What's the point of using an external drive?

[KittyFish62]

I'm curious to see what the major advantages are to using an external drive. Other than using them when you run out of SATA ports, it doesn't really make sense to me in using them when you could use SATA drives or M.2 drives, which are much faster. I've seen a lot of articles claiming that the advantage of using external drives is that they can be used as back-ups, which doesn't really make sense when you could use internal drives, and it's not like external drives are virus-free; they're still a drive on the computer.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm curious to see what the major advantages are to using an external drive. Other than using them when you run out of SATA ports, it doesn't really make sense to me in using them when you could use SATA drives or M.2 drives, which are much faster. I've seen a lot of articles claiming that the advantage of using external drives is that they can be used as back-ups, which doesn't really make sense when you could use internal drives, and it's not like external drives are virus-free; they're still a drive on the computer.

Advantages?
1. Portability.
2. If you have a laptop...
3. Backups. Once the data is backed up on the external, disconnect it. No virus will jump onto a drive that does not exist.

Downfalls?
1. Don't drop it or knock it off the desk.
2. More cables.

 

[aquielisunari]

I'm curious to see what the major advantages are to using an external drive. Other than using them when you run out of SATA ports, it doesn't really make sense to me in using them when you could use SATA drives or M.2 drives, which are much faster. I've seen a lot of articles claiming that the advantage of using external drives is that they can be used as back-ups, which doesn't really make sense when you could use internal drives, and it's not like external drives are virus-free; they're still a drive on the computer.

The major advantage is the ability to backup what's necessary and move that information off site. That's what I think. The drive can also be encrypted and only used for sensitive work. A hacker comes by and there's a 0% possibility he could affect or access a drive that isn't there. What if a major surge happens that the surge protector/UPS or other safety device can't handle. Let's hope the PSU stops it. If it's a quality PSU that can happen. And if the surge gets past the PSU your other PC components are open game. My HDD/SSD is fried now. I grab my external drive and quickly get back to where I was.

There are many advantages to an external drive apart from the generic everyday use.

 

[KittyFish62]

I see. If you make a back-up on an external drive, then you can disconnect it and have it stored somewhere, and if you get ransomware, it won't go after your other drive.

 

[Eximo]

An internal backup drive has the same risk as the computer it is in. A removeable drive can be separated and even moved to another location.

Lightning strikes are a good example case. If your main drive and backup are in the same system and the computer is exposed to high voltage you might lose both at the same time. Or a virus as mentioned above.

3-2-1 rules are: Three backups, two types of storage, and one offsite backup.

Typical use case for a home user would be SSD, backed up to HDD, and a copy stored at a friend's house. (Or online storage)

You could do something like a leave a drive disconnected inside a system. Though that doesn't rule out physical damage like flooding or fire.

 

[USAFRet]

I see. If you make a back-up on an external drive, then you can disconnect it and have it stored somewhere, and if you get ransomware, it won't go after your other drive.

I have a multilayered backup situation.
1. The stuff on the PC.
2. Which gets backed up every night to the NAS box. Fully automated.
3. The entire NAS gets backed up to a USB connected 8TB weekly. At the end of that process, that drive is Ejected by the NAS software. It is OFF.
4. And the ultimate natural disaster aliens are coming backup is another drive (3TB) in a desk drawer at work. This gets refreshed whenever I think it needs it.


Right now...in the unlikely event of my main system AND the data in the NAS box gets fully wiped/encrypted....I lose, at most, a weeks worth of new data. Everything from the previous Wednesday exists on that 8TB.
And to access that in a disaster situation, all I need is one of the laptops, and the required cables.

Stuff that I actually care about, anyway. The 2.5TB of the movie collection? Not critical. Easily replaceable.
Wedding pics, scans of drivers license/passports/birth certs...that stuff IS critical and not replaceable.


An external drive is but one concept in a backup plan.

 

[seagate_surfer]

One of the most widely recognizable and recommended backup strategies is called the 3-2-1 method. For any data you deem valuable, you keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different mediums, with 1 offsite. External hard drives can be useful for either the 2nd copy of your data kept on the same machine as your "main" copy of it, and/or as the 1 offsite copy, you backup the drive, and then you go visit your grandma and see if you can stick it somewhere in her house or something. External drives are also known for being cost-effective as well, it's not unheard of to find deals on them for a better bargain than their internal drive counterparts. Bonus: You get brownie points from grandma for actually bothering to visit once in awhile.

 

[USAFRet]

One common mistake we see here is:

"I backed up my stuff to the external"
"Then, I deleted it off my PC"
"Then, the cat knocked the external drive off my desk"
"I NEED TO GET MY STUFF BACK!!! HELP!"

1 copy of 'your stuff' is not a backup.

 

[KittyFish62]

I see (completely) now.

 

[aquielisunari]

If it were not a discussion. Sorry about that post.