External or Internal Hard Drive?

So, your hard drive space is running thin, and you’re thinking of buying a new hard drive?

Do you really need a new hard drive?

1. Try free tools such as
   CCleaner to clear out some of the temporary files that are cluttering your computer.
2. Find out what files and folders are hogging your space with free usage reporting tools such as:
   WinDirStat for Windows,
   Disk Inventory X for OS X, and
   KDirStat for Linux.
3. Use a utility to find duplicate files:
   [find duplicate files utilities]

You’ve decided you really need another hard drive… What do you buy, an internal or external?

Pros for internal hard drives:

1. They’re faster than external hard drives, and so more suitable for day-to-day work. (exception: firewire external drives are faster than usb, but require your computer to support the firewire interface.)
2. They last longer. Many external drives’ cases are built more for looks or space concerns than for proper cooling. Although temperature is not usually an issue, when they get high enough, failure rates will increase.
3. They’re quieter. Being inside the case buffers the sound of the drive platters spinning, and external drives should have a fan, which also makes a small amount of noise.
4. They’re less expensive.
5. Backup services such as
   Mozy and
   Carbonite include internal drives in their unlimited backup plans, but not external drives. (You are backing up your files, aren’t you…)
6. They’re less prone to theft, due to being attached inside the computer, and not on your desk or being transported in your car.

Pros for external hard drives:

1. They’re portable, and so can be used for backup or sharing between computers. Plus, if and when your computer dies, you can take your drive to another machine, and keep going. (Before moving it, always wait 1 minute for the drive platters to spin down after you unplug your drive from your computer!)
2. They’re easier to install. No opening the case, just plug it into your computer with the cable provided, and you’re good to go.
3. External drives are often the only option for laptops and small desktops, which don’t have spare slots for additional drives.

Before you go out and buy even more hard drive for increased capacity, ensure you have a backup plan implemented for the data you have, and can fit the new drive into the plan. Many people put data solely on the external “backup” drive, treating it as “safe”. THIS IS A BAD IDEA… Your data is actually LESS SAFE on an external drive, because they are less reliable, and more prone to theft.

Whatever you do, ensure you have a backup plan. Because your drive will fail, it’s only a matter of time.