Hey everyone,

I'm looking to buy a new external hard drive for backing up my photos and videos. I'm trying to decide between an SSD and a traditional HDD. What are your current recommendations for:

• Fastest external SSDs (for transfer speeds)
• Best value portable HDDs
• Reliable larger capacity drives (4TB+)

I'm open to USB 3.1 Gen 2, Thunderbolt, or even NVMe solutions if the price is right. Any specific models or brands you've had good experiences with would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Hey TechGuru,

For speed, you really can't go wrong with Samsung T7 or the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. I've been using the T7 for a while now and the transfer speeds are blazing fast, especially over USB-C.

For HDDs, the WD My Passport series is usually a solid, affordable choice. They're not the fastest, but they're reliable for everyday backups.

If you need 4TB+, consider the Seagate Backup Plus Hub or the WD Elements Desktop. They offer good capacity for the price, though they are larger desktop units.

I'm also looking for recommendations, especially for Mac users. Are there any drives that work particularly well with macOS Time Machine?

@Mac_Beginner Any drive formatted for HFS+ or APFS will work with Time Machine. Most external drives come formatted as exFAT or NTFS, so you'll likely need to reformat them to APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) when you first connect them to your Mac. The drives I mentioned (Samsung T7, SanDisk Extreme, WD My Passport) all work fine with Time Machine after reformatting.