Network-attached storage (NAS) is a must-have for a modern home with multiple inhabitants. If everyone has their own computer and phones, a NAS can back up data so you never run out of space. And it’s an excellent common media server for the whole home. Indeed, NAS is the best backup solution out. The Best NAS Drives for Homes and Small Offices. NAS devices essentially connects a hard disk to your router by means of an Ethernet cable television What the Time Pill does well is make it easy to setup and set up automated backups for Mac and iOS users. If you’re an Apple fan that does not like.
BestHard Drives for your NASWindows Central2019
Choosing the right hard drives for your network-attached storage (NAS) is incredibly important. Western Digital and Seagate are the two giants for storage, and both companies offer an almost identical offering specifically designed with servers in mind. This makes it easy to select the right drive(s) for your NAS. However, out of the two, we'd go with Seagate because of speeds for the price.
And if you need a hard drive for a newly-purchased NAS, you'll be able to score a deal with Black Friday. Some of the drives included in this collection will likely be on sale for Black Friday, further reducing the overall cost of setting up your own home server. We're updating our buyer's guides to ensure we're offering the best buying advice, and our deals team is on red alert to pick up the best deals on NAS drives.
Best for NAS: Seagate IronWolf
The Seagate IronWolf series is the company's solution for NAS setups, rivaling the Western Digital Red, but with faster speeds and larger storage capacities available. Similar technology, named AgileArray, is implemented to offer enhanced performance and reliability over desktop drives, and these units can be installed in boxes that support up to eight bays. IronWolf Pro is the next step up with slightly more expensive drives but increased supported bays, workload rates, and a limited warranty.
Most importantly, these drives can be run 24/7 without shutdown. The IronWolf family of NAS hard drives come in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, and 16TB versions and with three-year warranties. Prices start at $60 for the 1TB capacity configuration but can cap out at more than $500. Do note that only configurations of 4TB and above sport rotational vibration sensors. The 6TB and above models run at 7,200 RPM.
If you want the best of what Seagate has to offer in terms of NAS storage, have a look at the IronWolf Pro series. All the Pro drives spin at 7,200 RPM and can handle 250MB/s of sustained data transfer, with bursts of around 6Gb/s. There's also an extended 5-year warranty and a 300TB per year workload limit. The Pro line of Seagate IronWolf drives also support up to 24 bays.
Pros:
Great value
Reliable
6TB and up run at 7,200 RPM
Best for NAS
Seagate IronWolf
Hard drives designed for NAS
Seagate has a substantial collection of drives that are specifically designed for use inside NAS. The higher capacity drives even have faster motors.
For NAS pros
Seagate IronWolf Pro
When you require a more powerful NAS
These drives are super-fast, packing in 7,200RPM motors that can allow for up to 250MB/s of sustained data transfer, with bursts of around 6Gb/s.
Source: Western Digital
Much like Seagate, WD has been making storage solutions for PCs for many years, and it offers reliable drives for any NAS. As with the Seagate drives, I recommend at least 4TB. WD's Red hard drives are manufactured for NAS use and can be deployed in systems that support up to eight bays. Backed by 3-year limited warranties and a powerful brand in the storage market, WD drives are well known to be of top quality, and they last a long time. Red isn't the fastest hard drive series on the market, but using them in a RAID formation can make up for this.
This particular series of drives comes in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB and 10TB versions. Depending on just how much space you require, it's possible to pick one up for as little as $64 (1TB). Each drive comes with the company's NASware 3.0 for enhanced reliability and performance. It's also worth noting that WD doesn't ship any mounting brackets or screws with these drives.
What makes WD drives appealing is the fact that every capacity option has vibration protection, but if you need faster speeds (drives that run at 7,200 RPM), you will need to fork out more for the Red Pro series.
Pros:
Great value
Reliable
All have vibration sensors
Runner-up
Western Digital Red
Perfect hard drives for your NAS
Western Digital has been making storage solutions for PCs for many years, offering reliable but somewhat slower drives for your NAS.
For the pros
Western Digital Red Pro
When ordinary NAS drives just won't do
Western Digital's pro series of drives are even more capable and can support up to 24 bays, come with a 5-year warranty, and more advantage features.
