Many of us associate the power and value of a computer based on the capacity of its hard drive. To a certain extent, this is true. After all, newer (and presumably better) computer models come with robust hard drives. However, this may not be enough with the kind of computing needs and habits many people have nowadays. If you often download, upload and store large amounts of files, a built-in hard drive is most likely insufficient. As a result, many turn to an external hard drive for better support but is it truly useful and necessary? Here are 10 benefits of using an external hard disk drive and reasons why it is important to you:
1. Extra space
Of course, the function of an external hard drive is to provide some much-needed extra storage space. If your memory is used up or about to get saturated and replacing your current hard drive is out of the question, getting an external hard drive is a wise decision. You will have more space with which to store additional data in text, images or audio form. You could also use the extra room to transfer files to unload your computer and boost its performance. Definitely a handy must-have external storage device to have.
2. Inexpensive storage
External hard drives with a storage capacity of 2TB can be purchased online for approximately $70. When comparing their value to internal hard drives, external hard drives offer an equally cost-effective option. Therefore, there’s no compelling reason not to consider owning one, as you can get a significant amount of portable storage for a very reasonable price.
3. Storage for old files
If you have files that have been sitting on your computer for months (or years) but you still cannot get around to deleting, you might find an external hard drive very useful. Many of us are wary about removing old files from our computers, believing that they will come in handy someday. The problem here is that it tends to clog up the system and eat up resources. With an external hard drive, old files may be transferred and memory freed up to increase speed and improve performance of the computer.
4. Backup important data
Many computer users fail to back up their data. This could cause a potential costly problem, particularly when important files are involved. If there is no available space on your computer or you simply want to stash important data someplace else, then use an external hard drive to store extra copies of your files.
Read also: The Importance of a Disaster Recovery Plan
5. Convenient and handy
External hard drives are smaller, lighter and more portable than a laptop, so these can be detached, carried around, placed in a bag or purse and stored without requiring a lot of space. These are handy enough to be brought anywhere, allowing you to access your files from another computer unit.
Read more: 5 Uses for Hard Drives Old and New (That you may not have thought of)
6. Storage for copying and transferring files
External hard drives prove to be invaluable when you have a substantial volume of files that require copying from one computer to another. They offer a secure and reliable means of storing these files before transferring them to the intended destination.
7. Security
Certain external hard drives offer encryption capabilities, rendering transferred files incomprehensible to unauthorized individuals. For individuals who extensively use the internet, it is feasible to enhance file security by transferring them to an alternate storage device. Once the data is saved, simply disconnect and power off the external hard drive. Even if it remains connected to your computer, hackers will be unable to access your files remotely.
Read more: 5 Reasons Why Everyone Should Have External Hard Drives
8. Extended lifespan
Incorporating an external drive into your setup safeguards against the chaos resulting from an internal hard drive failure. Remember, when the internal drive fails, it jeopardizes the entire system’s functionality. In contrast, if the external drive malfunctions, your computer remains operational, ensuring uninterrupted usage. Repairing an external drive is generally faster and less costly than fixing the internal drive. Additionally, using an external drive as your primary storage option reduces strain on the internal drive and extends its operational lifespan.
9. As an emergency boot drive
If your computer’s main drive crashes, you can utilize an external hard drive to boot your computer through several methods. Although this may require some technical know-how, having an external hard drive for emergency boot purposes benefits the user.
10. Being prepared
One of the benefits of using an external hard drive is it enables proactive file protection and safeguards against system failure or unforeseen events. It empowers you to be prepared and secure your important files effectively. Definitely worth considering!
Benefits of an external hard drive: conclusion
An External hard drive offers a multitude of benefits for individuals and businesses alike. It provides ample storage space, increase portability, enhance data security, and offers a customizable backup solution. Investing in an external hard drive offers both space optimization and data security benefits. Understanding its significance helps you make an informed decision about the ideal storage solution. Choose an external hard drive today for peace of mind, knowing your data is secure and easily accessible.
And don’t forget to turn on bitlocker to further secure your external hard disk.
Thanks for adding that Tan.
