what is the best external hard drive i can purchase , most reliable for thunderbolt and where to purchase please

I can recommend the Seagate 3TB GoFlex Desk for Mac Thunderbolt Hard Drive.

This is a very fast desktop hard drive that connects to your Mac via Thunderbolt - it also needs mains power. It can be bought on the Apple store - or through their high street shops.

If you want to protect your data then you must keep it in at least two different locations i.e two different hard drives.

Some companies also make Raid systems (which consist of multiple drives in a single enclosure) that work via Thunderbolt. These can give you protection if one of the drives fail. However they can also be expensive.

You can also buy solid state drives that connect via Thunderbolt. These are very fast drives, but they are more expensive and don't have such a large capacity.

All of these are available on the Apple store - search for Thunderbolt.

e.g:
LaCie's 2big Thunderbolt Series - up to 6 TB.

Elgato 240GB Thunderbolt Solid State Drive

Promise Pegasus 12TB (6x2TB) R6 RAID System

Whatever you do, do not store all of your data in one place. This would be a good way to lose it. Most hard drives will eventually fail, and they will take your data with them when they do.

• Answered by Conan B from Newtownabbey
• Jun 20, 2012