Best external drives on Reddit
122 reviews from r/VideoEditing, r/mac, r/macbookpro and 21 more subreddits
122 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
Samsung
4.8
(25)
"I’ve used Samsung T7 Shield for editing 4k footage without any issues."
"I edit off of them too."
"I’ve been using the 2TB Samsung T9 for about 7 months now and it’s been great. It’s quick enough that I can edit directly on it and it manages heat well."
"Excellent speed and reliability for medium term storage."
"I’ve had the Samsung T7 1TB SSD for years and it’s great. More than enough space for your video files & assets. Plus it’s very fast."
"I haven't had any issues with the T7 yet at all."
"The best case external would be a Samsung T7 which connects by USB-C and can be read from at up to 1050 MB/s."
"I used for a while with my Mac mini M1 this SSD enclosure."
"They work great."
"I got one and it works so well on both Mac and PC that I got a second one."
#2
Seagate
4.1
(18)
"Works great with Macs and anything else, perfect as a Time Machine target."
"Go for the Seagate one or your games will run slower."
"I bought two a couple weeks ago and they seem to be working great so far."
"The Cryptos are coming for drives, I pulled the trigger tonight."
"I have the majority of my games stored on it and haven’t had an issue yet. It seems pretty dependable."
"Seagate 4TB HD from costco. I have 2 of them."
"This 8TB drive at 7200 RPM is a great choice for those willing to spend more."
"Excellent storage solution with great performance."
"They are cheap, small and formatted as HFS+ work perfectly until now."
"I usually go with any SSD made by Seagate"
#3
Apple
4.0
(12)
"Plenty of room for my photo editing software, no problems."
"The 256GB option with a 1TB external drive is the best choice."
"I don't have any problems with the storage capacity. I'm setting at 210gb of storage available."
"Cloud storage is essential for freeing up space on your device."
"Time Machine works perfectly with my NAS."
"The 128GB storage has been sufficient for my needs over the last 4 years."
"The 256GB storage on my iPhone is great for media playback."
"I chose 256GB for my iPad for media playback, which works well."
"After 3 years, my storage is still not full, and I can use an external HDD for additional space."
"ICloud is great for storing photos and videos."
#4
WD
4.6
(10)
"Can certainly recommend it."
"Reliable for Time Machine backups."
"Perfect for working drive, fast and efficient."
"The NAS is set to RAID 1, allowing for easy drive replacement and automatic rebuilding."
"I use WD - they always worked well for me!"
"Portability is superior to any high end external SSD out there."
"I upgraded to my late 2015 iMac in 2016 with a 2TB WD Elements."
"I bought a 2 TB WD in 2011 when I got my first Mac."
"Best bang for your buck if you don't mind the speeds."
"I have the WD 4TB My Book now for a couple years."
#5
Western Digital
4.5
(6)
"Best deal that stays under the Wii U's limit."
"The drive was straight in, no need to mod."
"I use the western digital elements portable external hard drive and I have never had a problem."
"The WD Elements drive works well for my UnRaid setup and serves as a reliable spare."
"The WD Red is a good choice for NAS setups, but availability can be an issue."
"Getting 2 WD drives can at least ensure that you will get CMR drives and the performance will be optimal for your use case."
#6
OWC
4.5
(4)
"I have this one. I love it!"
"OWC is like 2x-3x faster if you're working with video or need really fast data."
"The larger SATA HD from OWC improved my backup capacity significantly."
"The OWC Mini-Stack is a reliable solution for Time Machine backups."
#7
External Hard Drive
4.3
(4)
"The 250GB external hard drive is great for Time Machine backups."
"I use a 1TB external hard drive for data storage, which works perfectly for movies, shows, and applications."
"Using external drives for plugins can save space and keep your projects organized."
"The drive powers down when not in use, causing delays when accessing media."
#8
SanDisk
3.8
(4)
"Sandisk Extreme SSD works well for editing 4k footage."
"It's the best USB-C SSD Drive you can buy."