Agreed! External hdd are awesome 🙂
I have a 1tb external hdd. Which I really needed when I left my pc in another country and my laptop did not have nearly enough hdd space to hold all the data from my pc that I wanted to take with me.
And it’s great for playing movies or watching series on my tv. As I can just hook it up to one of the usb ports.
I like to store movies and series on external hdd too Danny. This would come handy if one will be travelling, just bring along the external hdd and you get to enjoy all the movies. Before this I used to store everything on my primary hdd and eventually my laptop became too slow because its hdd was overloaded.
I have an older smaller external usb hd that I use for backups. I haven’t used it that much lately, but the amount of space they have for the price now they can be worth it. How much do you backup though? I mean do you have a backup for the backup? A few years back my nephew tripped over my backup drive cable and smashed it on the floor. I lost most of the data. It did make me think though do I need a backup for my backup. I never did go that route because I had a tough time keeping up with just the one.
Hmmm…. a backup for the backup? I never thought of that.. Should I? Nahhh…. I think 1 is more than enough. I’ll make sure to keep my external hdd in a safe place if my nephews or nieces came over to my house 😛
i am agree that external hdd is very important and i usually use external hdd to backup and transfer data from PC to Laptop.
Thanks for stopping by Arun. Hope to see you around.
What I love about external hard drive is that it can easily be connected and disconnected just perfect for storing and retrieving backup data. Can’t imagine using the web without one. Nice post Peter.
I agree. An external hdd is just a must have gadget for me and I think it is too for most of the computer users. Glad you like the post Nhick!
External hard drive is very important to me because this can help us store and keep our files and documents safe even if we will be having a problem with our computer, I hope everyone knows the importance of using external hard drive.
To me, an external hdd is a great way to store files/data offline. Thanks for the comment Liane.
Great post buddy ! An external is really a must have accessory for every computer, especially when it comes to saving of any important data so as to keep it protected !
Nice to hear from you PrIyAnGsHu.
Great post! I don’t know what I would do without my portable drive. I made a mistake when I first bought one, I bought one that had to be plugged in to power because it was cheaper. Once I realized how convenient a usb portable drive without the need for power was I went out right away and got one. I don’t know what I would do without it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Gabe.
My Internal HDD’s Memory is 500GB but only 28GB Is full.
You know why i feel secure to put my all data on my External HDD.
Thanks Peter for sharing your article with us.
-Amit Shaw
I think you mean you stored only very little on your internal hdd because you feel safer storing your files/data on an external hdd? 😛 I appreciate the comment Amit.
I don’t really store data in an external hard drive especially important ones. I have too much of experience getting it spoil after 1-2 years of using it. The very first time is the worst, because I had a lot of media stored only in the external drive and I lost a lot from there. Is it external hard disk is more reliable these days where it can last longer than before?
That’s so unfortunate Alan. I don’t have that problem so far, my HP external hdd has been with me for more than 2 years and is still in good condition. I stored mostly media files on it so that my internal hdd is not overly loaded.
yes its good because its handy and also if the old files are not used oftenly then we can transfer all the old files into that. Ofcource you can maintain good security through it. Thanks buddy.
Yea that’s right. If you feel reluctant to delete certain unused files or not sure if you would need them later, just have them stored on an external hdd! This way you’ll get to keep the files and your internal hdd is not overly loaded with unused files or programs. Thanks for stopping by Atish.
I feel that it is very important to back up data on external drives, just incase of a system failure. Many people, through my experince don’t do this regular enough until its too late.
Why do you think people don’t do backups on an external hdd Paul? Is it because they’re lazy, they think it’s unnecessary or an external hdd is too pricey for them?
Another great use for an external hard drive is for VMware; by moving the VMware virtual hard drive off of your computer’s main hard drive, virtual machines don’t have to compete with the host operating system for hard drive access. It makes virtual machines run much faster.
External Hard disk provides a lot of advantages. We ca take the data any where we want to and it is compatible with mostly every PC. It is also available for cheap in the stores. So why not good 😛
Convenient, easy storage and good for backing up data/files! Thanks for the comment Shubham.
