What external hard to use with iMac mid 2011, 21.5 inch?

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safehouse69 wrote:

Need to purchase an external hard drive for my iMac mid 2011, 21.5 inch as my current external hard drive has stopped working. Also, planning to purchase MacBook Air 2022 this year. Any help would be appreciated.

Since you're going to be upgrading to a new MacBook Air soon, you may appreciate a portable drive. I would recommend one of these drives, both sold at Apple:

• LaCie 2TB Mobile Drive External Hard Drive USB-C - Apple
• LaCie 2TB Rugged USB-C Portable Hard Drive - Apple

Since your current Mac is older and doesn't have USB-C, for you current iMac, you'll need this cable for it to be compatible.

Cheers,

Jack

I use a Firewire 800 external drive on my 2011 iMac.

Other Word Computing makes a case that supports USB 3.1 and Firewire 800…

I put my own drive in, either a Western Digital Black, or Samsung 870 Evo…

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3QHKIT0GB/

https://www.newegg.com/samsung-1tb-870-evo-series/p/N82E16820147793?Item=N82E16820147793&Description=870%20evo&cm_re=870_evo-_-20-147-793-_-Product&quicklink=true

https://www.newegg.com/black-wd4005fzbx-4tb/p/234-000G-000W6?Item=234-000G-000W6&Description=western%20digital%20black&cm_re=western_digital%20black-_-234-000G-000W6-_-Product

If you get the Samsung 870 SSD, you will need a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter…

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/ADPTADRV/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-Z3dqIyn9wIVgP3jBx200g2qEAQYASABEgK1uvD_BwE

The Toshibas https://storage.toshiba.com/consumer-hdd are excellent value for money, can recommend.