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Buying Guide – External Hard Drives




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 Hard drives are one of the most affordable ways to store bulk data. Our laptops and PCs have them, and everything from the operating system to software to games are all installed on it. We can use external hard drives to expand the amount of space we have on our PCs and laptops, and we can also use them to ferry data from one PC to another. Hard drives however come in different sizes, shapes and features, so it’s important to be educated on what’s the trend in the market. We dive into the world of external hard drives in this buying guide.

Storage Capacity

When looking for an external hard drive, consider the amount and kind of content that you want to store on it. If you want it to back-up your entire operating system, music, movies and other files, a high capacity drive would be the one to go for. Most of the drives today range from a capacity of 500GB to upwards of 8TB.


Speed, Wired / Wireless

Speed is another important point to consider when buying a hard drive. A hard drive uses a magnetically charged head to read and write data on the platter with specifications regarding the cylinder and sector. Higher the speed (rotations per minute), higher is the data transfer rate of the drive. The speed of most hard drive drives ranges from 5,000rpm (rotations per minute) and goes up to 15,000rpm for enterprise class drives.

The data transfer speed of the hard drive depends on its interface. Most external hard drives today use USB as the interface. There are revisions of USB found on drives. Most PCs and laptops support USB 2.0 connectivity. The newer ones comes with USB 3.0 ports. While USB 2.0 has theoretical data transfer speed of 480 Mbps, the USB 3.0 can attain a theoretical maximum speed of 5 Gbps. Depending on the USB 3.0 drive you purchase, you can expect a lot more performance than USB 2.0 ones.  

While most of the external hard drives have wired connectivity, one can also find wireless drives in the market. The big difference is that wireless hard drives come with an inbuilt rechargeable battery and can connect directly to a number of devices, with or without a router.


NAS (Network-attached Storage) / Cloud storage drives

This type of hard drive is usually attached to a network router rather than plugging directly to a PC or laptop. With NAS drives, all the devices on a network can the data stored on it. Many of these drives also can be accessed from over the internet.

Some NAS drives also allow you to share additional hard drives on the network. These drives may also support DLNA which means you can stream photos, music and movies from it to any device on the network.


Power & Form Factor

While most of the external hard drive drives are powered using the USB cable, there are some that may need additional power source. In case of portable hard drives, they are powered by the USB cable. However, the desktop hard disks may need an external casing along with a power supply. The casing will have one power input port and one USB port for data transfer. 

While external hard drives are mostly portable, some have a thicker from factor, whereas some may be sleek and slim like a mobile phone. They are available in different sizes and shapes. The design and build quality should also be taken under consideration when buying one.


Additional Features & Warranty

Some manufacturers also bundle utility software along with the external hard drives. These software include online backup features with some of them offering online space on the web as well. This space can be used to store a remote backup of your vital data. Some manufacturers also provide password protection software, using which you can restrict unwanted people from accessing your data stored on the hard drive. Last but not the least, the warranty of the external hard drive is also something to look for when buying one. While some manufacturers offer one year replacement warranty, some of them may also offer up to three years of warranty. Armed with the necessary information, you should be able to choose the right drive for your needs. If at any point you feel confused, feel free to ask our trained expert staff for guidance; we’ll be more than happy to help you.