The standard version uses USB 3.0, which is widely supported on a lot of Macs. You can also choose from some fun colors besides basic black. It’s portable enough to toss into your briefcase or backpack. It has 1 terabyte of storage, with options to move up to 2, 3, or 4 terabytes. The Western Digital 1TB My Passport drive ticks a lot of boxes. If your external drive doesn’t match up with your computer port, you may need an adapter. Not sure what ports you have? Apple offers up a handy guide to identifying the ports on your Mac. You will need to use an adapter to plug a Thunderbolt 2 device into a Thunderbolt 3 port.
If you’re buying a drive with Thunderbolt, check which version it supports. Some earlier Macs use Thunderbolt 2 ports, which are shaped differently and don’t double as USB ports. The next best thing is a USB-C drive, which will still give you great transfer speeds. If you want to get the most out of your Thunderbolt 3 ports, look for a drive that specifically supports Apple’s technology. The same Thunderbolt 3 port also works with USB-C devices and cables, which makes it a versatile way to hook up a backup drive. You’ll find this latest version of Thunderbolt on more recent MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, iMac and MacBook Air models.