Nice post now portable hard disk available in 2 Tera Byte it was great to see that we can use that amount of data easily.
The huge amount of data and files that we have today has made HDD to the terabyte level. I won’t be surprised if one day we will see HDD in the petabyte and exabyte level too. Thanks for the comment Rizwan.
External HD is really handy for storing you old files and backups. i have 3 external hd. when i bought my first one 160gb that was the best now you can even find 4tb HD
i just hate deleting files from my computer
nice article
thanks for sharing
You’re welcome! Glad you stopped by Bryan.
External Portable Hard Drive is very much important…. and there is suggestion Peter Sir Please Add Hacking Section also If you want Writer I am always here………..
You are very welcome to write for my humble blog Vivek. Just pop over to the guest post section and register yourself as a contributor. Looking forward to your article 🙂
In my opinion external hard drives are the best way of storing all of your essential files.
Keeping everything stored on your internet hard drive slows down boot-up times as well as slowing down the computer in general. The added benefit of an external drive is the (obvious) benefit of being able to move it around with you.
There are a lot of benefits to an external hard drive. The extra space and the backup capabilities are my favorites.
External Hard Drives are the best because you can store a large amount of data and Its portable too. I have one external hard drive and I am very happy with that.
Despite the popularity of cloud storage, external hard drives still play a major role in storage as there’re concerns over the security issues in the cloud. Thanks for the comment, Puneet.
I love my external hard drives and i have a few… one is for the new backup and another for the second backup. I also have a backup online…but my stuff is important… I also have another external hard drive for movies, music, etc. stuff I like but don’t really care if I lose it.
Yea I have quite a few too. External HDD is still my favorite storage device despite the popularity of the cloud. Glad you stopping by, Mitz.
External hard drive used for many purposes as well as the above mentioned. The best thing that I’ve ever come up with the use of external hard drive is to save my recovered data of bad hard drive last ago.
The software stellar phoenix partition recovery is used to recover files to a different hard drive of equal or more sized hard drive.
Thanks peter for this awesome article.
Peter,
I began seriously working on my ancestry research about 2 years ago. I became an ancestry.com addict! (digging around the dead…online) I’ve scanned hundreds family photos and then newly taken cemetery and grave marker photos, as I travel around searching for dead relatives. After my PC crashed and I lost all my files, family photos, documents, emails, everything, etc., then I finally took advice to purchase an External Hard Drive. My stupidity, for not doing so earlier! Of course, I did still have most of the original family photos, but most had been “cleaned and corrected and PhotoShopped” to post online, which took some time and effort. I read around online and decided to buy a WD My Book Essential with 2 TB. I’ve just attached it and did my first Backup! Course the box with the EHDD had almost no installation instructions, but I found the online WD website, support, and Instruction Manual…. which was VERY good. I ended up having to update the Firmware, and then the Software. I’m not a total dummy, so that went reasonably okay. But I had some general questions that maybe were too elementary or obvious. I wanted a simple explanation about files that are backed up to the external, and then that may become old or obsolete, or you change it some way. If you have a photo or doc on your internal drive, and you change it in some software, then you have option to rename (Save as) or Save it. Then it gets “saved”(backed up) over to your External. But then what if you make changes to a file (or photo), and rename it each time, (and then you delete all of those first versions from your internal drive), then all of these previous “back ups” will still be stored on the external? Right? Or if you have a large set of files that got “backed up” and they are obsolete, they will continue to stay on your external, right?
