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.
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
If you are wondering why you need an external hard drive, take note of these points below.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
See 5 kinds of computer backup storage.
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.
How much money does an external hard drive cost?
Nowadays you can buy a 2TB hard drive for about $79 and then you just have to buy an external hard drive enclosure which can be around $20 or $30. However there is no point buying them separately any more as they are just so damn cheap! For example you can get a Western Digital 2 TB external hard drive for under $100 and this includes everything you need. (may change) You can store or backup everything on your external hard drive. I cannot live without mine!!! It is a fantastic device…
Make sure you see my external hard drive buying guide to help you decide on what you need to buy.
What happens if the eternal hard drive fails to work and I loose my files:
OK this is not funny. It has happened to me. I had my 300GB external hard drive 
It is very important that we all own an external hard drive to backup our precious files.
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This post was written by...
Mitz – who has written 731 posts on Computer Tips.
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I just bought an external harddrive to transfer my files,pics and music to from my laptop. Once I’ve transferred it all can I delete them from my laptop – I’m new to using this external harddrive and not to sure about how it all works.
Yes you can but please check the files on the external hard drive to make sure they are fine before doing so..
Hi.
Question: Right now I have a desktop and I don’t use it much except for my quickbooks. I’m looking into a laptop or even just a netbook so when I’m doing invoicing I’m not locked in my office where my PC is. Can quickboiks (the program itself) and all the data be stored on an external hard drive and accessed from any old netbook?
To use the program on a netbook it would be better to install it and use the external hard drive for backup of the files for Quickbooks.
That’s really devastated, after you keep it for many years and it lose in a minute. Personally I regularly backup my files to make sure that whatever happens to my computer I can easily get it in my backup files.
An external hard drive is very good just in case your computer crashes. It is important however to treat it with extra care because it can spoil quite easily just like in your case
. They are very useful if you do not want to congest your main computer with things that you may not need to use on daily basis.
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I have 1TB Western Digital HDD. It looks big and ugly. Don’t buy it. There are lot of very slim HDD available.
I bought a 3TB from Amazon and the box is black and just big enough for the hard drive…Looks ok to me…I love the 3TB!!!
I currently have a few external hard drives. My 2 TB drive contains the master copy of all my data. My 1 TB portable hard drive contains a copy of the data that is on my larger external hard drive. I store my portable in another location to help keep my data safe. I am looking at buying a second portable drive to create a second copy of my data for even more protection.
With the price of external hard drives, everyone should look at using one for backing up their data – especially if you don’t want to lose your data.
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Hi Paul
Wow I love backups of backups….It is really important to backup your business files or any personal files for that matter..I really should do it more often.
Hi, thanks for a forum on back up drives, very handy. I wonder if anyone can answer a question that does not get me any hits on Google?
I have a 7.47 GB external HD that I use for backing up my mail, app support, website bups, etc. (I use a bigger one for most other data).
But here’s the weird thing: many files on the drive come out bigger than they were on the computer, so that even if I add up file sizes to fit under 7 GB, they won’t fit on the drive. I did a check file-by-file, and many of the files were up to 8 times bigger on the external drive!! Can anyone enlighten me why this is, and if I can do anything about it?
thanks
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hi Mitz,
I just went through your PPT to video tutorial on YouTube. It is excellent, I learnt quite a few things there, so thanks a ton!
My q is reg. External HDs – a very basic silly q!
I do not yet have an ext. HD, but when I purchase it, can it just directly be plugged in via the USB and start working on it? Do I first need to format it (I’m guessing definitely yes?!)
Also, is partitioning it required? or preferred?
How does one do that, if yes?
thanks much,
Hasita
Hi Hasita
The EX HD usually comes ready to use but in some cases you have to format. Partitioning is not required. Just create folders to store files in neatly. EX HD are very simple to use. You can simply plug it in and it will show up with your other drives in the start menu/computer/
I have a WD 2TB external hard drive which I use mainly on my PC – because that is where I do the bulk of my work. But, I am thinking of getting a Seagate in the future, because they work on both Windows and Mac machines (pre-formatted).
I just purchased an 500gb external hard drive to store a program that is on my laptop that takes up 65 g of space. When I take the hard drive to another computer, it wants to download the program onto the new computer instead of letting me access the program. How can I change this so I can go to different computers and access this program without downloading it onto other computers?
I am not sure, but it sounds like it is trying to autostart. I cannot tell to March because you have not mention what the program is.
Without knowing I could still suggest that you petition your external hard drive and have the program on one petition. That way you can store files on the other.
Again I’m not sure if this will help you, because I do not know if the program is trying to install when you plug the USB or when you click on the drive to open it.
I am planning to set up a WordPress.org blog and was wondering if I could download it to an external hard drive so I could access it from either of two Macs that I currently share with other family members.
you can use wordpress online and access it from any computer with an internet connection.
Is it a ridiculous idea to get an external hard drive for a laptop? Everything I do is on my laptop and it is running slow and sometimes crashes for no reason. I would like to transfer my Itunes and my downloads to an external hard drive.
I think you should have one. It is great for backup as well as cleaning out your laptop. Your laptop will run faster if it does not have files stored on it.
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