I am looking into buying an external hard drive for my laptop...?

Question

Will I also be able to use it with my pc? Is there a certain type I should get in order to do this?

Answer 1

External Hard Drive will work on a USB Cable. It will work both in your laptop and pc if your pc has a usb adapter.
External Hard Drives are mostly compatible with Usb ports

Answer 2

YES, you will be able to use a USB external hard drive with BOTH your laptop and your desktop PC.

Almost any "USB EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE" will work in the scenario you described.

External hard drives are becoming cheaper and cheaper -- here's a detailed post showing 2 models that approach the 25 cents/GIG price barrier (350GB drive=$99 and $500GB drive=$149): http://www.valupoint.com/weblog/2007/02/get-your-storage-here-about-quarter-gig.html

In addition, you may want to consider purchasing a USB "FLASH DRIVE" which are very cheap these days.

BOTH will basically work the same exact way -- you just plug it into an available USB port, and it will show up as an additional drive on your computer's desktop screen -- with which you can do the same exact things as if it were your C: or D: drives. You can copy files to and from the flash drive, create folders, etc. This is a great way to shuttle files back and forth between computers (like your laptop and your desktop PC) or back-up for archive purposes.

While most people use USB flash drives to take files with them to another location or pc, it is also a great way to BACK UP FILES WITH A USB FLASH DRIVE as well. One advantage is that a flash drive has no moving parts, so risk of damage is greatly lower than an external hard drive. Another advantage is size -- they are small -- usually fits in the palm of your hands vs. the larger form factor of a external hard drive. The only disadvantage is the memory capacity -- most flash drives have yet to come out with huge capacities. However, you can find many 1GB or 2GB flash drives at a reasonable price today (even free after rebate): http://www.valupoint.com/weblog/2007/01/memory-in-flash.html

If you're merely backing up small amounts of data (or a redundant back-up of a smaller set of data), you may consider using a USB flash drive in addition to an external hard drive.

Lastly, you should consider online back-up services. You can get a totally free 2GB back-up account free from services like mozy. And if you pay $5/month, you can get UNLIMITED storage with no other fees. Here's a detailed post about Mozy: http://www.valupoint.com/weblog/2006/12/back-up-buffet-5-all-you-can-eat-mozy.html

Answer 3

Western digital is dominating the severe-skill market (Terabyte drives) and for solid reason - they're low priced, at 37 cents per gigabyte. verify the cost per gigabyte once you're making your purchase. to guage, new Blu-Ray rewritable disks are $a million.00 per gigabyte (before you purchase a Blu-Ray force). For laptops/portableness regardless of the reality that I wouldnt flow so tremendous - those issues are cumbersome as hell. verify the HDD you do get is small, mild and doesnt require AC potential - maximum do. Others will supply the alternative of utilising battery potential or direct USB potential (the latter being sluggish). I also propose searching for the little redundancies, case in element, a detachable USB cable - in case you purchase a thumbdrive and also you snap the usb plug on it - you're screwed. and that i have been there so its available. extremely regardless of the reality that for that length a difficult force (30gb) it should be purely as priceless to burn onto a twin layer DVD (8 something gigabytes per disc).

Answer 4

Unless you require storage in excess of 4GB at a time please re-consider buying an external hard disk.

External hard disks are easily damaged and are quite expensive. Consider going in for a USB Thumb Drive instead.

Answer 5

If you're only looking for additional non-attached storage, external networked storage will probably suit you need much better. It will make it unneccessary to switch the device between laptop and tower minimizing the risk of damage.

Answer 6

ANY USB external drive will work fine..

Answer 7

Buy a usb and yes you can use it with your other computers.

Answer 8

yeah for sure. If you are parnoid look at the specs when buying