Best Backup Drive For Mac 201710/13/2021
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![]() Best Backup Drive 2017 Download Google DriveOwners of the very latest MacBook and MacBook Pro models shouldn’t bother going further these laptops have hardwired SSDs that can’t be replaced, a trend that Apple may expand to future desktop Macs.If your Mac is one of the following models, it can probably be upgraded with an SSD.Mac mini: Up through late 2014 (current) models.Mac Pro: Up through late 2013 (current) modelsMacBook Air: Up through 2017 (current) modelsMacBook Pro: Up through mid-2015 models For Non-Upgradable Macs, Consider External SSDsIdeally, you’ll install the SSD inside your Mac, squeezing maximum performance out of its chips without needing to power an external device. But if your Mac can’t be internally upgraded, or you’re squeamish about opening up your computer, you can buy an external SSD and connect it to a USB 3 or Thunderbolt port. Apple continues to shrink its desktop and laptop machines, more tightly integrating the few remaining components inside, so you’ll want to follow an iFixit disassembly guide to safely open and close your machine. Bad news: the newer the Mac, the greater the likelihood that actually installing the drive yourself will be tricky. Not all SSDs are equivalent in reliability and performance, but ones from top-tier chip companies are pretty incredible.Which Mac Models Can Be Internally Upgraded?Good news first: most older Macs and even some current Macs can be easily user-upgraded to include SSDs. With limited expertise and only three tools, I was able to swap out my 2011 iMac’s old hard drive for an SSD in roughly 30 minutes. Running cooler, quieter, and with superior energy efficiency than traditional hard drives, SSDs have fewer failures, and reputable manufacturers tend to warranty them for longer than their predecessors.For instance, Samsung’s consumer drives generally have 5-year warranties, and if you’re willing to pay more, its PRO series drives have 10-year warranties, eclipsing all but the most expensive enterprise-class desktop hard disks. Kensington mouse driver for macThe restoring process will take hours, but you’ll come back to a fresh macOS install with everything pretty much as it was left on your old drive.Alternately, you can install a new copy of macOS on the drive, then install only the apps and files you want. Then restore directly from your Time Machine backup. If your Mac can run macOS High Sierra or later, choose APFS formatting for the SSD otherwise, choose Mac Extended + Journaled formatting. This will enable you to use Disk Utility to format the SSD. I strongly recommend updating your Mac to the latest non-beta version of macOS it can run before beginning the backup process.Once you’ve swapped the drives, hold Command (⌘) and R down on the keyboard when first restarting your SSD-equipped Mac. Radiata stories mac emulatorOnce you’ve set up the SSD with macOS and your files, choose the SSD as your boot disk from the Choose Startup Disk utility, found in System Preferences (Startup Disk) or the macOS Utilities suite.One brief note on TRIM, a topic that was a bigger deal when I originally wrote SSD guides read about it (and third-party software) in greater depth here. Backing up your Mac is always a good idea before opening it up, but all you’ll need to do after the SSD installation is run Disk Utility and format the new drive, then transfer files over as you see fit.However, if you plan to make the SSD your boot drive, follow the instructions above so you can enjoy the speed benefits of running macOS directly from the SSD. This will give you a completely fresh start, though your emails, app settings, and other files will need to be separately hunted down and brought over from your other hard drive.For users with plans to swap an optical drive for an SSD, keeping the SSD as a non-boot drive, nothing needs to be done to prep software beforehand. Other World Computing/OWC now sells the thermal sensor and all necessary tools in $40 iMac model-specific bundles, a better deal than choosing and buying the parts separately. IMac: Internal + External SSD OptionsI’ll leave the specific iMac opening instructions to the experts at iFixit (this guide works for pre-2012 27-inch iMacs), but it suffices to say that the iMac isn’t super difficult to upgrade – iFixit suggests less than an hour of total install time, and I personally took around half an hour in total.Before you begin, you’ll need several components: the SSD, a mounting bracket, an in-line digital thermal sensor, and a small collection of tools.For the SSD, I recommend Samsung’s 850 EVO series (250GB/$100 and up), and NewerTech’s AdaptaDrive mounting bracket ($15) to secure the drive inside your iMac. Under macOS High Sierra, the Samsung EVO drives I recommend here shouldn’t have any problems working perfectly with your Mac, but if you need a tool for another drive, Cindori’s TRIM Enabler 4 is an option. It’s handled in the background by OS X, though for reasons unknown, Apple officially guarantees TRIM support only for its own drives. Mac mini: Internal + External SSD OptionsInternal SSD replacement for the 2010 to 2014 “unibody” Mac mini requires considerably more effort and skill than the iMac. Which will be forward-compatible with USB-C computers. Alternately, this $19 Nimitz hard drive caddy is designed to fit a variety of 2009-2011 iMacs.If you prefer to go with an external drive, I would recommend LaCie’s Rugged Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 SSD ($285/500GB) if you need a Thunderbolt interface, otherwise a much smaller and less expensive Samsung T5 USB 3.1 SSD ($200/500GB). The guides omit only one step: placing the small SSD you buy within an adapter/caddy as large as the optical drive you’re replacing.Some people skip the adapter and use pieces of double-sided tape to hold their SSDs in place, but if you’d like to use a mount to keep your SSD firmly within the old optical drive bay, this $10 Micro SATA Cables-branded adapter is inexpensive and praised for its fit in 27-inch iMacs. IFixit has model-specific SuperDrive replacement guides for the 21.5-inch iMac ( late-2009, mid-2010, and mid-2011), 27-inch iMac ( late-2009, mid-2010, and mid-2011), and earlier 17-, 20-, and 24-inch models that are about as far back as you should consider for possible SSD swaps.
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