Now, what is an external hard drive?

Question

I still need to figure out how to back up my files safely. An external hard drive was recommended. Or a CD-R? I guess you can tell, you've got a real rookie here.

Answer 1

An external hard drive is pretty much the same as the normal hard drive inside your computer, but it is outside the computer, in its own case, connected usually through a USB or parallel port. It can be moved from one computer to another fairly easily.

The main advantages of a external hard drive versus a CD-Writer or a DVD-Write are capacity and speed, both of which are greater with an external hard drive. Also, it is much easier to make a full back of your computer to an external drive.

Here are a couple of examples which received good rating and are not too expensive:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10399719&SearchEngine=PriceGrabber&SearchTerm=10399719&Type=PE&Category=Comp&Gad=0&dcaid=15890

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202636834&SearchEngine=PriceGrabber&SearchTerm=202636834&Type=PE&Category=Comp&Gad=0&dcaid=15890

Alternatively, CD / DVD writers have the flexibilty of portable media that can be easily taken to another computer and a lower cost. If you don't already have a CD writer, since there is not much difference in price, a DVD writer would probably be better of the two.

If you chose a DVD writer over an external hard drive, I would suggest taking a look at the BenQ DW1655 which has received good reviews:

http://cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=16050

http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__BenQ_DW1655_Dual_Layer_DVD_RW_Writer_Black_w_LightScribe,__15386962/search=BenQ+DW1655

Either alternative has its benefits, but for easy, full system backups, I would recommend the external hard drive. For extra security, throw in a writer for occassional file copies to have more than one backup copy / device.

Answer 2

An Ipod is a good example of an external hard drive that pretty much everyone is familier with. It hooks up to your computer via usb cables, and it stores information, much the way your computers internal hardrive does.

Just remember if you're doing it to back up anything important, if you can, don't store the external hard drive in the same house as the computer. Or at least in a different room. If something like a fire or flood ruins you're computer the external in the same room won't fare much better.

Answer 3

Your external hard drive should show as an icon on your screen. Simply drag and drop everything you want on that drive. If you want to clear space on your machine's hard drive then don't forget to delete whatever you move onto the Lacie once you have checked that it has transferred successfully. If you want to start putting stuff directly on the Lacie then just specify it as the destination whenever you save something. You have a massive amount of capacity as it stands and I am unsure why you want to move stuff onto the Lacie, unless it is for reasons of backup, which is obviously a good idea. It's a shame you are not on a Mac, as you would then have, on Leopard, the fabulous Time Machine facility which will mean never losing anything ever again. If you don't think you are much good at computers make your next one a Mac - they are simpler, smarter, and cooler than a PC, and much easier to use. Vista is where Mac was about ten years ago.

Answer 4

an external hard drive is a hard drive that is outside the computer box and connected to the computer through a cable (ususally a usb cable)

unless you have 50 or more cd's alot of time and a cd burner go with the external hard drive

Answer 5

An external hard drive is a hard drive on the outside of your computer that plugs in to a USB Port. It's basically self explanatory if you know what a hard drive is.

Answer 6

I used to always say I was going to start backing up my hard drive...then it happened.. I was trying to install a firewall from zonelab pro and it made my system freeze, so I hard booted after several attempts at rebooting the right way and then I got the black screen of death...We apologize for the inconvenience, windows was not shut down properly please select one of the following 4 options, so I did each of them to no avail! Well, long story short I ended up having to run my recovery cd-r and dvd-r. My system came back up, but...without my pictures, documents, or e mails. So, I went to sonystyle.com and found a great external hard drive like one they use at my job to back up our systems. It is called a micro vault pro and holds 8 GB of information. I first thought I could make an identical copy of my programs and hard drive, but that's way more than 8GB can hold. So I have my CD-R and DVD-R recovery discs and I back up my documents by saving to my external hard drive and my pictures and cool e mails and addresses. Here's the micro vault but you can find some that don't have 8GB (less than 8GB are available at stores like wal mart, circuit city etc)

Answer 7

From the word external which means outside. ^^_ in short.

external HDD is like external modem. Usually it plug to a usb or serial com port.

Answer 8

memory external hard drive is something you can connect outside your computer with a usb port cd-r is a burned cd if you have a cd burner you can transfer your data and make a copy for yourself

Answer 9

It is a hard drive that hooks usually usb outside of your computer tower

Answer 10

an outside hard drive...external means outer