External Hard Drives

External Hard Drives

External hard drives meet the demands of modern PC users to be mobile while not having to forego their data. Huge amounts of data that used to be stored in binders, photo albums, and VHS tape racks can now easily fit onto hard drives, where rotating magnetic disks (called "platters") are read by heads (hence the name "Hard Disk Drive" or "HDD"). This allows you to keep all relevant files with you and easily share them with friends, colleagues, and others.

USB 3.0 as the Modern Standard Interface for External Hard Drives

External hard drives come in different variations regarding format, storage capacity, and interface:

• Small 2.5-inch drives are the ideal external companions, while larger 3.5-inch external drives generally offer more storage space but are larger and heavier, requiring a separate power supply. 2.5-inch drives integrate data exchange and power supply into a single USB connection, making them perfect for laptops and environments without available power sockets.
• External HDDs typically range in capacity from 320 GB to 4 TB, with the largest volumes over 1.5 TB usually reserved for larger 3.5-inch external hard drives.
• USB 3.0 has become the standard interface for external hard drives. It is versatile, supported by nearly all multimedia devices such as computers, laptops, and TVs, and offers high data transfer speeds. With theoretical transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps (625 MB/s), USB 3.0 matches the increasingly rare eSATA 6G and exceeds eSATA II (max. 300 MB/s) in speed. In the future, the versatile and fast Thunderbolt interface could become a real competitor.