If you think this year’s biggest gift in a little package is an iPod Nano, think again.  A 2TB multimedia hard drive can store approximately 500,000 photos, 250 DVD movies, or 40 Blu-ray discs, all in a package that’s roughly the size of a hardcover book.  In terms of capacity, a single 2 TB external hard drive is roughly the equivalent of 13 netbooks or 2 Dell Inspiron desktop computers.  Need more convincing?  How about a price tag of under £100?  Any way you shape it, the multimedia hard drive is the gift of Christmas 2010 – a Jaguar of a device that has combines both the muscle and practicality of the year’s shinier (and more expensive) electronic offerings.  Lest you need further evidence of this, here are some of the best uses for an external hard drive:

Preparing for a fall

We all like to think our new £1000 MacBooks are going to last us forever (or at least until our second mortgage is paid off), but the fact is that computers are made to crash.  When this happens, we need to be prepared.  Storing all of your photos, music, and important documents on an external hard drive is one of the easiest ways to back up your computer’s data should it one day fail.  This used to be an expensive proposal, but with both the size and cost of hard drives going down, purchasing and using one of these devices has now become a virtual no-brainer.

Your on-the-go entertainment hub

Many people use their hard drives for storage purposes only, but I like to think of mine as a bona fide entertainment accessory.  By plugging a hard drive into my Playstation 3 via both devices’ USB ports, I can be up and watching one of hundreds of HD movies on my new 50 LCD TV in no time.  The best thing about this function is its portability – all I need to do is to unplug the hard drive and tuck it under my arm, and within minutes I can access my movies and music at a friend’s house with minimal hassle.  It’s a cheap way to stay entertained, plus it just may eliminate the need for that 22 LCD TV DVD combi you’ve been looking at.

What are you waiting for?  Go out and pick up a multimedia hard drive today!

Did you know?

External hard drives currently cost less per GB than the more ubiquitous USB flash drive.

-Jeff O.

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