Now there are so many different gadgets that you do not have time to follow all. "Smart" flower pot or electro skate. But there are also quite familiar devices that many forget about. For example, an external hard drive. What is it needed for?
About device
As the name implies, this device is connected to a hard drive. HDD - a storage device that is installed in the system unit of a computer. It provides random access and works with magnetic recording.
Hard drives now remain on the wave of popularity, although experts predict their imminent "extinction", because on the threshold of solid-state drives, which seem much more profitable.
Nevertheless, while the railway use in the PC, they will be used as external devices. What is their difference? External hard drives are connected via USB. They can be carried with you and quickly connected to any PC. We can say that such a hard drive is a flash drive.
What for?
What is an external hard drive for? Now a huge number of users suffer from a lack of memory on the computer. This is due to the fact that there is more and more information every day. Users download TV shows for whole seasons, buy popular video games that weigh a lot already, and also take high-quality photos and videos.
Someone can use flash drives, but they have a limited amount. Someone can install cloud storage, which is often paid and not always secure. In this case, it is much easier to purchase an external hard drive. What is this device for?
Thanks to him, you can expand the computer's memory. If you notice that games or programs do not fit on a PC, you can purchase a hard drive. It will be an auxiliary tool for you.
It is also needed to offload the system. For example, in one of the folders you have littered old photos, which are a pity to delete, but which occupy a significant amount of memory. You can buy an external hard drive, drop files there and put the device in a box.
Finally, an external hard drive is a mobile device. It can be carried with you if necessary. This is especially convenient if you work on multiple devices and you need certain files. Thus, you can transfer them from a working PC, transfer them to your home and continue working at home.
How to choose?
Understanding why you need an external hard drive for you, you can make a choice. In general, the choice is practically the same as if you decided to buy an ordinary hard drive. What should I pay attention to?
- manufacturer;
- cost;
- volume;
- dimensions;
- security;
- additional functions.
Thanks to these parameters, you can easily choose a hard drive for yourself that will last several years for you.
Manufacturer
Of course, this is not the most important parameter when choosing, but you should also pay attention to it. Many companies have long declared themselves in the market for storage devices, so it is better to pay attention to them.
Keep in mind that buying the cheapest hard drive can turn against you. Although no one is safe from the fact that the expensive and eminent HDD will fail. Unfortunately, hard drives themselves are not the most protected and reliable devices that require careful handling.
Among the famous manufacturers it is worth mentioning Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba, WD and Transcend. These companies have been operating in the market for a long time and enjoy an excellent reputation.
Cost
But this is a more important parameter. It largely depends on the financial capabilities of the buyer. If you are ready to spend any amount of money to purchase an external hard drive, then take a look at solid-state drives: they are smaller, faster and more reliable. Their main drawback at the moment is the high cost. For example, for 3 thousand rubles you can buy a 1-2 TB hard drive or a 256 GB solid-state drive.
Volume
It also depends on your desires. First you need to understand why you need an external hard drive. If you want to store documents on it, then you can fit in 500 GB. If we are talking about resource-intensive programs, games and films, then it is better to choose a model for 1 TB or more.
Dimensions
Hard drives have a standard 3.5 '' format. It is this option that is installed in the PC system case. In laptops and laptops they place a less bulky device - a 2.5 '' hard drive. From here you can decide for yourself which option suits you best.
For example, if you are not going to carry the railway with you anywhere, then you can choose 3.5 '', because the larger the disk, the larger its possible capacity. It is also inexpensive. If you want to buy a flash drive, then choose a laptop format so that it is easy to carry.
Security
Immediately it is worth saying that the hard drive itself is unreliable. This is due to the fact that a large number of parts are present in its design. If you accidentally drop it, you can damage one of the components, which is why the entire device will fail.
But in the market you can find separately hard drives with increased protection. They can also be a safe repository for you, because they have some protective mechanisms. Your information will be safe.
Additional functions
For example, many do not know if a driver is needed for an external hard drive. Now the market situation is different. Some devices require additional installation of files. But, for example, Seagate hard drives do not need to download drivers. Therefore, this point should be clarified immediately, if it is, of course, important to you.
When choosing, you can pay attention to other functions. For example, is it possible to connect an external hard drive to a TV. To do this, you will have to figure out which file system the hard drive works in, and then find out which file system the TV supports. Usually HDDs are tied to NTFS.
Formatting
First you need to understand whether you need to format an external hard drive. If you just bought it, then, of course, such a procedure will not hurt. It may not give much result, but you will be sure that there are no third-party hidden files in the repository.
Do I need to format a new external hard drive? To be sure, this is better, but there are other factors. For example, you will have to do this to change the file system if it does not suit you for some reason. You'll also have to figure this out if you want to split the storage into multiple volumes. If nothing bothers you, and you just got the hard drive out of the box, you can do nothing with it.
Problems
But what if the external hard drive says “Need to format the drive”? Firstly, it is worthwhile to understand that rarely such errors are caused by an unknown force. Usually the user is to blame. You may have disconnected the device incorrectly, thereby damaging the files.
In this case, the drive does not connect and produces a similar error. What is the easiest to do? Of course, accept the system and format the device, especially if it does not have important files.
Otherwise, you will have to solve this problem yourself or with the help of specialists. In the first case, you can try system tools for checking hard drives, but, in truth, they rarely give results, as, in principle, third-party programs.
It remains to contact the service center for specialists to help save important documents. But keep in mind that, most likely, your data will still go to a third party.
By the way, with SSDs, such problems are much less common, since the structure of these disks and the principle of operation are completely different. It’s worth considering, maybe you can overpay, but buy an SSD, which is much faster, more reliable and more compact.