An external hard drive could save you time and money

Does anyone remember their first external hard drive? Usually a monster in a heavily fortified casing that was as fragile as eggshells. If you were lucky you may have got an extra forty gigabytes memory for your computer. Compare that to today’s market where you can carry two hundred gigabytes in your penny pocket, although there may be no room for the condom. They are faster, more reliable and a lot cheaper than in their first incarnation in the 1980′s.

Essentially an external hard drive is designed to give extra storage. Connected to your desktop or laptop externally using fire-wire or USB ports they are an increasingly popular tool in the mobile age. As they can still be prone to damage from knocks and vibrations an outer casing gives protection to the hard drive. Essentially this is due to how they are constructed.

A hard drive consists of a magnetised rotating disk within the hard drive casing that can rotate at a mind-boggling seven thousand rpm. Just like a CD or DVD it is the disks that are prone to damage and decreased performance. Laptop discs tend to be smaller meaning fewer rotations per minute and a decreased performance. These days the capacity of a hard drive is normally quoted in gigabytes or even terabytes, a far cry from the megabyte age of zip and floppy disks. They vary in size but rest assured they are getting much smaller. Mobile storage hard drives and memory sticks have entered the market meaning it has never been easier to take your memory with you.

The end of the external hard drive has been predicted due to the introduction of flash memory storage that most portable hard drives and memory sticks use. The fact they are still the lowest cost random access re-writable storage solution means this is yet to transpire. The drives that are probably most at risk from compact flash memory drives are smaller hard drives. Many companies have already invested in combining the magnetised disks with flash memory capabilities. The future lies in hybrid drives, and in their design.

It seems as if the external hard drive is here to stay for a little while yet. Although the advance in flash memory portable hard drives and memory sticks probably means they will need to find a new incarnation to continue apace with development. Otherwise they may well go the way of the floppy disk and tape cassette.

Do you need an external hard drive? Low Price Memory is a great site to check out for external hard drives, computer memory and bluetooth headsets at prices you can afford.

- David Ross