External Drive for a 16" MacBook Pro, M1 Max for backups

[PeterLC]

I am looking for a 6TB or 8 TB external hard drive to serve as a Time Machine backup for my soon to arrive 16" MBP M1 Max. Connecting via a Thunderbolt 4 would be seemingly ideal, with USB-C as an option. What would be the best external hard drive for this?

 

[zarathu]

Search on Google. Expect to pay $400 for a HDD and as much as $1000-$1400 for an SSD.

 

[Blowback]

I am looking for a 6TB or 8 TB external hard drive to serve as a Time Machine backup for my soon to arrive 16" MBP M1 Max. Connecting via a Thunderbolt 4 would be seemingly ideal, with USB-C as an option. What would be the best external hard drive for this?

I have had no problems with Samsung SSDs over the years; have purchased several from Amazon. For 'speed' or 'video' specific uses OWC has some interesting (expensive!!!) options and very good support.

 

[PeterLC]

Search on Google. Expect to pay $400 for a HDD and as much as $1000-$1400 for an SSD.

Thanks. I was actually looking for make and model names from those with favourable, or unfavourable, experiences so I can consider/make an informative and less risky choice. I am not needing speed so an external hard drive, costing less than an SSD, is my direction at the moment.

 

[TrueBlou]

If speeds aren’t your concern then any Segate or WD drive should suffice.
I use an 8TB WD Elements for my backups. Though I have that setup with a Raspberry Pi 4 as a TimeMachine drive. I’ve found them to be reliable drives, so something like that should suit your needs.

 

[wilberforce]

I have used various makes (all big name brands like seagate and WD) of high capacity HDs and not been very impressed with reliability, had many failures, probably once a year. I now use alternating dual HDs, so when one fails I have the other, plus two additional manual backup drives. I suggest consider using two ,not one, backup drives. Time Machine does backups to alternating drives easily.

 

[Chancha]

Just wait for Black Friday, extremely likely to have WD Elements / MyBook super deals at 12/14TB which is almost like a yearly guarantee happening. Then just get a cheap type-C to USB3 micro B cable (this side goes into the external drive).

10TB or higher capacity typically use higher class manufacturing process reserved for enterprise / surveillance purpose, while the binned down ones get shafted into these higher capacity externals, at least WD has been doing this. Last year I shucked 6 of the 12TB WD Elements, all of them are white label Ultrastar Helium filled enterprise disks.