The operating disc sits within the computer and essentially manages the thing, opening and running applications, making sure everything works as it should. There are four main discs you'll want to involve when it comes to computer audio production. If at one end of the scale, you are using a basic laptop and running everything from within said laptop, then you're in for a treat when it comes to external drives. Most notably, you'll want to ask yourself what kind of setup you have in your home studio already. When choosing the best external hard drive for your system or studio setup, you'll want to ask yourself a few questions. Why you can trust MusicRadar Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.

In the Samsung T5 range, you’ll find the perfect drive to ensure external storage offers a potential performance boost as well as an insurance policy. By freeing up the computer to do its thing, and not constantly be trekking back and forth to access files, you're taking the load off it to focus on all the other important tasks. In our experience, it can be something as simple as a separate hard drive, rather than a maxed-out beast of a new computer, that can have the biggest impact on your musical workflow. The drive is small enough that it can be tucked away from view, yet its solid-state technology is both quick and reliable. For us, the portable drive that best fits the bill for musicians is the Samsung T5 range. So it makes sense – even if just for your own peace of mind – to have the safety net of one of the best external hard drives for music production on your side. And, as anyone who has suffered at the hands of a faulty disc drive will testify, when they go wrong the results can be absolutely devastating. Best external hard drives for music production: Our top picksĮxternal hard drives can be thought of like good football referees you only notice them if something goes wrong. There are solutions and safety nets however, with the reliable external hard drives we’re showing here. This could be down to poor transfer speeds getting in the way of our production workflows, or it could mean the nightmare of losing valuable files or information altogether. Whether you're recording huge multitrack DAW sessions, pulling from a sample library running into multiple digits in gigabytes or editing masses of 4K video footage for YouTube, a reliable external hard drive for your Mac or PC is worth its weight in gold.Īt some point, we've no doubt all experienced the problems that come with storing – or accessing – our precious files and data.

Portable hard disk for mac