When it comes to gaming, there’s a lot of advantages to a PC. But you need more than just a computer; you’ll need some accessories as well. There are several peripherals that most gamers should have to enhance their experience, and one of the most important is an external hard drive. Why? Well, let’s look at what they’re used for.
Storage
Obviously, the first use is to store your games. Whether you’re buying them digitally or on disc, you’ll want a place to keep those files safe, and having a separate location than your primary computer hard drive is especially important. If something happens to your computer, you won’t lose all of your game files if they’re on an external drive. And if you download all of your games directly from Steam or another digital distribution platform, then this is absolutely vital since all of your games will be housed in one location (and not scattered about on your PC).
Backups
Another great use for an external hard drive is for backups. You can set up a program like Windows Backup or Time Machine to automatically back up the contents of certain drives on a regular basis, giving you peace-of-mind that if something happens to your computer or its internal drives, then you’ll have most
Ah, the external hard drive. It’s a simple and surprisingly useful tool that has been on the market for years, but it’s only when you get one for yourself that you realize exactly how much of your life is stored on your computer. Take a good look around your desktop: Photos from holidays past and present. School projects from long ago. Perhaps even a few movies you’ve downloaded (legally, of course). All those things take up space, my friend -space that could be better used to store your collection of fine JPEGs and MP3s.
Of course if you’re like most people you don’t really think about storage until it’s too late. It’s not until your hard drive crashes or gets infected with a virus that you realize everything you hold dear is at the mercy of some big-time hackers in Ukraine (or worse yet, your 3-year-old niece). And then it’s too late to do anything about it without paying through the nose to save all those precious memories.
An external hard drive is a small box that connects to your computer via USB cable or FireWire cable (or both) and allows you to back up critical data or just free up space on your laptop or desktop computer. Some are small enough to fit
By now, everyone has probably heard the horror stories about how a PS3’s hard drive can die and take all of your saves with it. If you don’t want to lose your saves, then an external hard drive is a must. It’s also a good idea if you’re planning to download movies and rent games from the PlayStation Store. You’ll need about 20GB for every movie or game that you plan on downloading.
The Seagate FreeAgent Go external hard drive comes in sizes ranging from 120GB to 500GB, so there’s enough space for all of your games and media files. Since the Go is bus-powered, you don’t have to plug in a power cord when using it with your PS3; which means one less cable to deal with (there are enough cables as it is). That being said, the power cord does come in handy if you have a laptop that doesn’t have an eSATA port (which is needed for the fastest performance). I’ve even been using my Go to back up files from my computer.
Sometimes people ask me to recommend a good external hard drive. I always say an external hard drive is one of the worst ways to store your data, and that they should get a big internal hard drive instead.
This is not what they want to hear. They want me to tell them what brand and model of external hard drive to buy, not the equivalent of: “You don’t really need a car. You just need shoes.”
But there are times when an external hard drive is the best solution. So if you’re determined to use one, here’s how to choose.
If you have an Xbox One or PlayStation 4, you’ll probably need to expand your storage at some point. That’s because the 1TB hard drives in both consoles are too small for the rapidly growing game install sizes, and that means deleting games to make room for new ones. But even if you don’t have a next-gen console, an external drive can be a great backup solution.
If you own a PC, look no further than the Samsung T3 Portable SSD. This tiny drive is fast and reliable thanks to its solid state design and offers up to 2TB of storage space. If you’re looking for a drive that’s just as fast but with more capacity, check out the Western Digital My Passport SSD. It plugs into any USB port and features a sleek design along with read speeds up to 450MB/s. If speed isn’t your top priority and you’re looking for something that’s more affordable, we recommend the Seagate Backup Plus Slim Drive (STDR2000100).
Portable storage has changed a lot over the years. What started out as a bulky, slow way to back up your data has become an essential part of any photographer’s gear bag.
Photographers are always on the lookout for faster and more efficient ways to manage their data. The problem is that external hard drives have not kept up with the data storage needs of photographers. When you’re dealing with high-res RAW files these days, you can quickly fill up your hard drive.
We are in the middle of a data explosion. The amount of digital data created every day is doubling in size every two years, and it’s estimated that by 2020, we will be producing 44 times the amount of digital data we did in 2009! This means that photographers need to start thinking about how they store their work, and if their current workflow is sufficient for this massive influx of data.
For many gamers, the Xbox 360 was the primary multimedia device for the home. It was their first console and it held all their games and music, movies, TV shows and other content. With the Xbox One, Microsoft has made it easier than ever to access your content across multiple devices.
If you purchased a lot of digital content on your Xbox 360, you can transfer that content to your Xbox One using an external hard drive. The same goes for your saves and game settings-if you’re looking to get back into an old favorite but don’t want to start over from scratch, simply plug in your USB storage device and get right back into where you left off.
In order to use an external hard drive with your Xbox One, it must be at least 256GB in size and formatted as NTFS. This means that if you have an existing external hard drive you’d like to use with the Xbox One, you’ll need to format it. Luckily this is a simple process.