5 Tips For Buying An External Hard Drive

So you've finally decided to buy an external hard drive as a backup option for your computer. This is a great choice for you because you're making backing up your data faster and easier than you could ever have imagined. You're also making your data far more portable in larger quantities than before.

You'll no longer be limited to storing a few hundred megabytes or even several gigabytes. Nope. Now you can look forward to portable and reliable storage capacities ranging into terabytes. That frustrating desktop computer or network file server backup job just got a whole lot easier.

If you've never bought an external hard disk before then there's a few pointers here that may help to have on your shopping list before you go and make that final purchase.

1. Buy A Brand

Do yourself a huge favor and buy a brand name that you easily recognize. Sure these may cost a little more than brand x but with computer accessories like this you really do get what you pay for. If a Western Digital 100GB external drive costs $200 and another brand x 100GB drive costs $80 why do you think that is? Because the company likes you? Because they like making smaller profits? No it's because it's a cheaper drive made with inferior parts that's going to break a lot sooner than you might expect.

The other aspect of sticking with a brand is your warranty. For example Maxtor, Western Digital and Iomega are all reliable companies and well known for their external hard disks. If something goes wrong with your drive you can have it fixed. With brand x you'll probably not even be able to find an email address that you can contact the parent company on. Is saving a few dollars worth that risk?

2. Google It

Whatever brand or model you decide on make sure you do some research before purchasing. Always, always Google the exact brand and model of the drive you're considering buying. Look for reviews and especially any feedback on how reliable a drive is. You'll be very surprised to find that some companies have particularly bad reputations in terms of equipment reliability and what's known as the "click of death" in the external hard drive industry.

Spend time in Google checking out your prospective purchase. You'll be glad that you did.

3. Connectivity

When it comes to external hard drives you'll need to choose carefully when selecting your connection types. Your external hard drive will support either USB or Firewire. Firewire is the fastest option available at the moment but your computer may not support this. The vast majority of modern computers will, however, feature a USB port.

The next question now is what type of USB port do you have - USB 1.0 or 2.0? If your computer only has a USB 1.0 port then your external hard drive is going to transfer data VERY slowly. USB 2.0 is the minimum you should consider as connection options for both your computer and your external hard drive. If you don't have a USB 2.0 port (also called HiSpeed USB) on your computer you may need to get a USB 2.0 card fitted.

4. Speed

Now of course we need to talk about speed. The faster your hard drive operates the faster data will get transferred to your computer and vice versa. Without boggling you with comptuer jargon there's a couple of technical things you need to include on your shopping list.

Seek time - this needs to be 10ms (milliseconds) or less

Buffer size - more is better. Get a drive with at least a 4MB buffer.

RPM - higher is better. 5400rpm as a minimum. 7200rpm being preferred.

Stick to the above basic pointers and you'll do just fine.

5. Size

This is the simple part of the whole "buying an external hard drive" equation. Buy as much as you can afford. If you can afford 100GB then get it. However if you can afford 200GB then get it. Then again if you scraped together a few dollars more you could afford 300GB then do it.

This isn't a sales pitch. Far from it. There is simply no such thing as having too much data storage space. The 160GB drive that I have here was filled up in a little under a month. Currently a terabye option sounds good for my future needs.

Always add 50% to your data storage requirements. Honestly. You'll thanks yourself within the first 90 days of buying your external drive.

Hopefully now you'll be better prepared for purchasing your new external hard drive. It's one of the best purchases you'll ever make.

Looking for the best external hard drive? Visit BackupAdvice.com for more information on your options. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Niall_Roche

USB External Hard Drives - Save Your Important Data

If you have ever owned a computer, you probably know that they are not completely reliable. Now, wouldn't it be nice to have a copy of everything on your computer just in case something happens? Well, you pretty much get this with USB external hard drives.

To begin with, a USB port is the port on one's computer that is perfectly rectangular in shape. It is next to the symbol that looks sort of like a sideways trident or tree. USB ports have many uses, as many electronics today use cords that attach to USB ports. To meet the need, many computers come with several ports.
A hard drive is the place on a computer where all the information is stored. It includes files, programs, and settings. It stores the information permanently, but if something happens to the computer the information is lost. Thus, it is good to have a back up.

A USB external hard drive is a hard drive that is, well, external to the computer. You back up all of your computer's information onto the drive. This means that if something happens to your computer or your computer's hard drive, you can still access your important information when you hook it up to another computer.

Computers can break down in so many ways, destroying valuable files. The computer may "decide" to freeze or shut down suddenly, which can completely throw the work that you were doing off kilter. If you do not save early and often, you may end up losing files that you were working on.

A similar thing can happen to all of the files on one's computer. A computer hard drive may stop working completely, which can destroy all files that were not backed up. A computer itself may completely break down, making it impossible to get to important files. A USB external hard drive can solve all of these problems.

This technology combines the convenience of utilizing a USB port with the convenience of an external hard drive. Because you can store all of your information on this machine, you can feel more secure when you are using your computer.

The USB drive can be stored in a secure place, such as a fireproof safe or in a storage place other than your home. It is important to keep it someplace secure, because this will reduce the chances of your information being lost. For instance, if someone's computer is destroyed because of a natural disaster such as a tornado or fire, it is possible that the external drive is destroyed as well. Of course, it is also possible that the computer hard drive will stop working for a completely different reason. However, it is good to be prepared, so storing the computer and the external drive in two different places is ideal.

When you purchase one of these to store your information, you can get peace of mind. You can be secure in the knowledge that your files are safe. However, it is important to follow the directions to make sure that you backed up the files correctly. It can also be good to back up if the files on the internet or somewhere else if the files are especially important.

Jeff is a proud contributing author and writes articles on several subjects including, health and fitness, computers, finance and home & family. Would you like information about the pros and cons of a reverse mortgage or maybey you'd like to learn about quilting Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Gus