External SSD For Mac Explained: Save Your Money, Your Storage, And Your Mac!

New MacBooks and M1 Macs have a HUGE flaw as it relates to storage. In this video, I want to go over some possible pitfalls with the internal SSD on your new Mac, and why it might be a big deal - I also want to go over how to shop for a portable SSD drive for your MacBook Pro, Mac Mini M1, or Mac Studio, and how to format an SSD on a Mac. There's also some tips for managing your storage as well.
PRODUCT LINKS
Acasis USB4 Enclosure: amzn.to/3L07z5V
^ If the above is sold out, this seems as though it's the same enclosure with different branding:
Ankmax USB4 Enclosure: amzn.to/3tXRfv2
Western Digital SN770: amzn.to/3wJK6iO
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD: amzn.to/39OeW1D
BUY CLEANMYMAC X:
macpaw.audw.net/c/3460079/263...
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0:00 Storage on Your Mac
1:15 M1 SSD Problems
1:51 Why Use An External SSD?
2:31 External SSD Options
2:31 External SSD Options
6:36 Formatting SSDs On macOS
9:05 Managing Storage And Data With CleanMyMac X
10:45 Wrapping Up

[@KyleErickson]

Hey everyone, I've made an updated version of this video that you can find here that includes more products and some more noteworthy information: : kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5i7aWeFn7hgmNU

[@balzito]

Lol

[@morecroutonsplease4582]

Great vid thanks, will check the new one

[@meungawa]

I wish all content producers made their videos like this one. Logical, an easy to listen to voice with no irritating upspeak (please, let this trend stop), no annoying and unnecessarily loud or lame music blaring over the voice, options presented, and links to the recommended products. Well done!!!

[@beneaththefloorboards]

I agree: especially on the over-hypey infomercial voice on all content... This channel is really fantastic. Glad to have found it.

[@trxfrmr4191]

The biggest thing that irritates me the most is talking hands!!!

[@sojourn6697]

Actually I found his music annoying and a distraction to what he was saying. Just don’t have any music at all. I am here to listen to him, not the music.

[@drjsiegel]

@@sojourn6697 I agree with John B. I found the music annoying and a distraction also. Good information contained in this video. Thank you.

[@4score]

@@sojourn6697 I totally agree. This low harmonic distracting keyboard "noise" playing the same note(s) over and over was terrible. Good info but excruciating to listen to!

[@rickychavez8128]

It’s awesome how he goes through all these concepts while keeping things easy. Really really helpful.

[@SedonaChristina]

This was **so** incredibly helpful. I've been researching hard drives and SSDs for what feels like forever (because I have no idea what I'm doing but they're crucial to my workflow) and nothing has been this helpful and straightforward. THANK YOU!

[@andrewma9975]

I agree

[@jim3030]

I liked the video but the background music is very annoying

[@azurekite3870]

yea,it so hard to hear with the loud crappy music

[@celebrityrog]

I liked the comment but the background attitude is very annoying.

[@1966Graham]

The music is absolutely appalling in this - it is so distracting

[@pabloherman8836]

First time I’ve seen one of your videos. Instant sub! So clear and concise! I’ve been trying to figure this stuff out for days and was so confused. You put everything in one video. Thank you.

[@OrtoInScatola]

Damn, so much information well presented and packed into a short and well edited video. Great job!

[@TiborV92]

Hey man, you're such a nice guy 🤘🏻 just transitioned from Win10 to a Macbook and it means a lot to me to have honest opinions from people who use this stuff on a daily basis.. Thanks so much again and keep up the good work 🙏🏻🤘🏻

[@KelseyRodriguez]

insane quality relative to sub count, really great work, thank you! I just got a Mac Studio and will def be using this option to expand storage.

