External Hard Drive

What is an External Hard drive? 

If you are asking “what is an external hard drive?”, an external hard drive is the ultimate-computer maintenance backup device. How much data it stores depends on how big the hard drive is inside the external case. If you find that there is not enough storage space you can simply remove the hard drive and replace it with a bigger one. Computer backup devices are a part of our lives now as people are accumulating more and more files. Gone are the days of tape backup devices, external drives are the in thing for now.

Most newer type external hard drives connect to the computer via a USB cable. Most computers have a front USB port and therefore make it easy to plug and play or use your external computer backup devices.

 

(Sources: http://blog.gadgettown.com/2011/01/17/best-external-hard-drives-of-2010/)

What does an external hard drive do? 

Once connected to the computer, your hard drive backup device will show up in my computer as another hard disc drive. All you have to do is double click on the drive icon and you can paste or drop any file you like there. Now days people have a 500gb external hard drives or even larger, but the smaller ones are fine too. It all depends on how much space you personally need. 

After connecting your external hard drive, go to the start menu, then computer, then you will see all the drives connected to the computer. C drive is usually your computers main hard drive so the device you just plugged in might be named D or F etc.

The benefits of having an external hard drive; 

1. It’s a portable device – You can easily pick up your external hard drive, take it to a friends house, and connect it to their computer. Most computers have a USB port through which it can be connected. 
2. Safe Backup Device – Because the external hard drive is not permanently connected to your computer, if your system crashes, the information and files on your external hard drive device will still be safe. There this is a great easy secure backup device.
3. Easily upgradeable – If you find that it does not have enough storage space for your backup files you can easily replace the hard drive with a bigger one. You cannot, as yet, upgrade a normal USB Flash drive.
4. Can store a huge amount of Data and files – For example if you had a 160gb external hard drive you could fit movies, backup your files such as music, photos, entire programs, and more on it.
5. Will save your computer from getting clogged up with downloads and large files – If you find yourself downloading a lot of files it is always better to remove them from your computer to store somewhere else. This way your computers performance will not be effected by storing unnecessary files, data, and movies.
6. You can format anytime.

What size external hard drive do you need? 

If you just want to store documents, emails, small backup files, and photos then 20GB is enough for an external hard drive. However if you want to store in type of movie, video footage, large amounts of music, or even entire backups of your system, then you will need at least 100GB or more.