- The 8 best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC users in 2019 By Matt Hanson 2019-10-07T11:47:42Z Graphic design Having the best external hard drive or SSD for your Mac or PC is essential if you have lots of creative work to store.
- LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – USB 3.0 compatible, Drop Shock Dust Water Resistant, Mac and PC Computer Desktop Workstation Laptop, 1 Mo Adobe CC (STFS2000800).
In general, when you connect your external SSD with Mac, it can appear in Finder or on desktop. But if external disks are not set to show in Finder or on desktop, your external SSD won't show up on Mac. Powerpoint maker free download for mac.
The hard drives in the new 2018 Mac mini are PCIe which means they are very fast, but also expensive. Unlike previous models, you cannot upgrade the internal hard drive. It is soldered in. But thanks to the USB-C interface on the new Mac Mini, an external SSD drive is now a good option. I chose to buy the smaller (and cheaper) 250GB Mac Mini and supplement it with a 500GB external SSD drive.
USB-C Gen 2 can handle the speeds of most (but not all) SSD drives. So unless you want a very high-end solution, you’ll be fine using an external SSD over USB. An external SSD drive plugged in via USB-C will only be 1/5 the speed of the new internal PCIe drives, but it’s still fast. The external SSD drive on my new mac mini is faster than the internal non-PCIe SSD drive on my previous mac mini.
1. Buying a drive.
My first purchase was a Samsung S5. It’s fast, it’s USB-C Gen 2, and it’s cheap. But it caused a 30-second delay each time my mac booted up. Apparently, this is a common problem nnd Apple support were unable to help me resolve it. accrossform my old MAc because it did not all fit in my new Users folder. ![External ssd for mac thunderbolt External ssd for mac thunderbolt](https://www.igeeksblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Buffalo-External-SSD-For-MacBook.jpg)
The drive I ended up using was the Seagate Fast SSD. It’s fast and works well. I purchased the 500GB version. I’ve already filled it up so end hindsight I publish should have gone for the 1 TB version but I was trying to save soem money. https://michaelyellow726.weebly.com/samsung-smart-switch-for-mac.html.
2. What to put on it.
Now that you’ve connected your drive you need to choose which data to store on it. I used to recommend using your new SSD as the boot drive, but given that the internal SSD drive is now faster, you are better off booting off your internal drive and just putting some files on the external drive.
I kept OSX and my applications on my internal boot drive, as well as my users home folder. So my internal SSD drive looks like this:
- Applications
- Library
- System
- Users
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I moved most the large folders from inside my Users folder onto my external SSD. I did not change my home folder to be the external SSD. I copied the files out of my home folder. I did al this when I was migrating the data 4k video downloader serial key free for mac. Here’s what I moved to my new external SSD Drive:
- Documents (from my user folder – 40GB)
- Downloads (from my user folder – 5GB)
- Mainstage Sounds (from System Folder – 60GB)
- Movies (from my user folder – 10GB)
- Music (from my user folder – 60GB)
- Pictures (from my user folder including my photos library – 140GB)
When you move your Music, Pictures and MainStage files you need to tell iTunes, Apple Photos and Mainstage the new location.
For iTunes, firstly copy all your music files across to the new SSD. (users/yourname/music/iTunes) Then go to Preferences, Advanced, and find ‘iTunes Media folder location’. Click ‘Change’ and select the new folder.
For Photos Notability app for mac free download. you need to copy the folder called ‘Photo’s Library’ across, then restart the Photos App while holding the Option key. This gives you the option to select your new Photo library from the external SSD.
Photos should open the newly copied library and you should be able to see your photos. If that is the case then go to preferences and select ‘use as System Photo Library’ to make this change permanent.
There are some applications that will still want to use files from within your home folder on your internal SSD. That’s okay. I allow them to do that.
I find it helpful in my own mind to know which files are where so I have my documents, my music and my photos on my external SSD and I have everything else on my internal one.
But you can arrange them how you like.
Related posts:
How to speed up your mac with a Solid State SSD DriveExternal Ssd For Macbook Pro
What’s the best SSD drive for a Mac and how do I install it?Does my mac need more memory?How to get the most out of your ipod and laptop batteryAdding Network Storage (NAS) to your MacRoss Smithsays:June 30, 2019 at 7:56 amHello Wayne – This article answered a question I’ve had about buying a Mac mini and its small amount of internal storage. I chatted with Apple support yesterday. They only spoke in generalities, so I said goodbye once that became obvious. Instead of needing to go into an Apple store, I have the answer in your article!