[@FVCES]

thank you for making such clean, straight-forward videos. it's an under appreciated skill

[@gregsonberlin3782]

For the Acasis case, which I own and like because of its performance and build quality, I want to add: - due to fact that the Acasis-labeled top side of the case is NOT the heat sink for the SSD but the bottom side I like to place the case upside down for better heat dissipation. Unfortunately this looks a little bit unintended. - the SSD may need up to two cooling pads stacked to get contact to the closing lid - I fitted thin and slim cooling pad strips between the side alu bars of the case and lid to enable heat transfer to the whole case as a heat sink.

[@sergiobaez3756]

could you show a picture of how installed your cooling pad strips on your case? 🙄

[@MustafaShaheen]

Thanks for this! Definitely gonna build the same setup for my next external using your tips.

[@surfing.4ever]

well done bud! I watched so many videos about this and this one has been the best so far! thank you!

[@AndrewTanielian]

This is very helpful! This is the best video I’ve seen about this topic. It will save people a lot of money who use Macs. Thank you for making it!

[@fangzhi_zhao]

Just a note here: you can also use APFS for time machine. In fact, it might be the standard now since macOS Big Sur.

[@terryrodbourn2793]

APFS seems to only work for internal hard drives and DAS connected drives! However even old class hard drives seem not to like APFS so one should use HFS+ on old style drives connected!

[@shane99ca]

@@terryrodbourn2793 I have an OWC Ministack for my Ventura-equipped Mac Studio; the Ministack has an 18 TB spinning platter. Despite the popular recommendation that APFS be used only for SSDs, it is now the default file system for Time Machine, regardless of drive type. Existing HFS Time Machine volumes will still work, but the default for creating a new Time Machine partition is APFS, internal or external, SSD or HDD. It works fine, but it's a pain in the butt to use Disk First Aid on it because it has to check _each_ snapshot, which means each incremental backup. 🙄 Why "DAS-connected drives"? Isn't the only alternative to that a network?

[@rsr789]

Correct. I use APFS for my external SSD Time Machine backups without any issues.

[@HERXMES]

Great thxxxxx

[@zennoodle]

Thanks for the insight! I have been a heavy Mac user for 20+ years and hate all the b-brands that are out there for SSDs, enclosures, etc. Glad to know there are some dependable options!

[@ajahndallas]

I have always liked the OWC offerings. Great customer support and you can reach out to them to get help for your specific mac as well. Thanks for the good information. It is very helpful.

[@DEtchells]

I’ll second this, I’ve been using OWC stuff for probably 25 years now. Good stuff, good support, and I always know it’ll be compatible with my Macs. 👍👍👍

[@SheepOnDrugz]

Excellent presentation. I’ve just started looking into buying an external storage device that offers real time working performance, rather than just back up storage. This really helped me get going. Thanks. This is the second presentation I’ve seen of yours and both have been among the best technical explanations I’ve watched on KZbin.

[@tinebara]

Thanks for this in-depth explanation. Needing to expand my storage for work and I don't have the budget to buy a new mac, so this will do for now. Fire video.

[@79santosh]

Very helpful info for how to upgrade storage for the Mac mini. Short and to the point. Thanks

[@teatonaz]

This guy is great. I so appreciate using the charging type of talk. I’m not very familiar with Macs yet, it will be getting this external SSD and Clean up software that he mentions. Subscribed. Thanks and cheers.

[@spencer476]

Really clear and useful info here. Thanks very much for shooting straight.

[@jancabri8291]

VERY informative, clear and precise. Thank you for some great advice!

