Portable hard drives are nowadays an essential item to have. Especially if you own a MacBook Air where storage capacity is limited (tutorial), you might want to think of buying an external hard drive and have your media (music, pictures. Tutorial) stored there or for your Time Machine.

1. Western Digital My Passport Studio: specifically designed for Mac, you can see even the color is matching! This beautiful hard drive come in 2 storage capacities: 500/640 Gb. My Passport Studio comes with FireWire 800/400 and USB 2 ports. The FireWire will guaranty very fast saving and reading performances.

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2. Iomega eGo BlackBelt Mac Edition 1TB: if you feel you need more storage the new 1TB from Iomega, also specifically designed for Mac, it’s your other option. The eGo BlackBelt is also equipped with FireWire 800/400 and USB 2 ports. This model only comes in jet black, and has a very handy and removable Power Grip Band wrapped around the shell of the drive. If you drop your stuff often, way to go! The band really does its job.

Best deal we’ve found is from Best Buy for $140

3. G-Technology G-Drive Mobile 500GB: this is a high end product made for a professional Mac audience specifically built for MacBook Pro users. It is a fast and reliable hard drive. G-Drive offers FireWire 800/400 and a USB 2 port. If you are looking for the fastest drive, this should be your choice. Not the cheapest if you consider the cost per GB but for extra quality you have to pay an extra price.

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4. Seagate GoFlex Slim 320 GB: the GoFlex Slim is not a native Mac hard Drive like the others, but it’s the thinnest and most portable of the bunch. The GoFlex is as thin as an iPhone 4! Although it has USB 3 port, Mac users won’t be able to take advantage of that. The writing/reading speed is therefore a pretty average one using the normal USB 2 port, just under 40 Mb/sec. This should be your choice if you want something really really thin.

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5. Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB : is also not equipped with FireWire but just USB 3 and 2. We’ve decided to include this one because of its storage capacity, reliability, decent performance and a good value for money. If you are not super concerned with the writing speed then this should be your choice. A GoFlex upgrade cable is available and that will support FireWire 800.

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