Q&A: What’s the difference between internal and external hard drives?
Question by Thoreau: What’s the difference between internal and external hard drives?
I need memory cause my computer has a 30 GB hard drive, and my ipod is 30 GB. I was wondering if it is unusual for a person to use an external hard drive for a desktop??? Are external hard drives more proned to crash or break or infected?? Also are internal hard drives difficult to install?? Or are external and internal drives the same the only difference being one is inside the computer and the other outside???
Best answer:
Answer by Joe D
They’re essentially the same except that external hard drives are in an enclosure that allows you to hook it up to your computer with a USB or iEEE1394 cable. Internal hard drives are cheaper and not hard to install. You just need to make sure you buy the right kind (IDE vs. SATA). Costs a little bit more but much easier to just get an external hard drive.
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External Hard Drives – Easy to install, usually just a simple connection to a USB or Firewire port. Usually more expensive per GB than an internal drive. No more prone to physical damage than an average laptop would be. Likelyhood of viral infection is the same as any other media. Can be used with multiple computers.
Internal Hard Drives – Slightly more difficult to install, although most manufacturers include very detailed schematics with their drives, and the only tool usually needed is a phillips head screw driver. Some BIOS settings may need to be adjusted to install. Performance is generally faster than external drives due to higher data transfer speed on IDE, SATA, and SCSI than USB and Firewire. Generally cheaper than External drives.
If your main factor is ease of use and portability, then external would be the way to go. However, if cost or performance is an issue, and you plan on only using this hard drive with the single desktop, I would highly recommend an internal drive. From personal experience, look into Western Digital drives, I have used several of these over the years and so far I haven’t had to replace one due to device failure. When buying, just be sure that the interface you get (USB or Firewire for external, IDE or SATA for internal) matches with what your machine has.
internal hard drive mount in side computer and external hard drive be out side,you can make internal hard drive to external but need encloser.all hard drives are same way, ext are batter then internal or internal batter then ex, no body can said that.
One’s inside, and one’s outside.
You’d be better off with an external. There’s no installation, just plug it in and use it! Lots of people use external hard drives for desktops.
External – Outside; Internal – Inside; no difference none so ever. Is it unusual for someone to be running their OS on an external drive? kind of, usually internals are used for the operating system but it’s likely that you can actually use either/or. Since the external is outside; it is prone to being easily more damaged than one that’s internal, inside. They are simple to install, mainly plug-n-play. They are both the same in one, only one is out and one is in.
ok just by the way you asked your questions and such i recommend a external HDD for you. their not hard to install, infact their just as easy to use as your ipod if not easier. most external HDD use USB to connect to your computer. and their no more prone to be exposed to bugs and virues then your normal HDD, but i reccomend an external HDD for most people that are new to computers or don’t feel comfortable opening their computer. their great they really are i use one myself to store all my pics and movies and such on it.
internal hard drives are mounted inside the case and are connected to the mother board and the power supply……external hard drives sit outside the case and hook up to your PC with a usb plug….so they are much easier to install…..and they’re just as reliable as internal hard drives in my opinion
External hard drives are slower then internal ones, due to the fact that they are limited by the connection speed of what is connecting them. Also, there is no support for booting windows from a USB device to my knowledge (and ive done some research on it). Internal hard drives are not hard to install if you have done work on the inside of a computer before, but if you haven’t, I wouldn’t recommend trying without help. They is more support for internal drives, and they operate faster.
In the end, External drives are alright for storing things such as music, video, and files, but I wouldn’t install and run programs from one. Its possible, but they will load and run slower then normal.
when you say memory you mean hard disk space. internal drives are not hard to install, but the best solution is to add an external drive. Far better in my opinion. even if your computer crashes the external will still retain everything
Kowhai