Western Digital: External Portable Hard Drives About the Author An information technology journalist since 2002, David Nield writes about the Web, technology, hardware and software.
HDD Name Available Capacities Interface Read/Write speed, Mb/s How Much? WD My Passport Ultra 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB; 3TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 118Mb/s / 120Mb/s Seagate Expansion 500GB; 1TB; 2TB; 3TB; 4TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 129Mb/s / 121Mb/s Toshiba Canvio Connect II 500GB; 1TB; 2TB; 3TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 98Mb/s / 100Mb/s Seagate Backup Plus/Slim 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB; 4TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 125Mb/s / 120Mb/s Toshiba Canvio Basics USB 3.0 500GB; 750GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 95Mb/s / 89Mb/s WD My Passport for Mac 1TB; 2TB; 3TB USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 105Mb/s / 104Mb/s. Western Digital is known for their quality and well made hard drives, and WD My Passport Ultra is no exception. New Wd My Passport Ultra model comes in five capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB and 3TB.
You can get this external hard drive in four colors – Black; Blue; White; Berry. You also don’t have to worry about compatibility because this drive will work on both Windows and Mac computers, out of the box the drive is formatted in NTFS file system. To use it with Mac you need to reformat it to HFS+ file system. My Passport supports both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. When used with USB 2.0 drive registered reading speed of 30Mb/s and writing speed of 28Mb/s. Drive speeds via USB 3.0 are quite impressive – 118Mb/s reading and 120Mb/s writing.
The drive worked quietly and almost with no vibration during our tests. WD My Passport Ultra comes with a 3-year limited warranty, which is more than other portable external hard drives usually have (2-years). This 1TB external hard drive will be an excellent choice whether you need a device for backup or consoles like and Playstation 4 (PS4). In our Top 6 list Seagate Expansion portable drive takes the second place.
Also, this portable external hard drive has new model (STEA1000400) which is available in five capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 2TB; 3TB and 4TB. People who need big capacity should consider Seagate Expansion as an option. The price for 1TB version right now is very similar to WD My Passport Ultra, though is changing all the time. Seagate Expansion comes without any bundled software, which is main reason it takes the second place in our top list. Many included softwares are a big advantage for WD My Passport Ultra, and that is the main reason why it’s in the first place instead of Seagate Expansion. Both new and old models supports USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity and is Bus-powered. Drive comes only in one color and it`s Black.
So I googled a bit more and the reason for the issue on my Mac was due to “Send to Kindle” app. I uninstalled this app and immediately the Temperature came down to 49 degrees centigrade and the Fan Speed under 2000 RPM. Mac heating up when playing games. Because of this app the bash process (checked via App Tamer) was occupying 21.5% of constant CPU Use, causing the temperature to go upto 80 degrees centigrade for the CPU and the fanspeed to go upto 6000 RPM.
Out of the box drive is formatted in NTFS file system for Windows, in order to use it with Ma you need to. The same as most external hard drives Seagate Expansion is mostly used with game consoles – Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or by photographers. The internal 2.5-inch hard drive spindle speed is 5400RPM. Drive offers excellent performance, it’s faster than WD My Passport Ultra and all other 1tb external hard drives in this list. Drive registered following speeds – 121Mb/s writing and 129Mb/s reading. Expansion is one of the fastest 1tb external hard drive on the market.
Seagate Expansion also have a dekstop version which is good deal for the money. Read to find out more. The compact Toshiba Canvio Connect II (HDTC810XK3A1) offers decent performance bundled with useful softwares, such as Pogoplug PC and NTI Backup Now EZ. If you buy it yourself Pogoplug PC would cost you 30$.
Drive comes in four capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 2TB and 3TB. And in five colors – Black, Blue, Red, White and White-Gold. Canvio Connect II is the most colorful portable hard drive in our Top 6 list. Set chrome as default browser for mac.
Toshiba Canvio Connect II 1tb is few bucks more expensive than WD My Passport Ultra and Seagate Expansion at the moment. NTI Backup Now EZ is very easy to use automated backup software. As long as your computer is connected to the internet you can access data stored on Canvio itself remotely via mobile app. This software turns Canvio Connect into a personal home cloud server. Canvio Connect supports both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports but sometimes it declines to work via USB 2.0. That should`nt make any hassle at all, because who now still uses USB 2.0?