Bottom line
Whether you go with Seagate or Western Digital, it's always a good idea to pick up a hard drive designed for NAS use. All of the drives mentioned here fit that bill. While you can technically use a traditional desktop-class drive, I'd recommend against doing so. Desktop-class hard drives aren't designed to be operating continuously, and they're not backed by extended warranties, nor do they come with advanced protective features you find on NAS drives.
Seagate comes out slightly on top since Western Digital doesn't offer any 7,200 RPM drives unless you pay more for the Red Pro series. Everything else is pretty much identical between the two storage families. This extra speed found in higher capacity drives from Seagate means increased access speeds, which is essential for storing and loading files on your server — looking for hard drives to install into your NAS? Go with the Seagate IronWolf.
How to find the best Black Friday deals on NAS hard drives
After buying a NAS, you'll likely need some hard drives. Usually, manufacturers sell their NAS servers diskless, requiring you to buy your own. You'll need to consider capacity more than anything, and these drives should be specifically designed for NAS use — don't simply throw in your old desktop drives. If you're just starting out in the NAS world, a 2TB drive should be good enough for storing all your files and media. You'll want to purchase at least two drives so you have at least some form of redundancy (two 2TB drives would result in 2TB of usable storage in RAID).
When looking at NAS drives, you only have two choices: Western Digital or Seagate. Both companies offer similar products at reasonable prices, with more pricey 'pro' drives with some advanced features. Black Friday should see some deals published for NAS drives, allowing you to save some money after investing in your shiny new home server. Our deals team will be hunting down the best Black Friday discounts on NAS drives, so check back at Windows Central throughout this month.
Credits — The team that worked on this guide
Rich Edmonds is a staff reviewer at Windows Central, which means he tests out more software and hardware than he cares to remember. Joining Mobile Nations in 2010, you can usually find him inside a PC case tinkering around when not at a screen fighting with Grammarly to use British words. Hit him up on Twitter: @RichEdmonds.
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Badass NAS
These 5 hard drives will pair perfectly with any NAS
Choosing a hard drive for your NAS is about more than affordability. You need to consider other factors including capacity, vibration protection, and reliability.
BestUSB-C Hard Drives for MaciMore2019
Backing up your data is probably the most critical thing you can do, so getting a good hard drive is essential. Of course, the current MacBook Pro lineup only has Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, but that's OK, because USB-C is fast, future-proof, and will likely replace standard USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, power, and more. A USB-C hard drive is the perfect storage box to locally back up all of your most essential files, including photos, documents, music, movies, and anything else that's important to you. Save your Mac's hard drive and pick up a USB-C hard drive. Here are a few options to get you started on your search.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro only has USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you may need to invest in a new hard drive this Black Friday to save a few dollars. The hard drives featured in this article will likely be on sale for the holiday weekend, but there may be some great alternatives to this list on sale as well. The deals team here at iMore is continuously on the lookout for the best deals for Black Friday, and we'll update as they become available.
Fan favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB
Staff Favorite
The G-Drive by G-Technology is a great USB-C hard drive for most people. It has 1TB of storage and features a quick drive speed of 7200RPM, with transfer rates of up to 136MB/s, thanks to USB 3.1. It comes Mac ready and USB-C ready.
From $75 on Amazon
Best for speed: Samsung T5 SSD 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Samsung's T5 SSD is a solid-state drive that provides way faster transfer rates than physical hard drives. Solid-state drives don't have moving parts, so if you happen to drop this one, there's less to break! SSDs are more expensive, but with this one, you get write speeds of up 540MB/s, which is over three times faster than many hard drives. If you like to store TV shows and movies on your hard drive, consider a solid-state drive!
From $90 at Amazon
Rugged pick: Glyph Blackbox Plus 1TB
The Glyph Blackbox Plus is a rugged, portable hard drive that can keep up with you wherever you go. It's surrounded in rubber to protect from drops and has enough capacity for all your backups and then some. You get write speeds of up to 140MB/s from just 5400RPM, as well as a 3-year warranty in case anything goes wrong. It also features fan-free heat dissipation, so it's nice and quiet.
$120 at Amazon
Best for video: Samsung 5X Portable SSD
With read and write speeds of up to 2,800MB/s and 2,300MB/s, respectively, this portable drive is perfect for videographers. It's designed for rendering and compiling high res photos and videos with up to 40Gb/s data transfer. It also looks like the Ferrari of external hard drives.
