Benefits of External Hard Drives

Portable hard drives provide an excellent data storage option to users because they offer huge storage capacity along with other user-friendly features such as low price and portability.

What is an External Hard Drive?

External hard drives are very similar to the hard drives that exists inside your computer system. Due to their portable nature, these drives are increasingly being used as a data backup option. External hard drives offer storage capacity ranging from 40 GB to over 250 GB and can easily be used by users who need to backup large amounts of data. It is very easy to transfer your data using an external hard drive because these drives offer excellent data transfer speeds.

Pros of an External Hard Drive

External hard drives offer many benefits to its users. We will analyse some of the advantages of using external hard drives in this section.

Easy to Use

External hard drives are very easy to use because there is no complicated installation process required to start using them for data storage purposes. Unlike tapes, CDs, and DVDs, an external hard drive does not require a CD writer or tape system for the user to start using it as a storage device. An external hard drive is easy to install because all you need is a USB port that allows you to start using the hard drive instantly.

Can be Stored Off-site

Since the external hard drives are portable and very easy to carry, they provide an ideal option for backing up data to an offsite data storage location. Users can easily store large amounts of data on a single hard drive and store it in an external location so that their data is safe if something happens to the primary business site.

Compatible With Every Computer System

Unlike some data storage devices, an external hard drive is compatible with all the computer systems. The user only needs a USB port, which is available on all the new personal computers and laptops.

Durable

External hard drives are very durable and provide a much safer data storage option to its users. Therefore, these drives can be safely used as a data storage device and are a good option for people and businesses that require long-term data storage.

Affordable

Unlike USB drives, portable hard drives provide a much better value for your money because the cost per MB of data is significantly lower. An external hard drive allows the users to store large amounts of data at affordable prices.

Speed

It is very important for a data storage device to store and backup data at a fast pace. Otherwise, the users tend to waste a lot of time storing their data and may not be as regular with their data backup routine. External hard drives transfer large amount of data at a very fast speed, which allows the users to backup their data everyday with minimal effort.

Cons of an External Hard Drive

Like any other data storage device, an external hard drive has its own set of disadvantages. We will analyse some the cons of using an external hard drive in this section.

Data recovery can be expensive Hard drives are complex data storage devices with very fragile components. Due to this, data recovery for a hard drive can be more expensive than other data storage devices.

Can be Expensive if Data Storage Needs are Huge If your business or work requires you to store very large amounts of data you will need to purchase multiple external hard disks, which can be an expensive option in the long run.

How Can External Hard Drives Suffer Data Loss?

In as much as external hard drives offer more user-friendly features than an in-built hard drive of a computer, they are more prone to data loss because of their portable nature. External hard drives, because of their portability feature, are very commonly mishandled or dropped.

In such cases, data loss is common because the delicate components of the hard drive are very easily disturbed and cannot sustain any manhandling. External hard drives can face a head crash, mechanical failure, virus attack, or an electrical failure. All these failures will result in a data loss event.