External HDD

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An external HDD, or External Hard Disk Drive, is the perfect way to save large amounts of data for storage or transfer. But just like buying a full computer system, buying an external HDD is no different in the way that you need to be selective. Some drives are faster, quieter, and more reliable whereas others might corrupt the data after some time or if the drive is moved around too much.

These days you can find a 2TB (2000 gigabytes) drive under $200. This is enough space to store home movies and thousands upon thousands of digital pictures or music. It allows you to keep everything organized and keep your computer running top notch. Most setups are easy, plug in the USB cable, copy and paste the files. That is a lot easier than worrying about network transfers and IP addresses.

Unless you’re a tech savvy person you’ve probably never bought an external HDD. But since I have several, let me help you make a more education decision by offering some advice.

Most people look at the price first and think they are getting a bargain. However the first thing you need to do is look at the brand name. If you aren’t familiar with the name then chances are it’s not something you should be buying. Some of these popular brands are Western Digital (WD), Seagate, Fujitsu, Maxtor, Samsung and Hitachi. In the case of hard disk drives, the cheaper it costs, the cheaper it is. Literally the cheaper it is. If you see a drive that is for 200 GB at $150 and one at $100, the one at $100 is made from poorer quality parts and should be avoided.

Another thing to consider about external HDD brands is that these big named companies have great warranties and usually can be fixed relatively cheap. The brands that seem like a deal, may in fact cost you all of your data over night and the company in question has no warranty or data recovery software.

Using Google is a great way to find deals and potential problems with a specific hard drive model. Searching around will show you which brands are reliable and which are sketchy.

There are two main types of connections that you will consider. These are Fire-wire and USB. Most computers have a USB port but not all contain a Fire-wire port. Honestly your best bet is to go with USB since it is the most compatible with all computers. Of course you will sacrifice some speed when going with USB. If transferring 700mb (about 1 CD of data) it may take 3 minutes on USB whereas fire wire may only take a minute or less. Just make sure that the drive itself is 5400rpm or better.

The size of the drive is also very important. If you plan on storing a lot of media or files, then get a drive as big as you can afford. This will save you in the long run from having to buy multiple drives when one fills up. Usually I like to buy twice as much storage space as I think I’m going to use.

I hope these tips on buying an external HDD are useful to you. It’s one thing to just buy a bargain and another to buy a quality bargain.