Generally, an External Hard Drive is a portable storage device that can be attached to a computer. Inasmuch as through a USB, FireWire connection, and or even wirelessly.
As a matter of fact, an external hard drive typically has a high storage capacity. Often used to conduct a general back up on computers and also serving as a network drive.
In the first place, USB 2.0 may not provide enough power to charge the battery. And especially while the drive is in use. And that’s why USB 3.0 is recommended for effective charging when using a computer’s USB ports. However, it must be charging via the power plug.
What is an External Hard Drive?
The second best external hard drive from Seagate is Seagate Backup Plus Slim(STDR4000100), a 2.5-inch external USB hard drive. Drive is available in five capacities – 500GB; 1TB; 1.5TB; 2TB and 4TB. But what are some of the Frequently Asked Questions about External Hard Drive?
An external drive is just a hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) that is connected to a computer on the outside rather than on the inside. Some external drives draw power over their data cable, which of course comes from the computer itself, while others may require an AC wall connection to derive power on their own.
One way to think of an external hard drive is as if it were a regular, internal hard drive that has been removed, covered in its own protective casing, and plugged into the outside of your computer.
Internal hard drives can even be converted into external hard drives via what’s called a hard drive enclosure. External hard drives come in varying storage capacities, but they all connect to a computer either by USB, FireWire, eSATA, or wirelessly. External hard drives are sometimes called portable hard drives. A flash drive is one common and very portable, type of external hard drive.
Common External Hard Drive Tasks
Follow these links if you need help doing any of these tasks with your external storage device:
Why Would You Use an External Drive?
External hard drives are portable, easy to use, and can provide a large amount of storage whenever you need it. You can store the actual device any place you like, and carry a large number of files with you wherever you go. Another advantage of owning an external drive is that you can move them from computer to computer, making them great for sharing large files.
Because of their usually large storage capacities (often in the terabytes), external hard drives are often used to store backed-up files. It’s common to use a backup program to back up things like music, video, or picture collection to an external drive for safekeeping, separate from the originals in case they’re accidentally changed or deleted.
Even if not used for backup purposes, external hard drives provide an easy way to expand your existing storage without having to open up your computer, which is especially difficult if using a laptop.
If your computer is always giving you low disk space warnings or is sluggish because it’s working hard to keep things running on the little bits of free space it has left, it’s probably time to get an external hard drive so that you can copy some of your files to it and free up storage on your primary hard drive.
External hard drives can also be used to provide additional storage to an entire network (though internal hard drives are usually more common in these scenarios). These kinds of network storage devices can be accessed by numerous users at once and often serve as a way for users to share files within a network to avoid emailing or uploading the data online.
Internal Drives Versus External Drives
Internal hard drives are connected directly to the motherboard, whereas external storage devices first run through the outside of the computer case, and then directly to the motherboard. Operating systems and software installation files are generally installed to internal drives, while external hard drives are used for non-system files, like photos, videos, documents, and files of those types.
Internal hard drives draw power from the power supply inside a computer. External hard drives are powered either through their data cable or via dedicated AC power.
Data can be compromised much easier if it’s stored on an external hard drive because they’re generally located on a desk or table, making them very easy to pick up and steal. This is different than an internal hard drive where the entire computer has to be taken, or the hard drive removed from the inside before someone can have physical access to your files.
External hard drives are also generally moved around more than internal ones, causing them to fail more easily due to mechanical damage. SSD based drives, like flash drives, are less prone to this sort of damage.
How to Use an External Hard Drive
Using an external hard drive is as easy as plugging one end of the data cable into the drive as well as to the matching end on the computer, like the USB port in the case of USB-based external drives. If a power cable is required, it will need to be plugged into a wall outlet.
Normally, on most computers, it takes just a few moments before the contents of the external drive will appear on-screen, at which point you can begin moving files to and from the drive. When it comes to the software side of things, you can use an external hard drive in nearly the exact same way as you would an internal one. The only difference is how you access the drive in your operating system.
Since most computer systems have just one hard drive that serves as the primary, ‘main’ drive, it isn’t confusing to jump right in to to the hard drive to save files, copy files from one folder to another, delete the data, etc. However, an external hard drive appears as a second hard drive and therefore is accessed in a slightly different manner.
In Windows, for example, external drives are listed next to the other devices in Windows Explorer and Disk Management. Read What Is a Solid State Drive (SSD)? to learn more about the differences between HDDs and SSDs.
Do external hard drives go bad?
Theoretically, barring them being exposed to excess humidity/moisture, and shielded from electromagnetic sources, they will last indefinitely. The signal on the disks should not degrade, the motors should not go bad, the ports should never go bad.
Can a Hard Drive last forever?
