I'm new to external hard drives

J

John B

Geek Trainee
I'm looking to buy en external hard drive but I know next to nothing about them.
It's mainly to back up photo's and music.
Do I have to have it running along with my pc or do I just connect it when I want to back up new pictures?
Can anyone recommend a make ?
What about storage? Is 500GB too much/not enough?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John
 
Most drives are USB, and have their own separate power supply. They can be disconnected and powered down separately from the PC, and connected when needed.

500GB is a bit too much if you're only backing up photos or music, large dvd backups or other video would probably warrant that but it's up to you how much you want.
 
i have a 80gb EXT HDD

they are usually USB, plug it in, turn it on, and your computer will read it, copy all the folders/files you want, unplug it from the USB port, and turn it off, and store it somewhere safe until you want your backed up files
 
Thanks for that Guys.
Do you think if its just photo's and music that 80GB would be OK?
Any idea how many pics this would hold and can you recommend a certain make?
Thanks again
John
 
if you right click on the folder your music \ pictures are on & click properties
it will tell you the GB you have in that folder, add them both together, lets say you have 50GB of music & pictures, then 80GB is enough because you always want extra just in case you add more
 
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