The technology of external hard drives and connection ports is constantly changing which is why we’ve taken a closer look at the best external hard drive for Mac of 2019.

The great thing for Mac users is that external HDDs have never been cheaper and storage sizes have never been bigger. Ten years ago, you would have paid several hundred dollars for a chunky hard drive with just a few Gigabytes (GB) of storage space on.

Now you can get 5 Terabytes (TB) of portable storage (5000 GB) for little more than $100 – that’s enough to backup several Macs in one go in a portable external hard drive that can fit in your pocket.

Getting an external hard drive can be useful for a variety of reasons. The most common reason is if you’re running out of disk space and need somewhere to put all those photos and 4K videos from your digital camera or home movies from your video camera.

Manage the limited storage on your Mac, since you can move an infrequently used VM to an external drive and still use it without a noticeable performance penalty. Setup for this video: Parallels. I am running OSX 10.8.2 and Parallels 7.0.15107. I need to wipe my internal iMac hard drive clean and do a new install of OSX. My question is, how can I move my present Parallels VM over to an external hard drive, along with all of the Windows software I have installed.

However, an external storage device is also useful if you want to setup a home surveillance system on your Mac, experience Virtual Reality games and apps or if you want to digitize all your documents and paperwork.

If you’re in a hurry, check out the comparison table below for quick overview of our top picks. You’ll find more detailed reviews below and you can use the quick navigation links on the right to jump to the section you want.

The Best External Hard Drives For Mac Compared

WD My Passport	Seagate Backup Plus	Transcend Storejet M3	WD MyBook Desktop	WD MyBook Desktop Duo
Capacity	1-4TB	1-4TB	1-2TB	1-8TB	4-16TB
Size	Portable	Portable	Portable	Desktop	Desktop
USB 2.0
USB 3.0/Thunderbolt
RAID
Warranty (years)	3	2	2	3	3
Password Protection/Encryption
Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

Here then is our selection of the best external hard drives for Mac in 2019 in order of ranking.

On a Mac with a virtual machine you’d like to use, open the Parallels virtual machine folder. It’s usually in the home folder/Parallels. It’s usually in the home folder/Parallels. Copy the virtual machine’s.pvm file to a shared or external drive.
Open the Parallels virtual machine folder in the home folder/Parallels. Connect to the shared or external drive with the virtual machine you need. Copy the virtual machine’s.pvm file from the drive. Open the Parallels Desktop app and choose File-Open. Navigate to your Parallels folder and open the virtual machine.
Faster File Transfer: Move, copy and transfer at lightning speed with modern USB 3.0 mass devices and external Thunderbolt SSD devices. More Power: Now featuring up to 32 vCPU and 128 GB VRAM per virtual machine Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition. Release Ready: Optimized for MacOS High Sierra 10.13 and Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

1. WD My Passport For Mac

The Western Digital 1TB My Passport For Mac is the perfect 1TB portable external hard drive for Mac users. It’s ready formatted for use on Mac, Time Machine ready and small enough to fit in your coat pocket. With a 3 year warranty and big enough to backup all Mac hard drives, if you need a simple, fast and reliable backup solution for your Mac, you can’t go wrong with the WD 1TB My Passport.

The WD My Passport for Mac supports USB 3.0/Thunderbolt connections but it will also work with USB 2.0 connections. We recommend paying that little extra for the 4TB which is the biggest version available in the My Passport Range which ranges from 1TB-4TB.

If you’re going to carry it around a lot, we also recommend getting a proper carry case for it too.

2. Seagate Backup Plus For Mac

The Seagate Backup Plus for Mac is the closest rival to the WD My Passport for Mac. The Seagate Backup Plus For Mac ranges from 1TB to 4GB and like the WD My Passport, it’s ready formatted for use on Macs and Time Machine ready for instant backups as soon as you plug it into your Mac. It also has USB 3.0/Thunderbolt connectors and includes a USB 2.0 adapter cable for older Macs.

The Seagate Backup Plus for Mac also comes with Seagate Dashboard backup software but we found it a bit bloated and hard to customize backups with. There’s really no need to use it if you’re using Time Machine for your backups. Although Seagate don’t make it very clear in the product description, the Backup Plus For Mac has a 2 year warranty which is 1 less than Western Digital.

Be aware however that although Seagate has traditionally had a good reputation in the external hard drive industry, more recently there are far more reports of hard drive problems and customer service issues with Seagate external hard drives. There are also many satisfied customers too but to be on the safe side, you might as well go with WD drives as they’re exactly the same price and in our experience, rock solid. There’s also a shockproof carry case for it and Seagate are offering 2 months free Adobe Creative Cloud subscription included.

3. Transcend StoreJet M3

The main selling point of the Transcend StoreJet M3 is that it’s incredibly tough. In fact, it claims to be military drop tested with an advanced 3 stage shock protection system and a durable anti-shock rubber outer case.

The Transcend StoreJet M3 also comes with its own software that can be used for one-touch backups. Just press the button on the Transcend and the software will automatically backup. However, you’re much better just using Time Machine which will automatically detect and use it for backups.

It's not connecting. IPCONFIG on the laptop shows an automatically delivered address of 10.211.51.3/24, with a gateway of 10.211.51.1. The rest of the network is on 192.168.0.0/24. Parallels for mac not connecting to internet. From my research here, I've found that this is involving a virtual router on the Mac, which is delivering the 10.211.55.* address to the virtual Windows machine running on it.

It also comes with an extra USB cable to connect to a second USB port in case your Mac can’t provide enough power for it from one connection although most Mac users shouldn’t need this.

If shock protection is important to you, the Transcend StoreJet M3 is a good choice but note that it only comes in a 1TB and 2TB version – there’s nothing bigger. To enhance protection, you can choose from a range of carry cases too.

4. WD My Book Desktop

If you don’t need a portable external drive and are happy to simply have something bigger on your desktop, then look no further than the WD My Book Desktop. We’ve used WD My Book Desktops for over 10 years and never had a problem and would not hesitate to recommend it still.

Unlike the portable version, the WD My Book Desktop has its own power supply which you connect to the mains so it doesn’t draw any power from your Mac. It has a USB 3.0 connection port but also works with USB 2.0 ports. The WD My Book Desktop also comes with its own WD Backup Software which is straightforward but you really don’t need it if you use Time Machine or another backup software. For security, the WD MyBook Desktop also features 256bit AES hardware encryption that password protects your data.

The WD My Book Desktop is available in 1TB going up to 8TB.

5. WD My Book Duo Desktop RAID

If you want the biggest and best external hard available on the market in 2019 at consumer prices, then go for the WD My Book Duo Desktop RAID. The Duo consists of two drives in one enclosure which can be combined as RAID drives to double capacity and speed. The 16TB drive for example is actually two 8TB WD Red HDDs packed together in one casing. By combining both drives in one, it offers super fast transfer speeds of around 324 Mbps.

The WD My Book Duo Desktop is the cheapest and most reliable external hard drive for Mac which allows you to choose RAID disk

Can I Move Parallels Desktop For Mac To An External Drive