[@jpdj2715]

The essence is in "TBW" - Total Bytes Written. If you have a 2TB drive and it can sustain a TBW of 600TB then that means that every block in the SSD can have memory cells rewritten 300 times. Another SSD may have a TBW of 6000TB and this then means it can survive 3,000 rewrites. Look at Samsung EVO versus PRO and their TBW. Note that TBW should be specified with the byte unit like TB, PB or GB. SSD and flash memory cards have a controller that does "wear leveling". If you place one file on an SSD, delete that file and next write a second file, then that second file, being the "first" on the drive, uses the space after the former file. This goes around and in that way memory the wear of blocks is leveled. We get better TBW from better memory cells (much more expensive) or from "over-provisioning" where more capacity is present to the wear leveling than visible to user and OS (more expensive) or even a combination of these in enterprise/data center SSD. The wear leveling is a thing of the SSD's firmware and controller, but can be inspected and from that an "SSD Health Report" can be derived. How do you extend the lifetime of your Mac (or PC)? By buying as large an SSD as possible and placing as little data on it as possible. Indeed, a large page file needs large space and if there are daily changes from rebooting daily, then the wear goes fast. Here, more (unused) capacity mens longer service life. If you keep "write once - read many" data on external storage, especially large volumes, then this helps a lot. Personally, I have an external, magnetic platter, drive for downloads that I watch/play/use off-line and later erase. While experience data builds with manufacturers or resellers of SSD and flash memory cards, they now start to move "over-provisioning" capacity from hidden to visible to user and OS. This is where the "odd" capacity numbers come from. That does not reduce TBW but it reduces TBW/visible_capacity - i.e. lifetime in terms of cell or block rewrites. Corollary is the question how long your data has its integrity guaranteed in an SSD. I suggest to read up on "spontaneous bit-flips" here. People with degrees in computer science, electronics and quantum physics may agree that they don't know and the answer is, left unpowered, between 7 and 7,000 hours, maybe. You would hope that your SSD has some ECC error-mitigation mechanism in place and you probably should store your data in a RAID 5 array that periodically does data scrubbing if said data is important and needs to be kept perfect for a long time. Now a bit fallen over in a JPEG or MPEG is no a big deal, but that same SSD has file allocation data structures and in there it may be disastrous. Note that simple RAID 1 (duplicate data) does not protect against data integrity loss and it is hard to decide between data mirrors which one is the correct one in case you would data scrub a RAID 1 volume. (RAID 1 offers availability, not integrity protection). Magnetic platters have spontaneous bit-flips, sure, but they are cheap and actually last long - provided you do not bang them around when they're running. And provided you only put drives in a physical array (case, cage) that are certified for that - magnetic desktop/workstation drives "kill" each other through vibration.

[@jpdj2715]

@Selectah Shots - the short answer is "yes". In the case of a laptop / notebook / pad computer, especially when you do not know if you get either the bare minimum SSD quality, something like Samsung EVO, or like Samsung Pro, then maxing out is a very good way to "buy" a long service life. And "never" restarting the darned thing. And if you have really important content that you want to keep forever, buy a simple NAS device (aka fileserver) with at least 3 drives in it and run that at RAID 5 (forget about "performance" as the device will never have to work faster than its network connection and in a household likely never has to serve more than one user at a time. RAID 5 is like RAID 0, but writes data twice: once as raw data and once as integrity check, so it loses RAID 0 performance, but uses less space than RAID 1 - mirroring without integrity checks). That fileserver does not necessarily have to have SSD (just make sure the HDD are NAS certified or data center or enterprise because desktop/workstation drives kill each other through their vibration) as HDD still are very cheap per TB of storage.

[@tim3172]

Uhh close but not quite. That means the WARRANTY will withstand that many writes. The WARRANTY will. Your television screen doesn't shatter at 2 years and the engine of your car doesn't blow through the hood at 60k miles but the WARRANTY will expire for all three. Only JEDEC-tested drives have anything resembling a life expectancy rating; namely for enterprise drives.

