Best backup drives

From speedy SSDs to tons of terabytes, you’re spoilt for choice

Samsung T5 1TB USB SSD

£149 samsung.com/uk Samsung’s external SSDs have a good reputation for reliability. While this is certainly a little pricier than some rivals it’s very neat, works happily with Macs running OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later and costs less than Samsung’s newer T7 (at £189).

Western Digital My Cloud Home

£139.99 westerndigital.com This is a fantastic price for a 2TB network drive, and you can go up to 8TB for just £238. It’s unobtrusive and quiet, and while it doesn’t have RAID for extra peace of mind WD makes a number of NAS drives that do such as the My Cloud Home Duo.

LaCie Mobile Drive

£69.99 lacie.com

At just £69.99 for 1TB and £159.99 for 5TB, this is an excellent affordable option that’s particularly good for travel or just for taking your backups off-site. It’s not as eye-catching as the same brand’s orange Rugged drives, but that means it blends in better with your Mac.

LaCie Big Dock

£349.99 lacie.com

This one’s for the pros. It starts at just under £350 for 4TB and is available in sizes up to 18TB (which costs £869.99). It’s a fast Thunderbolt 3 drive that’s ideal for huge files such as video, and it doubles as a hub for Thunderbolt and USB-C devices including an external monitor.