How to use USB 3.0 external HDD with iMac?

Comments: 5 Responses to “How to use USB 3.0 external HDD with iMac?”

Gary Rosenzweig

13 years ago

Companies have already come out with USB 3.0 expansion cards for Macs. LaCie has them, in fact. But you need a Mac with an expansion card slot. That means a Mac Pro (PCIe expansion card) or a MacBook Pro 17-inch (ExpressCard34 slot). So it won't work for a MacBook or the smaller MacBook Pros.

Rick

13 years ago

I just purchased my first MacBook Pro (running away from the Windows world). Any updated comments on which external hard drive (preferably 2.5") to use with a new Macbook Pro 15"? Why would the new MacBook Pros not ship with USB 3.0? That leaves me with Firewire 800 so the offerings are limited. Also, can this drive then be used for both Mac and Windows? This is all new territory for me so excuse any ignorant questions.

Gary Rosenzweig

13 years ago

I would simply get a USB2 drive. They are pretty fast, and cheap. I would stay away from Firewire unless you need it for something specific (like video editing). In the future (later this year) there will be Thunderbolt drives that use that new port on your MacBook Pro that will be even faster than USB3 or Firewire.
You can use a drive for both Mac and Windows if you format it as FAT32. But I wouldn't as you lose some of the advantages of a Mac-formatted drive. If you need a drive for a Windows machine too, I would just get a separate USB2 drive.

Rick

13 years ago

Thanks Gary. I've had difficulty copying my photos (170GB) from my Usb2.0 drive to my mac. The mac keeps randomly ejecting the drive. I've used this drive as my backup drive on my windows machine for a year but it doesn't want to work with my Mac. Sometimes it gets as far as half way through and the ejects the drive. Other times it makes it just a few minutes in before ejecting. Any clues on that?

Gary Rosenzweig

13 years ago

I don't know. But it sounds like you should be able to copy your files in groups, anyway.