[@jpdj2715]

@@tim3172 - manufacturers like Samsung specify the lifetime expectancy of their SSD in TBW. All solid state drives are controlled by a controller with firmware that does "wear leveling" and to be able to do this, the firmware in the SSD keeps track of wear in its administration of it. This can be read with an app that knows how to do that. In the way a magnetic-platter-hard-drive could have a sector marked bad, the firmware will mark a block bad (render it unusable) once it has reached its TBW rating and there may be good cells in that block still in case the block was never completely filled. Beyond that, there is no guarantee of any form of data integrity. An example of an app that can inspect this is CrystalDiskInfo. The wear leveling firmware simply does a mark bad and you lose capacity over time. With a CFexpress Type B that can sustain 300 rewrite cycles being used in a video house that completely fills the card twice a day, it's over in 150 days. Period. There may be a few blocks left that haven't been marked bad and good luck to the buyer of this card in the second hand market. And this assumes they use a "reliable" brand. As to warranty or guarantee, these are legal constructs that limit a consumer's rights. Compare TBW to the automobile market's warranty where you get "5 years or 100,000 miles". The TBW serves as a way to limit our options to sue them for a product we think is not good enough. By not publishing TBW, a manufacturer bets on their statistics where the risk of litigation they guesstimate is very low compared to the potential sales effect of publishing the TBW number. While some manufacturers use cheaper memory cells with over-provisioning to get acceptable TBW and the illusion of a lower price, it is possible that some vendor alters the firmware and makes all over-provisioning capacity available to the user (operating system) - in this case you are down to the naked cell TBW. And then there are Chinese sellers that sell lithium cells with a product name 4,000 mAh with the excuse the mAh is just part of the model name maybe with a capacity of 500 mAh, making them very expensive. Imagine these criminals doing cheap memory cards. The problem with solid state is that nobody in electronics, physics or quantum physics can actually give you a definitive warranty on how long data integrity is retained when the memory is powered off. As long as we don't know the exact cell design and technology, the best answer is between 7 and 7,000 hours. There are 8760 hours in a year... . All this applies to memory cards in our cameras too - not just SSD.

[@afrodisiac8053]

A huge THANK YOU Kyle! I am using a Mac mini M2 (2023), and wanted to find an external SSD to store my huge 600GB Mac Photo Library of family photos. I purchased the Acasis USB4 Enclosure, as well as the WD SN 770 2TB from the links above from Amazon, and have connected them successfully to my Mac mini M2 after using Disk Utility to re-format them to APFS format. I did the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, and was absolutely blown away that both the Read and Write speeds are on par, if not even better than my Mac Mini's internal SSD! Wanted to shout out a huge thanks to you, and this video has absolutely helped me in my Mac Photos Library storage in a huge way!

[@memem6726]

probably the most eliquently delivered video i've seen. very nice work! Liked and Subscribed.

[@KyleErickson]

Thank you - I appreciate it!

[@susanepstein5874]

Thank you so much for this information! It was as if you read my mind with respect to the questions I had about external SSDs.

[@wattage2007]

Excellent pointers on SSD choice. Thank you!

[@mfurman]

Very good review/tutorial indeed. one of the best video of this type I have seen.

[@bowieknife]

Thanks for this informative video. Just from this video alone I gave you a follow. Keep it up! Will watch your other videos for sure.

[@sharingmatters]

Kyle, thank you so much for explaining everything in details. In the first moment, I would pick Sandisk, but then, with this enclosure and thunderbolt the speed is 3x faster. Wow. Thanks.

[@hikmatamin]

Just the video I was looking for. subscribed!

[@Rufus100]

Thanks for the content, very clear and informative 👍

[@amchi_talent_ki_khoj]

Extremely helpful info.

[@edrodriguez951]

Thanks for sharing, saved me the research. Greatly appreciated.

[@pranavm3837]

Thanks a lot Kyle! I was on the fence about NVME enclosures...your video helped me make my choice! Lovely presentation/editing too!

[@KyleErickson]

Thanks for watching! I hope to do more of these as new enclosures come out.

[@rhettshipley4593]

Extremely well presented . Learnt heaps. Thx a lot.

[@frankfunke8689]

I’ve been looking for an external drive and this is extremely helpful. Thanks so much! Oh I have subscribed

[@YouuGoGlennCoco]

Easy to watch, perfect tempo, engaging, and excellent amount of information provided. Subscribed!

