The first advantage of an external hard drive is the storage function of valuable information and images apart from a particular computer. By storing the information off-site in an external hard drive the information will survive the theft of a Laptop or PC, a fire at home or at work or the destructive results of a virus or other form of cyber attack. A new computer can easily access the external hard drive and within minutes the backed up information downloaded and ready to use. Information may or may not be retrievable after a computer crash so it pays to have a little bit of data life insurance. The computer may die but the information is preserved intact.
A second advantage to having one of these is that a tremendous amount of information can be stored in addition to that normally filed on a primary use computer. Images, videos, music and games require a tremendous amount of space on an internal drive and can slow the operating speed of the computer. Data not currently needed can be stored on the external drive and removed from the computer entirely. If the data is stored exclusively on an external drive a secondary back-up should be used. These can have their own problems and the data be lost.
Security is another advantage of an external drive. It can be stored off-site and the sensitive information not retained on a network computer or one that is subject to being accessed by unauthorized people. Critically important data can be stored miles away to ensure its not being tampered with on site.
Portability is a valuable asset of external drives. Information can be passed along without interconnectivity or large files bogging down the computers on both ends of a transmission. Large databases can be stored on extremely small USB flash drives that fit in a shirt pocket or a purse. These small devices are quickly plugged into a Laptop port and the information is available within seconds.
There are many reasons businesses and personal PC users rely on external hard drives.
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