Hard Disk Drives- A perfect storage

Portable Storage- Space matters

Many people have been slowly but surely accumulating media on their computer. Maybe we have collection of photographs sitting in folders on our desktop, or maybe we're a hardcore music collector who has been downloading from places. Either way, that media takes up precious space on our computer and needs to be stored properly- external hard drives can take care of that. Apart from this, leaving our content on the computer without backing it up is a clear no for several important reasons. For one thing, it slows down our computer. And another crucial thing is that we run the risk of losing everything in the event of a hard-drive crash. Let's take a look, the considerations to get the best.

Type
There are generally two type of external hard drives: solid-state drives (SSD) and hard disk drives (HDD). Solid-state drives, although extremely fast, are also extraordinarily expensive. We can pay nearly triple that of an external HDD when we start getting into large capacities. Although an external SSD is safer because it has no moving parts. If, for some people, durability is truly a concern (i.e. lot of travelling), than we need to look for a drive that boasts ruggedness. These drives often have a reinforced exterior for added protection. 

Size
There is no standard as to how much is enough? If most of the files are word-processing documents and spreadsheets, we won't need the biggest box on the block. 250GB or 320GB will last for quite some time. But if someone have an extensive music or movie collection, bigger is better. Also with the prices going down on external storage, there's no harm in getting a 1TB or 2TB drive.

Speed
When talking about speed (how quickly it takes for the drive to read and write files) most drives are either USB 2.0 or eSATA devices (and, rapidly coming, USB 3.0). People having a Mac, might be interested in drives with a FireWire connector. eSATA is faster than USB 2.0 but it typically requires an external power source, so we need to plug in the external drive into an outlet as well as into our computer. If we are going to be transferring large files, this might be worthwhile.

Networkability
For people who are using their computer single handedly, they can usually get away with a simple external hard drive. But for a small-business owner or those who have multiple computers in their house, they should look into getting a network-attached storage device, or a NAS. These external hard drives have very large capacities that can automatically back up several computers. Although they cost more, depending on the size and how many computers we plan to back up -- but they are invaluable devices if we are running on multiple computers.

Final Words
It costs much less to back up your data now than it will to pay a company to try to retrieve it later. And paying a retrieval service is no guarantee that you'll get back what you've lost.