External Hard Drives Guide

External hard drives are connected to computers through the use of an external port secured to the motherboard. External hard drives are different in size and shape, however their main purpose is to store documents, video, images, audio and many other file types. The actual capacities of the drives differ from large to small. This assortment of sizes allows the consumer to choose the right external hard drive for their needs.

Initially, bulky computer hard drives were housed outside of the actual computer in their own external cases, so by definition these drives fit into the external hard drive category. Eventually, advances in technology permitted manufacturers to place the drives inside the housing of the computers in their own drive bays. The capacity of an internal hard drive, though, was limited and so the need for external hard drives became evident, as consumers required more and more space for their files.

External hard drives come in a variety of styles and design. In most cases the internal structure of the hard drive itself is very similar to the standard internal hard drive on most computers.

External hard drives come in two categories: High capacity hard drives that have a maximum of two terabytes and the smaller portable external hard drives which have a size capacity that varies from 64 MB to 320 GB. This second class of external hard drives includes the flash or solid-state drives that are connected via USB ports.

The standard ports used for connecting external hard drives have differed as technology has changed. Connection ports now consist of six categories: SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), eSATA (External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), IEEE 1394 (Firewire) and USB 1.1 and 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus). Most computers today are equipped with standard USB 2.0 ports that are backwards compatible with USB 1.1 devices and Apple Computers come standard with both Firewire and USB 2.0 ports.

There are two main differences in High capacity external hard drives and portable external hard drives. The first difference is the amount of storage. High capacity external hard drives can facilitate the storage of up to two terabytes of information. This is due to the fact that these drives are not limited by physical size and can hold the necessary amount of hard disks and mechanical heads that are necessary for such high capacity and are powered by an external AC power source. Portable external hard drives, on the other hand, are limited in size for two reasons. The first reason is that the power source is the computer that the drive is connected to. The second reason is dependent upon the storage technology and the amount of space for the disks or the solid-state drive, which is really nothing more than a printed circuit board.

Since the internal mechanisms on external hard drives are relatively the same, both in size and shape, companies that make the devices can design the external housing unit to be nearly any shape imaginable. These shapes can vary in visual style, but are generally square or round so that manufacturing costs can be kept low. Colors of the housings on the drives also can vary widely, as well.
Craig Stephenson is an expert in computer storage. Employed in the computer industry for over thirty years he has seen huge technological development and understands just how good hard drives are today. If you are searching for affordable external hard drives please visit http://www.ebuyer.com