In case you’ve been living under a rock or just down at the corner pub lately, we’re here to tell you that the multimedia hard drive is the current go-to choice for backing up your PC and/or storing data.  While these devices used to (in many cases) be larger than the very computers from which they received their data, the last few years have seen a shift toward super-compact, highly portable hard drives with an impressive price to match.  Lest you be left in the cold on picking up one of these handy devices, here are some things you should know about the external hard drive:

Advantages

• Extremely portable.  Instead of forcing you to lug around your entire movie or music collection, external hard drives allow you to carry a great amount of ready-to-use data in a package roughly the size of a small paperback.
• Easy to use.  Virtually all modern hard drives come with USB cables, which means connecting your hard drive to your computer (or to, say, your PS3 for watching films) is as easy as plugging it in.
• Inexpensive.  A new 2 TB hard drive can be found for as low as £100.  With more storage space than a pair of Best Buy computer towers (in an easy-to-carry package), this seems like an absolute steal.

Disadvantages

• While the hard drive inside your computer is cooled by a fan, external hard drives are rarely made with such a feature and as a result are susceptible to overheating.
• Because multimedia hard drives are so portable, there’s an added risk of the unit being dropped or damaged.  Protect the hard drive as you would you laptop, and if possible always carry it in a case.

And finally, a word of caution:

Before you go off throwing out your media units and DVDs, remember that external hard drives are only good places to back up data if the information is first saved elsewhere.  External hard drives are just that – hard drives – and can fail at any moment.  Use your hard drive to back up data only after savings files to a more secure default location, and always remember to back up regularly.

Did you know?

Hard disk drives have decreased in price from roughly 15,000 USD per MB to less than 0.0001 USD per MB.

-Jeff O.

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