Who couldn’t do with a bit more storage? Whether you’re saving video or music files, or you want to save a large number of games, a high-quality external hard drive will come in useful.
What are the benefits of desktop external hard drives?
First and foremost, external hard drives are easy to use. With the majority of external desktop hard drives featuring USB connections they can be used in much the same way as a USB thumb drive. Simply plug them in and start transferring files!
External hard drives are also easy to move around. They typically have 3.5” form factors which makes them ideal for safely transporting your data. They’ll easily fit in a jacket pocket or small backpack sleeve.
Convenience is also another major benefit of external hard drives. Using an external hard drive allows you to significantly expand the storage capacity of your computer, without having to disassemble your computer as you do with internal hard drives.
In other words, external hard drives blend the massive capacity of internal hard drives, with the functionality and convenience of USB flash drives.
How do external hard drives work?
External hard drives work in the same way as internal hard drives. They save data by magnetically recording it on a spinning disk. The disk can be read or written using a small ‘arm’.
Where external hard drives differ from internal hard drives is in their form factor. As you would expect, external hard drives feature metal enclosures which are designed to protect the internals. External hard drives also feature the USB elements of a flash drive.
How are external desktop hard drives powered?
There are two common ways in which external hard drives are powered. They either draw power from the computer when they are plugged in, or they are plugged into your mains electricity and draw power from there.
Which option is right for you will largely be determined by the capacity of the hard drive you choose. Large 3.5 inch external hard drives with capacities over 750GB usually require a considerable amount of power to operate, and as such are normally mains powered.
If you’re unsure about the power capacity of your PC and you want a large external hard drive, we would always recommend buying a mains powered external hard drive.
What capacity external hard drive should I buy?
This is a question without a definite answer. What capacity external hard drive you should buy is largely determined by what you’ll be storing on it.
If you’re going to be saving basic files such as Word docs or images, then something like a 500GB external hard drive will probably suffice. However, if you’re going to be storing video files or entire programs, then you’ll probably want at least a 1TB external hard drive.
How to buy an external hard drive for your Apple Mac
Whilst buying an external hard drive for an Apple Mac is nearly identical to buying one for a PC, there is one thing you should note.
It’s important that you buy an external hard drive that is able to connect to the ports on your Mac. More recent Macs feature Thunderbolt ports, so it’s important that you select a hard drive that will actually be able to connect to your Mac.
External hard drive features
When buying an external desktop hard drive for your computer, you should also think about what kinds of features you’d like it to have.
These features range from tough external casings which will protect your hard drive in the event of a drop, through to included data recovery services should your hard drive break.
Shop external desktop hard drives at CCL
So, if you’re looking for an external desktop hard drive for your computer or laptop, explore our range of models here at CCL.
We have external hard drives ranging in capacity from 120GB through to 12TB, and hard drives starting from only £60.
Check out external hard drives from leading brands including Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Verbatim, Adata and many more now.
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