internal vs external?

DerBear · Sep 27, 2013

is there a difference between external hard drives and internal? if so how? and what is better

Barhumbug · Sep 27, 2013

Apart from the obvious difference that one takes up space on your desk whilst the other is safely tucked away inside your PC, the drives are mechanically the same.
External and internal can be either 2.5" or 3.5" drives.
Better? Well, external ones are portable but reading/writing may be slower if you connect via USB. If you use a firewire or esata connection, you'll notice much less speed difference. You can also swap external drives more easily. They are great for backups and moving data between computers, but not so good for running programs from. Some need a separate power supply of their own whilst some use USB power.
However, you'll need to keep your OS (C) drive permanently in the side the PC (okay, you can install the OS on an external drive but you'll be asking for loads of problems if you ever dare to disconnect it).
My recommendation? Use a combination of both - internal for OS and programs, another seperate internal for your personal data, and one or more external drives for backups and data you won't need to access very often.
It really all depends on what you use the computer for...

DerBear · Sep 27, 2013

Barhumbug :

Apart from the obvious difference that one takes up space on your desk whilst the other is safely tucked away inside your PC, the drives are mechanically the same.
External and internal can be either 2.5" or 3.5" drives.
Better? Well, external ones are portable but reading/writing may be slower if you connect via USB. If you use a firewire or esata connection, you'll notice much less speed difference. You can also swap external drives more easily. They are great for backups and moving data between computers, but not so good for running programs from. Some need a separate power supply of their own whilst some use USB power.
However, you'll need to keep your OS (C) drive permanently in the side the PC (okay, you can install the OS on an external drive but you'll be asking for loads of problems if you ever dare to disconnect it).
My recommendation? Use a combination of both - internal for OS and programs, another seperate internal for your personal data, and one or more external drives for backups and data you won't need to access very often.
It really all depends on what you use the computer for...

Okay thank you so much im going with internal

Barhumbug · Sep 27, 2013

In addition...You can always pick up a cheap external drive caddy from Ebuyer or similar and stick an old drive in it and use it for spare storage. I've got 2 external drives attached and only switch them on when I need to get data off them. A really great way of using old drives.
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=extrnal+caddy

Search

internal vs external?

DerBear

Honorable

Barhumbug

Barhumbug

Honorable

DerBear

Honorable

Barhumbug

Honorable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Share this page