I also make videos, or PhotoShows of family photos set to music, and have several old versions, that have been expanded or updated. So do you have to get on the external and review periodically to remove the old or bad versions of files? It’s my understanding (with what little I read about my new External) that now connected, and turned on and running, and if I have “Started a backup”, it will continue to add any new files daily. Which is great, I guess. I read where some just backup sporadically. As it is, I have the 3.0 USB cable running into one of the front drive ports…which is messy. I have 2 or 3 USB ports there. I did notice that when I began attaching the external to my PC, I plugged into my L: drive. Then when I had to update the Firmware, it came back and said the drive was “in use” and for me to go and close down and disconnect any other external devices (which I had done). So after several tries, I thought, okay, I’ll unplug the USB from L: and plug into drive M: and try the update again. It worked that time?? Also, after that when looking at the list of drives on My Computer, the one for L: seemed to still say WD Unlocker, where I had plugged it in and unlocked it, after entering my new passwrod. After completing the installation, I shut everything down, and restarted and plugged the USB back into L:. This time it opened okay in L: and I started the backup again, but the drive for M: had the WD Unlocker label. …and still does, but nothing is plugged into it! I am happy with the new External HDD, for sure, but I’m still learning the little things. So I’m reading your forum comments to learn more. Any advice or suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
Hi Dan,
It’s always a good idea to back up. Don’t worry, the files in your external HDD will always be there even if you’ve made changes to your files on the original drive.
The advantages of an external device are uncountable.
Nice post. External hard drive is very important for a person who is active and loves to write and store a lot of data. It can store more data than just stored on the hard drive in the laptop. This is certainly due to the advancement of technology, everything is so much better.
Good post.Before reading this article i think external hard drive is not required at all.But after reading this post i think external hard drive is so important in various places.Thanks for this information.
I would prefer to use an external hard disk drive for data safety. Due to so many threats online, the data in your PC in not safe now a days. So store it in an external drive, and live a carefree life.
I also owned a 250 GB hard drive and had stored some very important stuffs in there but now it gives me error. “USB NOT RECOGNIZED” What might be the issue??
You can find the solutions here, Prajwal. Hope that helps!
Timely post, Peter! 🙂
I have just purchased an external hard disk, capacity of 2 Tera. 🙂
I think this device will back up my all life, since now on.
I had files for a total of “only” 35 Giga to back up, included all my sites files.
Thanks for sharing that in Klinkk! 🙂
Wow 2 Tera! Even larger than my 3 external hdds added up together 🙂
I really need to get one of these! My computer is starting fall apart and I need some kind of backup device soon. Thanks for sharing!
hii Peter Lee,
now a days memory is the main concern while using a computer either it may be primary (or) secondary.when it comes to secondary storage harddisk is the main thing we have to store lot of files in it.
for FLEXIBILITY and SECURITY reasons using external harddisk is the best thing,because we can carry it to anyplace along with us . if we are doing office work a project may contain cofidential data keeping that in office is not a good thing , there might be a chance of stealing that information.so if we use external harddisks we can carry that confidential data with us anywhere.
All of your reasons are valid but the most important reason for having an external hard drive is Maintaining Data Integrity.
Everyone is guilty of keeping duplicate data on their computer.Also it is very annoying when you don’t know what to do with them and you are unsure whether they are important to you or not. It gives you so much headache and also wastes your time.
Thanks for writing this article 🙂
I am totally agree with you peter that an external hard drive is really helpful. We can easily make Backup of our important files and also provide extra storage. I also have one external hard drive.
My computer has only 160 GB total space. Now it is almost filled and causing hanging problem. I am thinking to buy a hard drive. Please suggest me what will be better, an internal or external hard drive.
Thanks in advance! 🙂
Of course you should buy internal Hard Drive and sell the current one. Actually your question should be “What should I buy, Solid State Hard Drive or the normal one?”
Solid State Hard Drive are faster but they are expensive too. So if you have limited budget, you should go for the normal internal Hard Drives.
Note
External Hard Drives are used for backups and to transfer data. It can not be fixed inside your CPU case.
I agree. SSD is becoming popular nowadays. They are really fast and we’ve tried it on our MacBook Pro. However the price is expensive but I guess it worth it.
Thank for sharing this article Peter Lee..
External HDD are very useful for storing old backup files and also easy to carry anywhere… One of the good features of External HDD is that they are fast and damage-resistant because they contain no moving components…
Harish Bali
This is a good article on how to keep your files safe on an external HDD. I have one for backup purposes as well. Take care.
Hi, I have a question. I have a external hard drive which I use most of the time but lately when I plugged it in it show 2 EHD with the same letter. Why is that?
Please help me I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’m not that good computer savy. Also is it safe to leave the EHD attach to the computer all the time? Thanks in advance. Martha