is it faster to set up an external hard drive vs. an internal hard drive if the HD will be full of data?

Question

I thought that if you filled up an internal hard drive, that the performance of the computer will suffer; it sure seems to for me currently. I am buying a new computer, but I also need a TB of storage, so I want to know if I should do the HD internally or just buy an external TB HD.

Answer 1

Well, installing an external hard drive is a lot easier and faster than installing an internal hard drive. If you only plan to use the new hard drive for storage then an external hard drive is ideal. However, if you plan to open and close files frequently on the hard drive then you have to think about speed. An external hard drive can connect to your computer via USB 2.0 or Firewire, their speeds are 480 Mbps and 400 Mbps respectively. This is the bottleneck. Accessing information from a hard drive is significantly faster if it is internal versus external. Another factor is cost. External hard drives are 50% more expensive than internal hard drives.

As for your computer's sluggishness, I believe the problem is with the page file. Oftentimes, Windows converts some of the space on the hard drive to virtual memory in order open and use programs. As a general rule, you should reserve 10% of your hard drive space.

Answer 2

It's easier to set up a external HDD setup, but the transfer rate of an internal HDD is much faster. If convenience is key with the option for speed later, I'd suggest an internal hard drive encased in a USB 2.0 enclosure. Then if you later decide to move the drive into the system for the speed boost, it's not that big a deal.

Answer 3

External HD is not that expensive and an excellent way to back up any / all of your files. It is also great if you are getting a new puter as you can keep anything you want. I don't like to load up my internal HD because it makes running anti-virus and defrag take a long time. I use the extra space on the internal for dl a movie etc. that won't stay there forever. Go for an external... they are just plug and play.
Note: if you have XP, the puter will try to boot up from the external drive. You have to unplug it to boot up. (USB)

Answer 4

Buy a big enough case so you can install 5 hdd you can raid them to get up to 1 tb if you use SATA hdd you have more speed internally. The problem with external is they tend to get knocked over or dropped and no longer work Antec has some nice server cases that have room for plenty of hdd

Answer 5

A Terabyte of storage, what in the world could you possible need so much space for. Of course, a few years ago, 20GB was plenty and now we make fun of that. Okay, your choices are... two 500GB internal hard drives but they would be full, I do not recommend that. In your situation I would get an external solution but note that no single Terabyte drive exists, it would be comprised of two 500GB hard drives, that is as far as I am aware, though there is a 2TB solution out there, check out the reviews from Cnet, http://cnet.search.com/search?part=&q=terabyte

Answer 6

If it is for an new computer build, then definitely go internal. Get 2 500GB hard drives.

Internal is usually faster unless the hard drive itself is slow (5400 RPM or less).

SATA (which most new, high-capacity hard drives use) has a theoretical bandwidth of 3GBPS (roughly 3,000MBPS). USB is somewhere around 400MBPS for USB 2.0.

You can't easily reach 3GBPS but internal is definitely faster.

Answer 7

External is faster and easier to set up

Answer 8

External hard drive is more convenient, easy to plug it in and remove it and take it with you. Otherwise, you shouldn't notice any difference.

Answer 9

Go external if you want a terabyte.