---
title: "External drive"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-external-drive
category: "Glossary"
tags: ["glossary", "external drive"]
summary: "An external drive is a drive you plug into your Mac rather than one built in. It is where Storage Studio moves folders and apps to free space on your Mac."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:35:41.000Z
---

# External drive

An external drive is a drive you plug into your Mac rather than one built in. It is where Storage Studio moves folders and apps to free space on your Mac.

An **external drive** is a drive you plug into your Mac — rather than the [built-in disk](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-built-in-disk) inside it. In Storage Studio it is the place your folders and apps move to when you free up space.

You choose it in **Set Up / Choose External Drive…** in the More menu. The window lists the drives that are plugged in, shows their format and free space, and offers a short speed test. Storage Studio only accepts a drive that really is external. Drives formatted **APFS** or **Mac OS Extended** are accepted; an [exFAT](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-exfat) drive needs you to confirm a warning first; FAT32 and network drives are refused, because they can't hold the [shortcuts](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-shortcut) a move leaves behind.

Anything you've moved there can only be opened while the drive is plugged in.

See also: [Choosing an external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/choosing-an-external-drive) · [Setting up your drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/setting-up-your-drive) · [When your drive is disconnected](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-your-drive-is-disconnected)

## What links here

- [APFS](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-apfs)
- [Built-in disk](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-built-in-disk)
- [Choosing an external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/choosing-an-external-drive)
- [Freeing up space: the options](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/freeing-up-space-overview)
- [Offload](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-offload)
- [Relocate](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-relocate)
- [Setting up your drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/setting-up-your-drive)
- [Storage Studio and Time Machine](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-time-machine)
- [Storage Studio and macOS Storage settings](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-macos-storage-settings)
- [What Storage Studio does](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-storage-studio-does)