external USB hard drive Archives - Page 2 of 2

Review: HGST Touro 1TB 7200RPM High-Performance USB Hard Drive

Posted on September 6, 2016

hgst-touro-s-1tb-7200rpm-portable-hard-drive-small — (#ad)

Portable USB hard drives make it easy to back up the hard drives in our computers and share large quantities of files among machines that aren’t on the same local network.

If you’re looking for the fastest high-capacity USB drive around, a portable Solid State Drive (SSD) would fit the bill quite nicely.

But if you’re just looking for something that’s faster than the typical USB hard drive yet doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, you can’t beat a 7200RPM USB hard drive.

There aren’t that many consumer-grade 7200RPM USB hard drives on the market right now, but I recently had the chance to check one out. [Read more…]

Q&A: Should I buy an external USB Solid State Drive or an external USB Hard Drive?

Posted on August 25, 2016

External USB Solid State Drive (SSD) — (#ad)

Question from Calvin T.: I use a Gateway DX4860-UB20P desktop computer at work and I just purchased a brand new Dell Ultrabook to use at home and while I’m out on the road.

I’d like your opinion on the best way to transfer large files between these two PCs.

I’d rather not use a large USB flash drive because I’ve had a lot of trouble with files getting corrupted on them in the past, and I really need something that’s more reliable.

I was planning to buy a 1TB external USB hard drive, but I happened to stop in at Office Depot yesterday and noticed that they now sell external USB Solid State Drives.

It seems to me like an external SSD would be the perfect solution. Do you agree, or is there some reason why you’d recommend an external hard drive instead?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my external USB hard drive work with my laptop?

Posted on November 27, 2015

Question from Carol K.: I have an older 120GB external USB hard drive that I’ve used for years with my Dell desktop PC.

The Dell bit the dust a couple of weeks ago and I replaced it with a 3 year old Acer laptop that my son gave me after he bought a new one.

The problem I’m having is the old external drive has a bunch of files on it that I really need to access with the laptop, but I can’t get the drive to show up in Windows Explorer.

I know the drive itself is still working because it works fine when I plug it into my computer at work. I’m hoping you can tell me what I need to do to get my old USB hard drive to work with the Acer laptop?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: What’s the best external hard drive to use with a Dell docking station?

Posted on September 25, 2015

Question from Linda S.: I have a Dell 6430u Ultrabook and a Superspeed USB 3 Dell Docking Station. I am trying to decide on an external drive to back-up all my data and photos continuously.

Could you suggest an external USB hard drive that would be good to use?

I’m also worried about power overload for the docking station because when I plugged in a LaCie external drive I received a warning that it overloaded the USB port. Can you advise about that as well?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why should I convert my old C: drive to an external drive after an SSD upgrade instead of installing it as a D: drive?

Posted on January 29, 2014

Question from Gary M.: Rick, Microsoft is forcing me to get serious about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 8 (or 8.1). I just finished reading your recommendation to install an SSD drive and convert my XP internal drive into an external USB drive.

I was thinking along similar lines, but figured I would make my existing XP drive into a drive D: after upgrading to Windows 8. Why would converting it to an external USB drive be better?

Thanks, Gary

Ricks answer: [Read more…]