[@DutchAussieProductions]

Thanks for the video, Kyle. You have a new subscriber. Great information for external devices to increase storage. Have a nice day.

[@gkillmaster]

Great job! So concise. So much info imparted and so easy to understand. Thank you so so much!

[@gkillmaster]

music is really distracting to me though :) small thing...

[@f.l6316]

Most people video on this topic I’ve seen! Well done, thank you!

[@andresonders]

Great Video Man! Subscribed! You've helped me alot!

[@wanahmadnabil]

Thank you kind sir for this, been thinking about getting one for a while and pretty bummed about the storage issue too. Thank you :)

[@55whiplash]

I enjoy my Macs, but I just upgraded my 2015 MBP to a 2TB Samsung drive, and it not only sped up my laptop, but I get better battery life now. While it's adequate for what I do, it's definitely getting long in the tooth. I think the last MBP with an upgradable SSD is the 2017 13 inch low-end model with the awful keyboard. That sucks, Apple over charges for their ram and storage, your video has some great solutions, and I'll check them out, thank you!

[@ImHotSnot]

A lot of good information. Very interesting. Thank you for posting.

[@902MediaUK]

Thanks, very useful information. I’ll be trying that SSD enclosure.

[@GregoryDumont2]

Lots of good info there. Thanks a lot!

[@g.m.7495]

Very helpful! Thank you!!!

[@AnandaGarden]

Thank you, this was very helpful. One note: Rank beginners like me who attach an off-the-shelf SanDisk or Samsung external SSD to an external USB hub may find that MacOS starts producing multiple disconnect messages. I was able to solve this by buying a powered 5v USB hub - no more disconnects. In the end, though, I connected the drive directly to a USB-C port on the Mac Mini M1 to make room on the external hub.

[@farooqkhan1149]

Thank you very much Kyle for sharing info.

[@pokethekat1]

Very nice video. Helpful. Thank you for speaking so well. Not using "like, uh, um" just really clean articulate sentences. Professional.

[@JuanGarro]

great content Kyle, keep it up 👍🏽

[@reebee12]

Brilliant vid dude. Very informative.

[@tonyross2947]

Excellent advice mate, thanks!

[@nicolaibrowinkel3473]

Great overview. Thanks

[@AntonLitvin87]

Thank you so much for all the useful info! 😌

[@gair1944]

This was incredibly helpful!

[@jonleague7265]

Wow, what a presentation! So good.

[@saygraceone]

Very helpful, straightforward, and understandable.

[@KyleErickson]

Thanks for watching!

[@EcomME]

Do not know why I have just hit subscribe and like buttons the very moment I saw your hot introductory! 🔥

[@BigYella]

This video was perfect for me brother! Just subbed. Thank you.

[@KyleErickson]

Thanks for watching!

[@gr-os4gd]

Thanks for the excellent tips! 👍

[@xabierlecourtier2144]

Great video, very helpful. Thanks!

[@PoseidwnTech]

Thank you! Very informative!

[@drpentecost]

I'm running a mid 2011 27" Imac. I purchased a used Lacie external spinning drive with Thunderbolt connection just for the case. I took the spinning drive out of the case and replaced it with a Samsung Evo SSD. My entire system is now being run from this external drive. It's so much faster than the Mac's internal drive.

[@audiobunny1767]

Thanks 🙏 awesome video, very informative and well composed. Thanks again 👍

[@alft69]

Super useful video. Thanks!

[@Christine-rx8di]

Great informative video thanks! Just got a new MacBook Air and am so lost with the ports. Thanks for the help!

[@luanvanpham6830]

Love your content ,thanks for this

[@amirneshati4839]

Great job, thanks! Made up my mind easily 🙂

[@finalcutstudio1]

Great video Kyle!

