The starting point is 256GB for $100, moving up to $200 for 512GB and $400 for the top-tier 1TB model. External SSD prices have fallen significantly in recent months, Western Digital’s pricing putting it roughly on a par with current pricing for range. The T3 does, however, offer one extra storage tier: for $790. Maximum speed of the Western Digital drive is also very similar to the T3, at 515MB/s.
I have been using this WD My Passport for Mac 2 TB EHD for at least a year with my Macbook Pro. I recently updated my Mac Software to High Sierra 10.13.1 and now I am unable to write to my EHDadd folders new files etc.
This isn’t the fastest SSD storage in the world, but is perfectly respectable and pretty standard for a consumer drive at this kind of price level. The company says that the drive is protected from both physical and digital threats, being designed to withstand a drop of up to 6.5 feet and having built-in 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption. Availability hasn’t yet been announced, but is likely to be out soon. You can register on to be notified once it goes on sale.
OP wrote: 'I will certainly do so once I get the data off- I have 10 issues of my magazine on it and I'm under deadline' Your first priority is to PROTECT THE DATA. I suggest you take the drive to ANOTHER MAC (not the one giving you problems). Can you get the drive mounted? Can you see the data?
Then, the next step is to attach ANOTHER DRIVE and 'copy over' the data. Once the data 'is safe', now it's time to 'go to work' on the drive. I suggest you follow the advice in reply #5 above: - GET RID of the proprietary WD software - ERASE the drive using Disk Utility (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled) - TEST the drive using DU's 'repair disk' button. What report do you get? - IF you get 'a good report' from DU after doing the above, REPEAT THE TEST FIVE TIMES in succession. Do you get a good report each and every time? - IF SO, I'd continue using the drive.