Recommendations For A External/Portable SSD For iMac

[ownyourfuture]

Researched earlier today, & thinking the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield may be what I'm looking for. Even though it's probably not necessary, I'd probably go with 1 TB.

I back up tax returns for both myself, & a couple other people that I prepare them for. (only do this because they have very simple returns) Other than text files, bookmarks, etc, the vast majority I'd back up would be music & storm chasing videos/photos. I'd also want it to be encrypted/password-protected.

I'm almost certain the Samsung includes password protection.
Lastly, I want what everyone wants, a product that's reliable

The only name I’d rule out is SanDisk. Had bad luck with their cruiser glides in the past.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[njhowie]

Two years ago I bought DD a Crucial X8 500GB Portable SSD.

It is very fast, very small, and works very well with her MacBook. When I bought it, it was $87. Today, the 1TB version is $89.

Like Samsung, Crucial (owned by Micron), is a leader in memory.

 

[levindb]

I purchased a Seagate 2TB for $62 earlier this year. I did not go with SSD because I only back up once/month and I am "frugal"...maybe more than I should be. I wanted a device that was large enough that I could have many backups on a single device, even though the incremental backups are much smaller than the initial one. As photos and videos tend to get larger as technology improves, I wanted a device to last for 5-7 years.

 

[steelyman]

I bought two Western Digital MyBooks to back up my iMac, 10 and 12 TB respectively so 22 TB total. They are hard drives (my thinking is that, as sole use is backup, speed is less of an issue). The iMac itself has 1 TB SSD storage.

The backups are managed by MacOS’ Time Machine. It’s been working well.

There was a discussion a while ago about this and I learned a lot about checking disk health in order to be forewarned about impending failures. I periodically check the MyBooks’ SMART status using Western Digital disk utilities (free from WD) and occasionally run more thorough disk scans.

[ADDED] Must remember to carefully read thread titles: MyBooks are definitely NOT portable.

 

[Jerry1]

Im not sure what type of connection the Mac has, but I bought a 1T external SSD and it really wasn’t much faster. I have/used a 3.0 USB port, but the transfer rate is still pretty slow. I’d recommend thinking about bottlenecks in the process before spending money on an external SSD. It may not be much faster than a much cheaper external hard drive with much more storage capacity.

 

[Midpack]

I have one of these, works great.

https://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-0G06053-G-Drive-Portable-Storage/dp/B0765QBGZZ

 

[ncbill]

My Macintosh models are old enough to still have Firewire 800 ports so I put a SSD in this $55 case with FW800/USB 3.0 ports:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MSTG800U3K/

 

[cbo111]

My iMac has a WD 2TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive HDD with backup software and password protection. It was less than $100 purchased three years ago. You could probably get a 5TB for similar price now. It has worked flawlessly in the background and simply plugs into a USB port.

 

[eytonxav]

I have a 2TB Samsung T7 for my Mac Studio. I see no issues with it, plus its quite small and unobtrusive.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Thanks for the replies!

 

[Dash man]

I have one of these, works great.

https://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-0G06053-G-Drive-Portable-Storage/dp/B0765QBGZZ

Thanks! I just received mine today and it’s backing up nicely!

 

[mountainsoft]

For those of you with external SSD drives, I'm curious what kind of real world read and write speeds you are getting?

I have an external Western Digital 5TB traditional hard drive, connected with USB 3.0. According to DiskMark8 I am getting around 105MBs write speeds and 123MBs read speeds.

In theory, USB 3.0 should max out somewhere around 640 MBs, but real world speeds never match the theoretical maximum. I'm curious if an external SSD drive provides any speed boost, or if the USB 3.0 interface is the limiting factor regardless if it's SSD or a traditional hard drive.

I only use my external drives for backups, so I don't really need super fast speeds. Traditional hard drives still provide more storage space for less money, and that's more important to me for backup purposes.

 

[Dash man]

I’m not too concerned about speed. I’ve had too many traditional external hard drive discs fail. SSD are much more reliable.

 

[mountainsoft]

I’m not too concerned about speed. I’ve had too many traditional external hard drive discs fail. SSD are much more reliable.

All of my internal drives are SSD's, both for speed, reliability, silent operation, and low power usage.

For external backup drives an SSD still costs a lot more. I can get a traditional 5TB drive for about $105, compared to a $210 for a 2TB SSD. For backups, storage space matters more to me than speed.

I guess I've had better luck than you, I've never had an external drive fail before I upgraded to new drives with more capacity.

 

[Qs Laptop]

All of my internal drives are SSD's, both for speed, reliability, silent operation, and low power usage.

For external backup drives an SSD still costs a lot more. I can get a traditional 5TB drive for about $105, compared to a $210 for a 2TB SSD. For backups, storage space matters more to me than speed.

I guess I've had better luck than you, I've never had an external drive fail before I upgraded to new drives with more capacity.

Agree with all of this. I got a 2TB external USB drive recently for $65 after I filled up my 6 year old 1TB drive. Both work flawlessly.

However, the OP does a lot of video editing so might value that extra bit of transfer speed an SSD provides.