[@dirt_cheap_photography]

bro that was a really great transition to the sponsor. i watched the whole sequence for the first time in my life

[@King12Daniel]

Awesome content, thank you!!

[@jewlio24]

Super helpful video. Thank you Kyle!

[@KyleErickson]

Thanks for watching!

[@rabonour]

I am looking to get a Mac Mini and will probably need an external SSD to go with it - this was super helpful.

[@LP-ej9ys]

Awesome information! Thank you

[@humansnotai4912]

Great video mate. Learned a ton. I have been a mac user since 2006 and since it''s been around, I've been sceptical about Clean My Mac, I always thought it was a scam. Namaste x

[@Ali_ReBORN]

Subscribed! And i know how to pick em! Wish you well brother!

[@Tiffers963Hz]

Thanks for the handy info. 🙌

[@testimony-]

Solid summary!!!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@markashpole9480]

Thanks Kyle. Great video. Purchased your recommended external drive enclosure and SSD. Works great and took all of about 15 minutes to get it up and running. If only all of my tech was so easy.

[@s47industries]

Nice vid, great info. I have the older iteration of the Sandisk, maxes out at 400MB/sec, but still works for editing. Definitely agree on exfat, it’s a necessary evil, but try to avoid whenever possible. I actually have the Sandisk formatted in that since I edit on my desktop PC when at home and my Mac when I’m mobile.

[@apogeedata]

Fantastic answered all my questions I’ll order the stuff now

[@Richard-sp3ul]

Helpful. Thank you

[@michaelhill6453]

Brilliant. Thank you. It's a bit of a different story here in Australia. SSD prices run to about $220 for one with acceptable speeds. When you buy your Mac, additional RAM costs $300 (!) so the prices are very close.

[@MattJoyce01]

Thanks heaps, you just saved me hours of research.

[@Herewaiting]

Thank you for this video. I really needed this knowledge ❤ bless u

[@marqueslittlebits7533]

Some useful info. Thanks

[@ajkylen]

Thank you for your honesty

[@SennyMarshall]

Thank you! Great info.

[@derekhawkins5040]

Thanks for the video. I had bought an OWC Gemini and put a couple of OWC SSD's in it and kept getting the message that the drive was uninitialized. I had trouble finding anything on OWC's site to help remedy it but your video came to the rescue. Using the 'ERASE' button didn't seem intuitive but worked like a charm and I'm up and running and freeing up space on my iMac's operating drive by moving stuff to my new RAID 1 drive. "Oh man, I just drive these things, I don't know how they work"~Oddball.

[@uryic000]

Thank you excellent video. I will be new to Mac starting in Sept. Purchasing the Mac Book Pro M1 max 14" w 2 tb of storage. I am a film/TV/Game music composer and have a windows based home studio, but need portability hence the Mac Book. Tons of Sample libraries. This vid helped me to decide and what I'll need to do. Thanks again, new subscriber

[@ashermanangan]

good points for mac and external speed integrations

[@SeanKWhite-lk5zf]

Super helpful thank you

[@potatopower2144]

Great video. Got this exact setup for my wife and it's excellent 👍

[@semperfidelis1550]

Great video, I needed to see this; you earned my subscription!…🔥🔥🔥

[@zoltanszabo4242]

I recently replaced my 2015 27" Imac (which BTW worked great throughout these years, now it's my daughter's) for a Mac Mini. I was really surprised how much they charge for storage upgrade. My Imac had 2 TB, so I was shocked that Apple starts at quarter TB and how much they charge for each additional step! My issue with external drives is that Macs don't provide a lot of USB / Thunderbolt slots. I quickly maxed them all out, using hubs to connect even more. Monitors, scanner, printer, optical drive (yes), keyboard, mouse etc. An external backup drive is vital though. Just found your channel, for some reason I thought you will make a dedicated cleanmymac video, but can't find it.

[@gergemall]

Enjoyed your video. Thank you

[@glennsak]

Yay! The Acasis was the enclosure that I purchased!