An External Hard Drive Life Span matters a lot. Generally speaking, you can rely on your hard drive for three to five years on average. The online backup company BackBlaze analyzed the failure rates of their 25,000 running hard drives. They found that 90% of hard drives survive for three years, and 80% for four years.
However, leaving an external hard drive powered on all the time is not advisable. Western Digital recommends that external hard drives be powered off when not in use. Although it is safe to leave a hard drive running continuously, the Western Digital also thinks otherwise. For instance, it’s recommended that your drive’s power supply be protected from the electrical load and surge.
Equally important, External Hard drives fail and are not genuinely good long term storage devices. but you do not need to rewrite anything on them. Not forgetting, Hard drives, flash storage, and also CDs will generally last around 10 years max. Whereas, magnetic tapes can last for 50 years and possibly longer.
What is the main difference between SSD and HDD? Important to realize, an SSD is much faster than an HDD. Whereas, this is because SSD’s do not have moving parts, and store data in microchips. Notably, HDs, on the other hand, contain moving parts to read and write data onto your hard disk. This means that an SSD is faster, lighter, and less bulky.
Top Best Portable External Hard Drive & SSD
Surprisingly, apart from the above-mentioned HDD & SSD Drives, there are more sufficiently drives out there. Not to mention, allowing you to have safe data transfer and backup of large files. Including,
- Adata SE730.
- Transcend ESD400K.
- SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD.
- WD My Passport 4TB.
- Toshiba Canvio Connect II.
- Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim 2TB.
- Freecom mHDD Slim 1TB.
- Freecom Tablet Mini SSD.
Is it safe to leave a flash drive plugged in all the time? Firstly, leaving a flash drive or USB thumb drives plugged in all the time can run a risk of prematurely wearing them out. In other words, reducing their general lifespan and viability of using them in the future.
Buying an External Hard Drive
Just like with internal hard drives, external hard drives come in all shapes and sizes. So, they’re also available at many different prices. Knowing what kind of external hard drive to buy can get confusing quickly if all you see are rectangles with seemingly random GB and TB numbers.
You need to first identify what you’ll use the hard drive for. This is referring to both the environment you’ll use it and the stuff you’ll put on it.
Some external hard drives are built for people who might drop the drive or spill something on it, and others are meant more for sitting on a desk, inside and away from the weather. If you need a versatile external hard drive, look for one that’s advertised as rugged or waterproof.
Another thing to think about is how much storage space you’ll need. If you’ll be keeping lots of HD videos on it, you need to get something with a lot more storage capacity than an external drive that’ll just be used for hoarding documents for school.
Here’s a general guideline you can follow, depending on what you’ll be storing on the external HDD, to know how much space you might need.
Such as;
- Documents: Under 80 GB
- Music: 80–120 GB
- Software: 120–320 GB
- Videos: 320 GB to 1 TB
- 4K or HD videos: 1–2 TB or more
You have to be mindful of why you need the extra space and what you might put on the drive in the future. It’s probably wise to go ahead and get a hard drive that’s bigger than what you need right now.
Which is the Best External Hard Drive?
So, how do you know what kind of external hard drive you need to buy if you’re not sure what you’re going to put on it? Start with a disk space analyzer tool to scan your current hard drive to see how much storage space is being occupied by the files you’re planning on moving over to the new HDD, and then double that number to be safe.
For example, if you find that your massive 600 GB music collection is what you’ll use your new drive for, assume it’s 1,200 GB and buy yourself a 1–1.5 TB external hard drive. If you think you’ll need just 200 GB of storage for your movies, get a drive that can hold 500 GB.
Similarly, while you might not need to have a USB 3.0 HDD right away, especially if your current computer doesn’t even support that USB standard, it’d be a good idea to get yourself one if you plan to upgrade your computer anytime soon. Preparing ahead of time will save you from having to upgrade to a 3.0 external HDD. Taking advantage of those speeds.
In conclusion, External hard drives are portable, easy to use, and can provide a large amount of storage whenever need be. Even if not used for backup purposes, the external hard drive provides an easy way to expand your existing storage. In reality, without having to open up your computer, which is especially difficult if using a laptop.
I hope the above-revised guide was helpful towards your WordPress editing strategy. However, if you’ll have additional Contributions, Suggestions, Support Guides, Personal Experiences or even further Questions, please Contact Us. Furthermore, your Generous Donations will be highly appreciated. Regarding this topic, consider the links below applicable and related too.
Related Resources:
Get Free Updates
Notice: All content on this website including text, graphics, images, and other material is intended for general information only. Thus, this content does not apply to any specific context or condition. It is not a substitute for any licensed professional work. Be that as it may, please feel free to collaborate with us through blog posting or link placement partnership to showcase brand, business, or product.