I am not sure I need the speed of an external SSD, however, I will price them now. We use a 2011 iMac for using the internet, viewing photos and also watching TV. Its display is going, its internal HD is failing, and I cannot find a good repair shop. Everything about the mini seems to fit EXCEPT it wasn’t obvious about the external drive.
I found your website through a link to your comment on a monitor for the mini. That was interesting, but this article gave me what I really needed to know. Thank you.
ReplyWayneExternal Ssd For Mac Best Buy
says:June 30, 2019 at 11:42 pmYes it will depend on what you want to store on it. If it’s just pictures or audio files or a time machine backup then a standard HD will be fine, if you are using it to store applications, or application data, or movies, or stuff that you access a lot, an SSD will be much faster.
ReplyGregsays:September 19, 2019 at 11:22 am Thank you for the clear description in this article! I’m in the situation of using a combination Mac Mini and external SSD.
Neogeo.zip download. Would you have suggestions for back-up configuration and software? Of course, I’d like to back up both devices, but will I have to do it to two separate back-up drives or can I combine them in one … ?
ReplyWaynesays:September 20, 2019 at 4:13 am Yes grab a 2TB or 4TB drive and you can time-machine both drives to it, or split it in 2 partitions and use CCC to back up each drive to it. Mailbird for mac.
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> Mac Data Wipe > How to Format or Reformat SSD on Mac?
by Shirly Chen, 2017-12-01
A Solid State Drive is primarily used on Mac machine. If you want to recycle a SSD, formatting is the best way to remove all history data from the SSD. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat SSD on Mac. You can run easy-to-use Mac disk formatting software to easily format internal SSD or external SSD under Mac OS.
Solution 1: format & quick format SSD on Mac
Disk Utility is a useful application inside your Mac system. It can help you format & quick format SSD on Mac. First of all, open it from Launchpad. It will list all hard drives and external hard drives on the Mac. Select the SSD and click on 'Erase' button. Then Disk Utility will quickly format the SSD on your Mac.
![External ssd for mac thunderbolt External ssd for mac thunderbolt](https://www.igeeksblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Buffalo-External-SSD-For-MacBook.jpg)
Disk Utility can’t format the system SSD. And please note that after the SSD is formatted by Disk Utility, the data still can be recovered by Mac data recovery software. This is very easy solution to format or quick format Mac SSD. If you only want to recycle or reuse the SSD, this is the best solution to remove all old data on the Mac SSD. But if you are going to sell your Mac SSD, this is not the reliable way to remove sensitive data.
Solution 2: reformat or do high-level format on Mac SSD
If you want to sell, donate, lend or abandon a Mac computer/SSD, you should sure all the sensitive data on the Mac SSD has been permanently erased. Reformat or high-level format can help you permanently erase all data information on Mac SSD. Mac disk formatting software – DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac offers secure solution to reformat or high-level format Mac solid state drive. It will reformat the SSD on Mac and permanently erase all data on the SSD without affecting the service life of the Mac SSD.
DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is pretty simple to use. You can reformat your Mac SSD by only 1 click. First of all, just download and install DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac on your Mac computer. Then run it to quickly reformat your Mac SSD.
Step 1: Launch DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac on your Mac.
https://Best-Sd-Recovery-Software-Mac.peatix.com/. When you run DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac, you will see three data erasure modes. Choose this mode 'Wipe Hard Drive'.
Step 2: Reformat Mac SSD by 1 click.
DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac will show all hard drives on your Mac. Select the SSD and click on 'Wipe Now' button to reformat the SSD on your Mac.
Once the Mac SSD is reformatted by Mac SSD, all data on the SSD will be permanently lost, can’t be recovered by data recovery software. You also can’t reformat the system SSD. But DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac offers another solution to permanently erase data on the system SSD. It can erase the free disk space of the system SSD. Then all deleted or lost data on the system SSD will be permanently erased.
If you are going to dispose your old Mac computer or old SSD, DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is the best tool for you to format the SSD on Mac and permanently remove all private data on the SSD.
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