Types of External Hard Drives

There are two types of external hard drives which normally differ in size and the way they receive power to work. The bigger ones may have storage capacities in terabytes, and are not meant for portable use. They are intended to be used continuously with a particular computer, like the internal hard drive. They need external power supply and don't use power provided by the computer. These external hard disks use USB, FireWire or eSATA cables, and are connected to the computer as well as an external power source. Their operation is very slow as compared to portable ones.

Portable hard drives are small, and may have storage capacities ranging from 80 to 800 gigabytes. They establish connection with the computer using one or two USB plugs. They do not need any external source to provide power, and receive power from the computers to which they are connected. Their operation speed is generally fast due to less storage capacity.

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