External hard drive purchase help

An external hard drive is a hard drive that is not in your PC, but is connected separately to your computer or laptop. Usually this is with a USB cable. An external hard drive adds more storage space to your PC. It is ideal for storing large collections of photos, videos and music and is easy to carry. External hard drives are also a way to store your files as a backup. And when you buy a new computer, you don’t have to worry about transferring data: you just need to connect the external hard drive to the new computer to have all your files and photos ready.

The most important points to consider when buying an external hard drive are the type (HDD or SSD), the size (2.5 or 3.5 inches), the connection type and the price. In addition, you should pay attention to which operating system the external hard drive is suitable for. These aspects are explained below.

There are two types of external hard drives: the traditional hard drive (also called HDD – Hard Disk Drive -) and the newer SSD (which stands for Solid State Drive). The new SSDs are similar to memory cards: they have no moving parts. This has a number of advantages: an SSD is light and compact, less vulnerable than the traditional hard drive and much faster. The major drawback is that they are much more expensive than traditional hard drives. The latter are much cheaper to produce, using techniques that have been around for years.

An external HDD is the best option if you don’t need to quickly store large amounts of data very often. If that is the case, then an SSD is worth considering despite the additional cost.

External hard drives (especially the traditional hard drives) come in two sizes: 2.5 and 3.5 inches. A 3.5 inch external hard drive has the largest storage capacity at the lowest price per gigabyte. Almost all 3.5 inch drives have an external power supply that must be plugged into the wall outlet. That doesn’t make them very portable. An average 3.5 inch external hard drive measures 18 by 12 by 4 cm and weighs about a kilo with power supply.

A 2.5 inch external hard drive is a lot more compact (about 11 by 9 by 2 cm) and much lighter (about 200 grams) than the 3.5 inch variant. It uses your computer’s USB port for power, so there’s no need for a separate AC adapter. A 2.5 inch external hard drive is a bit more expensive per gigabyte and the storage capacity is up to 4 terabytes.

There are several standards for connecting an external hard drive to your computer. The connection also determines how quickly files can be moved to and from the hard drive. These are the three most common connections:

• USB 2.0: The most common connection, supported by all computers released in the last ten years. The speed is 480Mb/s.
• USB 3.0: the latest version of the USB connection is more than ten times faster than its predecessor: 5Gb/s. Most computers sold since 2010 have one or more USB 3.0 ports. The USB 3.0 connection can be recognized by the blue edge in the connection.
• Network/Ethernet: you place a network external hard drive (often abbreviated as NAS) in your network. The advantage of this is that you can access the files on the hard drive from all computers on the network. The speed depends on the network and whether you are working wirelessly or wired. However, the network drive is always slower than a USB 3.0 connection.

How many files fit on an external hard drive depends on the capacity of the drive and the type of files. There are hard drives from 120 gigabytes (GB) to 20 terabytes (TB). The most common are models with 500 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB capacity. If you mainly want to store text documents, 500 GB is sufficient. Do you have many photos and videos? Then choose 2 TB.

Most external hard drives are ‘plug and play’. That means they are ready to go when you plug them in. It works the same as a regular built-in hard drive. After the external hard drive is connected to the computer, you will see it as a separate drive in Windows Explorer and on Mac computers in the Finder. You can save, move and delete files on it.

The prices of external hard drives have fallen sharply in recent years. A 2 TB hard drive is about 80 euros. This differs per hard drive. The fast SSDs are a lot more expensive. For the same amount of 80 euros you only get an SSD drive with 128 GB of capacity. Count on an approximately ten times higher price per gigabyte.

The choice of a hard drive is a personal one. It is important to determine whether you want to use the external hard drive mobile or whether it will have a permanent place on your desk. You also need to estimate what capacity you need. Of course, your budget also plays a role. The quality differences between hard drives are small, so the price per gigabyte is a good selection criterion.

Finally, it is important that you check whether the hard disk is suitable for (‘compatible with’) your operating system. The package states for which operating system the drive is suitable. Almost all hard drives can be used immediately on a Windows computer. For use on a Mac computer, the hard drive may need to be formatted first. Read more about this in the ‘Backing up with Time Machine’ article.
However, with a Mac computer, you can also choose to use Apple’s hard drive; the AirPort Time Capsule. This wireless hard drive is an expensive solution. The 2 TB version costs 329 euros and 3 TB costs 429 euros.

It should be clear that there is a lot to consider when buying an external hard drive. But how do you come to an actual choice? Fortunately, there are handy sites with which you can compare all models. You can compare drives at Hardware Info and Tweakers.

Enter a number of requirements there (usually on the left of the screen) to arrive at a selection of external drives. For example, start with a maximum price and the amount of storage space you want. The more requirements you fill in, the fewer disks are left. Are there no results? You will have to adjust the requirements for that. If there are a few that meet your requirements, look for the differences and consider which qualities you value most. The sites indicate where you can then purchase the external hard drive of your choice.