are fingerprints on the case.

  • Small size, simple design
  • Fingerprints remain
  • USB-C cord and adapter
  • 256GB to 1TB, $ 99 to $ 296

OWC Envoy

OWC is renowned for its huge selection of memory options. The company has a unique product - Envoy.

You can buy a ready-made hard drive or a Mac modification kit. They both allow you to increase internal memory Mac.

So far, there is no USB-C support, but you can always buy the cable separately.

If you are buying an upgrade kit, choose the right model and be confident in your skills.

  • Separately or as a set
  • Aluminium case
  • Many different options including the $ 279 Pro model.

Samsung T5

We couldn't help but include the Samsung T5 on the list. This hard drive is very small, fast and popular.

It supports USB-C and comes with a USB-A cable.

  • Great design
  • Supports USB-C and USB-A
  • Fast Samsung memory V-NAND
  • Available in versions from 250GB to 2TB for 8,800-18,000 rubles.

Satechi USB-C Enclosure

You can create your own external hard drive by purchasing a Satechi enclosure. It is metallic and very easy to assemble.

The speed depends on the type of drive you are using, but the case supports USB-C anyway.

  • Made of aluminum
  • Easy to assemble
  • Any disc can be used
  • Available in space gray, silver and gold
  • Available on Amazon for $ 34.99

Seagate Ultra Slim +

Seagate is another popular company. The Ultra Slim + is quite thin and has a traditional HDD inside. The design is quite modern and there is a nice logo on the bottom.

The model has not yet been updated for USB-C, but as usual you can buy an additional cable. Because of the HDD inside, this drive is affordable. The 2TB model can be purchased for as little as $ 79.

  • Silver or gold color
  • Affordable price

G | Drive R-Series SSD

G | Drive is considered a more premium brand. This hard drive looks amazing.

This hard drive is IP67 certified and can withstand 450kg and drop from 3 meters. It is very fast, the speed reaches 560Mb / s. This is faster than the 540MB / s of the Samsung T5.

  • Good protection, incl. and from the water
  • Great design
  • 5 year warranty
  • Available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB options

Oyen Digital Raid Enclosure

The Oyen Digital disc is similar to the Satechi, but allows additional discs to be added. There are several types of RAID available, but the best one is RAID 0.

Instead of buying a 1TB SSD, you can buy two 500GB SSDs much cheaper and put them together. This drive will bring them together, and you have a great hard drive.

The case, although large, is solid. It is made of aluminum and is easy to assemble.

  • An affordable option for building a fast SSD
  • Good quality
  • Space for two SSDs (or HDDs)
  • USB-C support
  • Available on Amazon for $ 99

Crucial SSD

If you are going to buy just an external case, then you will need disks for it. You may already have them.

If not, you can buy the Crucial SSD, which is reliable and fast, but not overly expensive.

  • Collect your drives
  • Affordable price and high speed
  • Available from 256GB to 2TB

Glyph Raid Atom SSD

Glyph has the fastest portable SSD. There are two blocks inside V-NAND memory, which means the speed is really high.

This drive can reach speeds of 770MB / s, which is much faster than the others.

The case is quite reliable, the aluminum is covered with an anti-slip pad. There is USB-C support... If speed is the most important thing for you, choose Glyph.

  • Speed ​​770Mb / s
  • Anti-slip protection
  • USB-C

LaCie Porsche Design

LaCie makes premium rims with a simple design. This drive is slim, beautiful, and supports USB-C. He does his job well. This disc will look great next to any Mac.

  • Porsche Design available in Gold, Copper Gold and Silver
  • Chrome plated corners
  • USB-C
  • 1TB for 5290 rubles.

Caldigit tuff

CalDigit's Tuff is one of the toughest discs on this list. The set includes a case in which you can carry additional discs.

The aluminum disc is covered in a neon green casing to protect it from drops. The ports are protected from dust and water. The disc can be immersed for 30 minutes in water to a depth of 1m.

There are SSD and HDD versions, all with USB-C support.

  • Lasting
  • Case
  • Water, dust and drop resistant
  • 2TB version available on Amazon for $ 179

LaCie Rugged

Over the years, the discs of this company have changed. The USB-C version has a detachable cable, which is very convenient. If it ever stops working, you don't have to change everything.

The drives are available in SSD and HDD variants and with different amounts of memory.

  • Fall and rain protection
  • USB-C
  • Unique design
  • Available from 2 TB 13110 rub.

LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt 3