Which One Is Better – 500GB External Drive or Internal Drive?

January 16, 2010

By larryp

Well Iheard bad reviews bout HD external but there might be a brand thats better? can anybody tell me if internal will last longer then external? i want to back up all my itune stuff but i’d get worried it would die out i was thinking of something that could last for more then a yr, so i could buy one every yr and back it up every yr.

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Most of the drives these days will last for about 5 years or more (avarage lifespan of a drive). So as long as you don’t bang them up or subject them to cruel and unusual punishment, everything should be ok regardless of external or internal. Some pros and cons:

external:

Portable–you can take it where ever you want and can connect it to any machine (laptop or desktop).

Slower–you are using an external USB bus (unless you are using eSATA)

Not secure–With external devices you are stuck using FAT. You can’t use the NTFS (there are ways around this, but you may be subjecting yourself to severe data loss)

May require extra power input–the smaller devices (the 2.5 format drives) can get their power from the USB connection. Larger drives will suck back more power than the USB connection can deliver and will need an external source.

Internal:

Stationary–yeah, it’s inside your desktop or laptop. It’s not going anywhere.

No additional plugs needed–power is coming from your system. If you are short on outlet, this could be a big plus.

Faster access–you’ll be using either a PATA connection or a SATA connection. SATA is capable of 3Gb/s. USB2.0 tops out at 480Mb/s.

Security–you have the option of setting up NTFS on your system in addtional to FAT. Naturally, NTFS gives you a lot more security if that is a concern.

One more consideration. Putting your backup drive inside your desktop protects you against one of your drives dying, but if your desktop gets damaged or stolen, then both drives go with it. If one of your drives is external, then it’s not subject to the same conditions as your desktop.

considering the overall rate of capacity growth, the falling cost/gigabyte (I just paid $150 for a terabyte WD green drive or 15 cents per gigabyte) and the mean-time-to-failure of today’s drives, chances are good that you’ll replace the drive long before it dies on you regardless of it being internal or external.

Check out Western Digital. They make a pretty decent product and as long as you don’t roll it down the stairs, you should be ok.