Hard Drives come in different sizes, different form factors, and with different capacities. However, there are only two different ways to physically connect them to your PC or Mac.
When a hard drive is connected internally to your computer via SATA cable or M.2 slot then it is considered an internal Hard Drive (well duh!). When the hard drive exists outside of your computer, it is referred to either an external hard drive or a portable hard drive. Both of these terminology really mean the same thing.
Which is better? An internal hard drive or external Hard Drive?
The short answer is… depends. However, if an internal hard drive and external hard drive both share the same specs then the internal hard drive will usually have faster read/write speeds. This is due to the Hard Drive being directly connected to the motherboard and using a faster connection. However, the increase in speed isn’t usually noticeable so it is not a metric that I put too much weight on.
What is more important is the type of hard drive you should be using. A Solid State Drive (SSD) is more efficient and outright faster than a Hard Disc Drive (HDD). However, an SSD is more expensive and tend to have less capacity when compared to an HDD. If you want a technical analysis between the two then please refer to our previous article by clicking here.
What is the most popular use for an external Hard Drive?
An external hard drive comes in very handy when someone wants to back up their data. Not only is it portable but depending on the type (either HDD or SSD), it can be super affordable. The major manufacturers like Seagate and Western Digital make drives that go on sale frequently at your local Best Buy or Target.
You might have used an external hard drive without even realizing it. For example, look at something like an USB thumb drive, which is frequently used to quickly backup and move data to multiple computers. A USB flash drive (also known as a thumb drive) is considered an external hard drive however it has a major drawback. A USB flash drive only has limited storage capacity and if you were to purchase one with over 1 TB of storage then you’d be paying an arm and a leg. This is because flash drives (same technology used in SSDs) are very expensive and offering large storage space in a small form factor only increases manufacturing cost.
As you can see, the most popular use for an external hard drive is to back up and transfer files between multiple computers. With portable hard drives, you can back up your entire computer and safely store outside of your computer. This way, if your hard drive fails or anything happens to your computer than you’ll always have backup of your data.
What is the most popular use for an internal Hard Drive?
An internal hard drive is almost always required within a computing device. The internal hard drive is where the data exists and can be accessed by the computer’s operating system to play movies, games, music, etc.
The most popular use for an internal Hard Drive is to host the operating system. A fast internal Hard Drive usually leads to quick boot times and also a decrease in the time it takes to save files or open up documents. We outright recommend an SSD for internal storage because of the huge benefit your system will receive from the added speed. If you replace an old school HDD with an SSD, you will automatically notice faster boot times and even an increase in responsiveness from your computer.