Hard Drives (External)

External Hard Drives (HDDs)

External hard drives can be connected to a PC or mobile devices via USB, eSATA, Firewire, Thunderbolt, or other interfaces. This makes them the most widespread storage solution in the portable segment when a lot of storage space is needed. Inside an external hard drive, the same components used in conventional internal models operate. The casing serves only to protect and connect to suitable devices. Nowadays, there are also external hard drive enclosures with two or four hard drives. These can operate for higher data transfer rates in a RAID-0 array or for greater data security in a RAID-1 array.

External Hard Drives with Large Capacity

External hard drives are available in a very wide range of volumes, with the maximum capacity of individual HDDs currently at 10 terabytes (TB), or 10,000 gigabytes (GB). In addition to the larger 3.5-inch external hard drives, which have an additional power supply, there are also smaller drives in the 2.5-inch format, which is also common for most SSDs. Although they generally store smaller amounts of data and are usually somewhat slower, they can be easily used as portable hard drives in an appropriate external hard drive enclosure and, unlike the larger variants, do not require an external power connection.