by Jane.PH

Created on: August 26, 2008

External hard drives are a popular choice when considering buying a storage unit for your file archives, backups and even just additional data storage. However, you can't just pick a box out of a store shelf or click on buy on an online computer store. Read on and find out what important points to consider when you want to purchase an external hard drive.

INTERFACE

Different manufacturers design different external hard drives with a multitude of ways to connect them to your computer. Possible options are through a USB port (1.1, 2.0, or whatever version there is), FireWire, eSATA or SATA. Most common ones are USB and FireWire though there are still a few that uses eSATA (Western Digital's My Book does have an eSATA interface). Ideally, it would be best to find an external hard drive that connects through a USB port simply because it is the most common port that we can find in any desktop or laptop.

CAPACITY

Depending on what you want to use the external hard drive for you can choose from a variety of capacity there is to choose from. From a couple of megabytes to terabytes of space, the choices are seemingly endless. External hard drives are expected to contain tons and tons of archive files, backups, documents, images, videos, etc. It is therefore best to purchase one with as big a capacity as you could possibly afford. Those spaces wouldn't go to waste anyway.

DESIGN

External hard drives are supposed to be handy. It is therefore a big consideration to check out its design. There are external hard drives that are slim and lightweight like the Western Digital Passport Elite or Essential or the Fujitsu Dynadisq III. There is also the Western Digital My Book which is an inch thick but is not all too heavy so it is still easy to carry (just a bit bulky but still light-weight). There are also some like the Maxtor OneTouch II that has got "feet" to stand on. Not actually the portable type, but is slim enough to not eat up heaps of space where it should stand.

EASE OF USE

A plug and play external drive would the best choice (bar none). Not only is it easy to use and takes you off the need for any installation process, but it also allows you to plug it from one computer to the next without any hassles in adapting to the environment.

COMPATIBILITY

Although most manufacturers would try its best to have their hardware be compatible to all operating system, it is still a good practice to check out its compatibility with either Windows or Mac. Just a precaution in any case that

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