Windows 10: External Hard Drive Questions

I am looking at getting an External Hard Drive for Christmas to back up all of my photos to it since I take a lot of pictures. I don’t want to waste my PC’s storage on pictures. My Hard Drive on my HP PC is 1TB. What storage capacity should I go with for an External Hard Drive? Also, what are the best brands? The cheapest is Seagate from what I can see.

:)

 

Using external hard drive to install windows 10

I don't have enough space on my hard drive to install the Windows 10 update. There is an option to use an external hard drive.

My question is if i use the external hard drive option, will any existing data be erased

 

USB device not recognized in Windows 10

Doesn't help. My brand new Windows 10 laptop doesn't recognize an external, USB hard drive in File Explorer. There's no question of corrupt or out-of-date drivers. The laptop is brand new and device manager says there is nothing wrong with the external,
USB hard drive. This happens with a Toshiba and with a Seagate external, USB hard drive.

 

I use WD Elements with no issues. A 1TB should do, but you might well go bigger if you're willing to pay up.

 

Make sure you buy USB 3.0 - not USB 2. Even if your computer has only USB 2. You'll probably have the drive for a long time.

 

The back of my computer is USB 3.0 ports. I think the front are 2.0. I think 1TB should be fine. I am either looking at WD and Seagate.

 

Hold on, using an external drive as a backup of photos is fine, but your posts indicate you want to delete photos from pc.

This is putting all your eggs in one basket.

When the external drive fails (all drivrs fail sooner or later), you will lose EVERYTHING.

For backup purposes, you need photos to be on TWO different drives as a minimum.

A good solution is to store on the Cloud eg onedrive etc.

DO NOT rely on the external drive as the ONLY copy of your photos - Tears WILL ensue.

 

You need original and backup copies of all your files including photos. I would store your personal files either on separate drive or separate partition within your PC. This enables you to backup the key OS files using Reflect Free without needing to backup your personal files - I have 2 backup jobs - one for the OS and one for the OS plus personal files.

I would use the external drive for backups. I have 1T and 2T basic Seagate Expansion drives which have been fine. Be sure to buy a USB 3.0 drive like these.

 

There are currently only 2 brands in the world: WD and Seagate, the rest are just re-branded.
Both are the same quality, so it does not really matter which one, choose based on the specs/price.
For a backup, green disks (~5400rpm) should suffice, they are quiet, take less energy and might last longer.
Definitely choose 2.5" version, then you do not need an external power adapter, you will just plug it into USB.

 

Most of my photos are backed up to OneDrive. But I’ve been told that photographers always get an External Hard Drive to back up their photos to if their computers ever crashes. But yes I am covered as far as them backed up to OneDrive.

 

Backups are key. You want data in at least two places. One of those places should be offsite (not with the originals). The cloud is great with respect to that offsite part.

 

I will probably go with Seagate and a 1TB drive since it's the cheapest.

 

You might consider getting 2 3TB ext HDs. Better and better photo/graphics/pictures technology often means more and more byte-space needed. If the Cloud cannot be reached for some reason, you have a backup of the backup, and in different locations.
Which Windows?

 

Windows 10

 

Set a budget of how much you want to spend and then buy the largest drive you can based on that budget. Having a backup drive that is too big is never an issue but having one too small could cause make it so you need to decid3e what can be backed up and what can't.