Do you Need a Portable USB Hard Drive for a Netbook?

Like many people, if you accumulate digital media such as photos, music or movies on your netbook hard drive than sooner or later your are bound to run out of storage space. Moreover, leaving your content on the netbook without backing it up is not a good idea for several important reasons. For one thing, it slows down your computer. And for another – and this is important – you run the risk of losing all your data in the event of a hard-drive crash.

The precious space on your netbook needs to be managed and files stored properly for easy access. Luckily these problems can be taken care by an external portable hard drive. They are also useful for expanding the total amount of storage space and as a means to transfer large amounts of data between a netbook and another primary computer such as a desktop or notebook.

Factors to consider in getting a portable hard drive for a netbook.

1. Connection Type

A portable hard drive for a netbook must have a USB 2.0 interface and be entirely powered through the netbook’s USB port. Although USB 2.0 represents a bottleneck for almost every modern hard drive, the interface is widely used and almost independent of the operating system of your netbook. Portable drives for mobile users don’t have to provide maximum performance, but they need to be light, small, and flexible.

2. Size

What size is good enough? Well, this will depend on what you store in your hard drive. If your data consists of word documents or excel spreadsheets, you won’t need the biggest available on the block. 250GB or 320GB should last a long time for an average user. 500GB should be more than sufficient for mobile users since performance is typically limited by the USB 2.0 interface anyway.

3. Security

Basic drives just act as storage boxes and they do nothing more than holding your data. Others come with additional software to help keep your information safe with automatic data backup and encryption of your important files and folders. These features typically tend to cost more, so you have to factor in the additional cost for the peace of mind they’ll bring.

So, What Should I Get?

The top storage companies such as Western Digital, Seagate, Iomega, Samsung and Toshiba have many models suitable for netbooks. However, their style, features, bundled software, usability, and warranty differ a lot. My universal recommendation is to go for the largest hard drive that you can afford. I also suggest getting one or two sizes smaller than the largest size available because that’s usually the sweet spot in price.

Remember: It costs much less to back up your data now than it will to pay a company to try to retrieve it later. And paying a retrieval service is no guarantee that you’ll get back what you’ve lost.

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