"The Sandisk Extreme 4 TB external SSD offers great performance for a lower price."
"This replaced my SanDisk that failed on me."
#9
SSD
5.0
(2)
"I strongly recommend an SSD, in general."
"Get any solid state and an adapter with a y splitter that’s usb 2.0."
#10
G-Drive
5.0
(2)
"If you want to pay the price for reliability, speed, and redundancy, just get a G-Drive."
"All of the G-Drives are great."
#11
Crucial
5.0
(2)
"Great value for high capacity NVME storage."
"Crucial X9 Pro has been reliable for 4k footage editing."
#12
Lacie
5.0
(2)
"Orange Lacie drives are industry standard for good reason, especially if you travel with them."
"Practically unbreakable if it’s always in your bag."
#13
Synology
5.0
(2)
"Easy to set up and works seamlessly."
"Never had any issues and still use my externals for other things to this day."
#14
Backblaze
4.5
(2)
"Backblaze offers a reliable USB drive restore service with flexible data restoration options."
"The extended version history feature is a great addition for users needing long-term data retention."
#15
Sony
3.0
(2)
"I've always used an external drive for my games on my PS4 and now do the same for my PS5 without any issues."
"Limited storage capacity restricts the number of games I can have."
#16
Sabrent
5.0
(1)
"That Sabrent SSD seems to be a good find."
#17
easystore
5.0
(1)
"I bought the 4tb easystore probably a year after the Xbox one was released."
#18
Glyph
5.0
(1)
"I really like the Glyph Atom series. Tough as nails, look great, and fast."
#19
LaCie
5.0
(1)
"LaCie or Samsung!"
#20
LG
5.0
(1)
"I've ripped hundreds of BluRay discs, including many UHD discs and it works great."
#21
Serum
5.0
(1)
"Serum is versatile and great for layering effects."
#22
Terramaster
5.0
(1)
"Great for long term storage and RAID protection."
#23
ICY BOX
5.0
(1)
"I ran virtual machines (Parallels Desktop) as speed and comfort similar to VM on native Mac SSD."
#24
5.0
(1)
"Google Drive is a great option for storing photos and videos."
#25
Dropbox
5.0
(1)
"Dropbox is reliable for cloud storage."
#26
StableBit
5.0
(1)
"StableBit DrivePool allows me to use all my drives as a single drive, much like a RAID array, but with the advantage that if a drive fails, the data on other drives can still be accessed."
#27
Toshiba
5.0
(1)
"It works really well! It takes about 3 minutes to move 20GB over which is leagues better than the old flashdrives I've been using."
#28
Amazon
5.0
(1)
"Bought a cheaper one off Amazon to use with my laptop and hasn't failed me since"
#29
Softraid
5.0
(1)
"Softraid no longer requires reduced security in MacOS. Very simple to install."
#30
Intenso
5.0
(1)
"I got two 4TB Intenso drives when I switched to my first Apple Silicon Mac."
#31
EasyStore
5.0
(1)
"I am so glad I bought 5 18 TB Easystore and shucked right before this Chia madness began."
#32
MacOS
5.0
(1)
"The issues with M1/M2 Macs and these enclosures have been fixed."
#33
QNAP
5.0
(1)
"Got a QNAP that is overkill but I get ~900-1200 Mbps while my noisy drives are off in another room."
#34
Paragon
5.0
(1)
"Get Paragon and keep it simple."
#35
External Drive
5.0
(1)
"If it's a drive and it's external then it's acceptable."
#36
Easy Store
2.5
(2)
"It does just what I need it to do and it's not loud at all."
"They are stating that a sticker was removed, but I have a dozen of these and not a sticker on any of them. It’s all BS."
#37
Glyph Technologies
4.0
(1)
"Anyone hear about a Glyph drive? New kid on the block?"
#38
OWC 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID
4.0
(1)
"There are definitely 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAIDs available. Look at OWC, Promise, and Glyph."
#39
Windows
4.0
(1)
"Using single parity protects against drive failure while maintaining a single drive letter."
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