Thunderbolt vs. USB-C vs. USB 3.1 (re: external storage)

Well, I looked at the models you all suggested, and then back at the G-drives. The latter seems to have the longest warranties, at 3 years, including their portable models.

They look like toasters LOL

Geez.. There are WAAAYYY too many options.

I wonder how they'd taste with butter.

Oh yes. See? This is my concern. Maybe Mojave will not support the USB3 to TB adaptors. Maybe Apple does something to be "different" or to cut costs.

I'm going to see if I cannot find inexpensive TB drives. That being said, I am aware that the performance will not be at its potential and that's fine. I need to be sure the drives are relevant for at least several generations of Macs and OSs. That is more important.

But, I will still be keeping my eyes open for a USB3 solution and for accompanying adaptors. It makes sense, it's just that Apple sometimes does not.

Holy crap. That was an article, not a thread post LOL

Guys, you've all been great and I really appreciate all of the suggestions. There are, as it stands, too many options, more than I anticipated. This will take time for me to digest, but so far, some brand of USB3 using a type A connector with a TB / type C adaptor would seem to be the way to go.

The enclosure idea's not bad, but like MrHoffman wrote, discs tend to get weird after 5 years (a limit I may have surpassed at this point, not quite sure), so a case may not be necessary since I'd change the HD itself anyway.

(One of the things in the back of my mind is that I accidentally pulled these G-drives off their desk one night, as my legs got crossed up in the wires that were extended badly in a very makeshift set-up (my living situation was not good at the time, and I didn't have a ton of options). Astoundingly, and I thank God for this, they still work and work well. But, that had to age them to some extent, and they're already several years old.)

As for my machine's configuration, it's a 21.5", with 1920x1080 pixel resolution. It's running Mojave (been reluctant to upgrade to Catalina due to some of the horror stories I've read), on a 2.3GHz i5 CPU, and 8GB of RAM. I did not need a workstation class machine, and this has been adequate for my domestic purposes, though I'd like to max this thing out to its 16GB RAM limit.

I do have a workstation class machine, an old 2010 Westmere silver tower. But, as old as this thing is, it behaves like it just came out of the box. It runs Windows 10 slickly, and Maya's fast enough for my purposes on this thing (heck, I created about 30 scenes for a lunar colonization documentary in the summer of 2018). It has two graphics cards, though they're several years old now, but Redshift seems to like them.

Anyway guys, thanks. Pleasure to geek out with you, and thanks for the smorgasbord of info.