SanDisk's Extreme 900 SSD is a powerhouse solid-state drive that offers up to nine times the transfer speeds of external hard drives. It's made of durable aluminum and rubber, and the solid-state core is shock-proof. So, this is far less likely to die on you should you drop it (compared to hard drives).
From $175 at Amazon
Best value: G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile SSD Durable Portable External Storage
With a low price per terabyte, G-Technology's G-Drive SSD is one of the more versatile solid-state drives on the market, and it comes from a brand that Apple recommends. You'll get transfer rates of up to 560MBps and USB-C connectivity. Plus, it has IP67 water/dust resistance, it's drop-tested to ten feet, and it has 1000 pound crush-resistance.
From $110 at Amazon
Long-lasting: LaCie Rugged 2TB
The LaCie Rugged of yesteryear got me through my entire post-secondary education, and now that there's a USB-C option, it'll help get you (and maybe even your children!) through school or work with reliability and that fast connection. The body is rubberized to help it stand up to daily wear and tear, and 2TB should be more than enough for all of your files, documents, Final Cut projects, and much more. There's a 2-year warranty on these, which includes data recovery services.
From $110 at Amazon
Durable and reliable: CalDigit Tuff 2TB
CalDigit's Tuff hard drives are rugged, colorful 2TB drives that offer USB-C connectivity, and there's even a USB-C to USB-A cable for backward compatibility. With an IP57 rating, these drives are water-resistant in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. They're dust-resistant, so you can take yours with you anywhere, knowing that your data is safe from the elements.
$120 at Amazon
Compact pick: SanDisk Extreme SSD
You may know SanDisk for its SD cards, but its hard drives are excellent as well. This solid-state drive is smaller than the average smartphone and has a hole in it so that you can clip it to a bag. It's shock-resistant and ruggedly designed, so it's perfect for life on the move.
From $73 at Amazon
Budget pick: WD 2TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive
Western Digital makes some of the best hard drives around, and this well-priced USB-A and USB-C compatible hard drive fits right in with all its other excellent drives. It's made for Mac and is Time Machine ready.
From $80 at Amazon
Waterproof-ish: G-Tech All-Terrain Drive
For the extreme outdoorsmen and women, this rugged hard drive does more than protect your external hard drive from scratches and breaks. It's watertight, so you can drop it into a pool of water up to one-foot for 30 seconds without anything seeping in. The tethered Thunderbolt cable means you don't have to bring any extra cables, too.
$179 at Amazon
Our personal favorite
External hard drives are must-have peripherals for anyone with a computer. They give you additional storage space, which can fill up fast on laptops, and are essential to backing up your data safely and securely. Every one of the drives on this list is easy to set up and start using right away. All you have to do is plug one into your Mac.
The G-Drive is our staff's favorite portable hard drive because it's affordable and reliable. It's Mac-ready but can also be reformatted for Windows computers. If 1TB isn't enough, there is also a 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB version available. A three-year limited warranty backs the G-DriveThe G-Drive is supported by a three-year limited warranty.
A bit of purchasing advice for Black Friday
When it comes to buying any external hard drive, you have to know your needs. Do you plan on using this drive for backing up your Mac, or do you plan on using it to transport and save large video files? The larger the files, the more speed, and capacity you'll need. Plus, don't forget always to get more space than you need currently because your storage needs will likely grow over time. If you buy a drive with just enough space to fit the files you want to use it, for now, you'll be clamoring for another one as soon as you need to add something to that drive. So save yourself the trouble and make sure you get something with a bit of breathing room.
We've seen plenty of drives from Western Digital, Seagate, SanDisk, and more go on sale for Black Friday in the past, and we're hopeful this year will feature some great deals on USB-C drives as well. Whether it's an SSD with a huge capacity great for video, or a slim drive that you can take with you when you travel to ensure you always have a copy of your important files, you should be able to find something that fits your needs.
The iMore deals team is going to be on the lookout for the best deals we can find on USB-C drive for your mac, so make sure to keep this page bookmarked and come back often to see deals as we find them.
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Hubba Hubba
If you're adding a little something to your MacBook Pro, start with a hub!
The MacBook Pro (Late 2016 and newer) sports at least two, and up to four Thunderbolt 3 ports, but that's all. What to do if you need other ports? Get a hub!