The downside to digital life is the amount of hard drive space that movies, music and photos all too quickly fill, leaving you scrambling to find the best external hard drive. Rather than discarding data to make more room, you can store additional files on the drive. They're also great for data backup and moving files from one computer to another.
What Is an External Hard Drive?
In the simplest sense, an external hard drive is any data storage device that provides additional random access memory (RAM) to your computer. This includes desktop models that contain a magnetic disk for storing data and small thumb drives that store data in solid state on flash memory. If you own an iPod or MP3 player, you've already got an external hard drive.
Most people think about 500GB external hard drives, which are the large desktop versions that connect via USB or an Ethernet port to your computer. When you connect an external hard drive, it allows your computer to read and write data on the drive in the same way that it would on its built-in hard drive. The type of connection you use determines the data transfer speed. Ethernet is much faster than USB, so you'll want Ethernet if you're regularly using or archiving large video and audio files.
Making Data Portable
Smaller thumb and flash drives are the best choice for those who want to move data from one computer to another. With memory space up to 2GB, they're a powerful and endlessly reusable alternative to CD and DVD storage. Some thumb drives include biometric sensors that keep your data safe by requiring fingerprint authorization.
The amount of data storage you choose determines the price of a thumb drive. Additional features, such as built-in music players, biometric sensors and improved shock and water resistance will also add to the cost. Higher-capacity thumb drives also use more power, which means that they need to be connected directly to a PC or to a powered USB hub, something to think about if USB ports are at a premium. In general, a 1GB thumb drive or larger will need extra power, while smaller drives can plug into any USB port.
Mac users should note that while external hard drives are plug and play, the Mac OS does not like to have external hard drives removed before you eject them from the desktop. Simply pulling out an external hard drive can corrupt the most recent data transfer. On the Windows platform, you're free to remove an external hard drive as long as there are no live data transfers in progress.
Desktop Drives
Desktop drives can store up to 1.5 terabytes of data, but most users will find that it takes years just to fill a 500GB external hard drive. These drives are self-enclosed magnetic disks, exactly like the hard disk in a computer, with a metal case that disperses the heat generated by the drive.
If you're looking for a cheap external hard drive, you'll need to limit the available memory. Prices rise as disk space increases, so you'll need to think about what you want the drive to do. If you work with large video or multimedia files or you want to back up your PC for security, you'll need a larger drive. If you want to save photos, documents, and music, a 500GB external hard drive will do the job.
Maximizing Drive Speed
External hard drives can load files and run applications almost as quickly as an internal drive, but there are limitations. The first consideration is the drive's speed, which is rated in RPMs. A 7,200 RPM drive is faster than a 5,400 RPM model, but only if you have the right connections.
Some external hard drives include backup software that lets you save the contents of your PC's hard drive at the push of a button. At the highest end are dual-disk external hard drives built for video editing that deliver the fastest data transfer speeds available. Most of these drives connect via FireWire, which is the fastest connection option for PCs. You'll need to be sure that your computer has a FireWire port to take advantage of the faster performance.
Searching the contents of even a 250GB external hard drive can be taxing for many PCs. If you buy a high-capacity drive, you should partition it into segments of 50 to 80GB. Partitioning assigns identities to each section of an external hard drive, such as F:, G:, and H:, which speeds searching and data transfer. It also limits disk fragmentation, which occurs when data is stored in several unconnected sections of a disk.
Mac users don't need to worry about fragmenting, which is far more common on Windows machines and only occurs when a Mac drive reaches its capacity. However, Mac operating systems will bog down if you've got too many items stored in a single folder. To get the most speed from a Mac external hard drive, you'll want to have lots of folders with fewer files, rather than fewer folders with a lot of files. If it takes more than a second or two for your Mac to display the contents of a folder, or if you notice lag between tracks on iTunes, then it's time to add some folders.
What Is an External Hard Drive?
In the simplest sense, an external hard drive is any data storage device that provides additional random access memory (RAM) to your computer. This includes desktop models that contain a magnetic disk for storing data and small thumb drives that store data in solid state on flash memory. If you own an iPod or MP3 player, you've already got an external hard drive.
Most people think about 500GB external hard drives, which are the large desktop versions that connect via USB or an Ethernet port to your computer. When you connect an external hard drive, it allows your computer to read and write data on the drive in the same way that it would on its built-in hard drive. The type of connection you use determines the data transfer speed. Ethernet is much faster than USB, so you'll want Ethernet if you're regularly using or archiving large video and audio files.
Making Data Portable
Smaller thumb and flash drives are the best choice for those who want to move data from one computer to another. With memory space up to 2GB, they're a powerful and endlessly reusable alternative to CD and DVD storage. Some thumb drives include biometric sensors that keep your data safe by requiring fingerprint authorization.
The amount of data storage you choose determines the price of a thumb drive. Additional features, such as built-in music players, biometric sensors and improved shock and water resistance will also add to the cost. Higher-capacity thumb drives also use more power, which means that they need to be connected directly to a PC or to a powered USB hub, something to think about if USB ports are at a premium. In general, a 1GB thumb drive or larger will need extra power, while smaller drives can plug into any USB port.
Mac users should note that while external hard drives are plug and play, the Mac OS does not like to have external hard drives removed before you eject them from the desktop. Simply pulling out an external hard drive can corrupt the most recent data transfer. On the Windows platform, you're free to remove an external hard drive as long as there are no live data transfers in progress.
Desktop Drives
Desktop drives can store up to 1.5 terabytes of data, but most users will find that it takes years just to fill a 500GB external hard drive. These drives are self-enclosed magnetic disks, exactly like the hard disk in a computer, with a metal case that disperses the heat generated by the drive.
If you're looking for a cheap external hard drive, you'll need to limit the available memory. Prices rise as disk space increases, so you'll need to think about what you want the drive to do. If you work with large video or multimedia files or you want to back up your PC for security, you'll need a larger drive. If you want to save photos, documents, and music, a 500GB external hard drive will do the job.
Maximizing Drive Speed
External hard drives can load files and run applications almost as quickly as an internal drive, but there are limitations. The first consideration is the drive's speed, which is rated in RPMs. A 7,200 RPM drive is faster than a 5,400 RPM model, but only if you have the right connections.
Some external hard drives include backup software that lets you save the contents of your PC's hard drive at the push of a button. At the highest end are dual-disk external hard drives built for video editing that deliver the fastest data transfer speeds available. Most of these drives connect via FireWire, which is the fastest connection option for PCs. You'll need to be sure that your computer has a FireWire port to take advantage of the faster performance.
Searching the contents of even a 250GB external hard drive can be taxing for many PCs. If you buy a high-capacity drive, you should partition it into segments of 50 to 80GB. Partitioning assigns identities to each section of an external hard drive, such as F:, G:, and H:, which speeds searching and data transfer. It also limits disk fragmentation, which occurs when data is stored in several unconnected sections of a disk.
Mac users don't need to worry about fragmenting, which is far more common on Windows machines and only occurs when a Mac drive reaches its capacity. However, Mac operating systems will bog down if you've got too many items stored in a single folder. To get the most speed from a Mac external hard drive, you'll want to have lots of folders with fewer files, rather than fewer folders with a lot of files. If it takes more than a second or two for your Mac to display the contents of a folder, or if you notice lag between tracks on iTunes, then it's time to add some folders.
1 comments:
Useful post regarding external hard drive. An external hard drive is any data storage device where you save your data easily and you may access the same data in different computers. This is the biggest advantage of external hard drive.
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