External HDD ... how do you use it ?

[alofano]

Hello everyone. I just got myself an external HDD and this is the first time I use such an animal. I would like to know how do you use your external HDD. Do you plug it into your USB port and leave it there and use it as a regular HDD ? Do you use it only to make back-ups and then store it in a safe place ? I plan to use it as a regular HDD (daily), plugged into the USB port and when I leave the house for an extended period of time I will disconnect it and place it in a safe place. Is that ok ? Sorry for these baby questions but they aren't baby questions to me. Thanks.

[pianowizard]

I have a 2TB external HDD and two 1TB ones, all of them Western Digital. They are strictly for backing up files, because accessing them via USB2 is too slow. I always work on files that are on my computers' internal HDDs.

Another disadvantage of using external HDDs as regular drives is that they can get damaged more easily, since they get moved around more often. Thus, all the primary copies of my files are on internal HDDs.

A third disadvantage is that if you need the files on your external HDD while you are on the road, you would need to carry not only your laptop but also that external drive. I like to travel light, and so my laptops have large enough HDDs that can hold all the files that I need while traveling.

[mediasponge]

I recommend getting a disk cloning program like Acronis, or CloneZilla and taking a snapshot of your internal drive. That way, if your internal drive croaks, you're back up and running quickly with a new internal drive. The rest would depend on how often your data files were backed up.