Why Buy an External Hard Drive?
External hard drives come in a variety of flavors for a variety of needs. You might want an external hard drive to perform backups in case your computer’s internal hard drive crashes. You might want a portable external hard drive to carry around your digital media. You might want a thumb drive to transfer files from one computer to another. Different types of drives offer unique features, performance and price, so think about what you need before you start shopping. Full-Size External Hard Drives Plain external hard drives are typically the size of internal hard drives, but they have a separate enclosure and sit on your desk. The enclosure includes cooling mechanisms to ensure the drive doesn’t overheat, and design elements to promote stability at high speeds. Because external hard drives are somewhat bulky, they’re used primarily to perform computer backups in the home or to provide extra storage. You typically wouldn’t carry external hard drives around with you; they’d live in the ho
