{"id":48910,"date":"2023-02-12T18:57:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T17:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/"},"modified":"2023-02-12T19:22:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-12T18:22:49","slug":"what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"What questions should you ask yourself before buying an external hard drive?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Techies who work a lot with their PC often reach the point where the storage space of the internal hard drive is no longer enough. Often, the necessary back-up that saves your data can also be a reason to purchase an external hard drive. There are countless variants on the market, so everyone can find a suitable model for themselves. This article tells you what you should consider when buying and what problems can occur with an external hard drive.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of content<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#The_checklist_for_buying_a_good_external_hard_drive\" >The checklist for buying a good external hard drive<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#Weight_of_the_hard_drive\" >Weight of the hard drive<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#How_large_should_the_storage_space_on_the_external_hard_drive_be\" >How large should the storage space on the external hard drive be?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#How_much_do_you_want_to_spend_on_the_external_hard_drive\" >How much do you want to spend on the external hard drive?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#SSD_or_HDD_%E2%80%93_which_hard_drive_is_better\" >SSD or HDD &#8211; which hard drive is better?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#What_problems_can_arise_when_using_an_external_hard_drive\" >What problems can arise when using an external hard drive?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#Hard_disk_is_not_recognised_%E2%80%93_what_to_do\" >Hard disk is not recognised &#8211; what to do?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/48910\/what-questions-should-you-ask-yourself-before-buying-an-external-hard-drive\/#The_hard_disk_has_read_errors\" >The hard disk has read errors<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_checklist_for_buying_a_good_external_hard_drive\"><\/span>The checklist for buying a good external hard drive<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Due to the wide variety of designs, newcomers in particular find it difficult to make the right choice. The hard drives <a href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/49086\/how-the-different-types-and-versions-of-jabra-speak-differ-from-each-other\/\">differ in performance and<\/a> also in the connections. However, most hard drives can be connected to the PC via a USB or eSATA connection.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to make a sensible purchase, you should consider the following points.<br \/>\n\n<div class=\"aawp\">\n\n            \n            \n<div class=\"aawp-product aawp-product--horizontal aawp-product--new aawp-product--ribbon\"  data-aawp-product-asin=\"B07CRGSR16\" data-aawp-product-id=\"115655\" data-aawp-tracking-id=\"ekiwide0b-21\" data-aawp-product-title=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe Festplatte 2.5 Zoll USB 3.0 inkl Datenrettungsdienst  STGX4000400\">\n\n    <span class=\"aawp-product__ribbon aawp-product__ribbon--new\">New<\/span>\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__thumb\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__image-link\"\n           href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B07CRGSR16?tag=ekiwide0b-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1\" title=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aawp-product__image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/21Y2T3kG97L._SL160_.jpg\" alt=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...\"  \/>\n        <\/a>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__content\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B07CRGSR16?tag=ekiwide0b-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1\" title=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...        <\/a>\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__description\">\n            <ul><li>Amazon Exclusive<\/li><li>Erweiterung der Kapazit\u00e4t Ihres Computers mit einer leichten, kompakten L\u00f6sung. Kampatibel mit PC...<\/li><li>Sofortige Plug-and-Play-PC-Kompatibilit\u00e4t; Einfache Drag and Drop Funktionalit\u00e4t<\/li><\/ul>        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__footer\">\n\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__pricing\">\n            \n                            <span class=\"aawp-product__price aawp-product__price--current\">128,99 EUR<\/span>\n            \n            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/gp\/prime\/?tag=ekiwide0b-21\" title=\"Amazon Prime\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"aawp-check-prime\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/plugins\/aawp\/assets\/img\/icon-check-prime.svg\" height=\"16\" width=\"55\" alt=\"Amazon Prime\" \/><\/a>        <\/div>\n\n                <a class=\"aawp-button aawp-button--buy aawp-button--icon aawp-button--icon-black\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B07CRGSR16?tag=ekiwide0b-21&#038;linkCode=ogi&#038;th=1&#038;psc=1\" title=\"Buy on Amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\">Buy on Amazon<\/a>\n            <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n    \n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Weight_of_the_hard_drive\"><\/span>Weight of the hard drive<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>People who want to use the external hard drive on the road should pay attention to the weight of the storage medium. If it is nice and light, it is much more comfortable to take with you. The size itself can also play a role.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_large_should_the_storage_space_on_the_external_hard_drive_be\"><\/span>How large should the storage space on the external hard drive be?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>If you use the hard drive very often and want to store many different files on it, you should think about the size of the storage space. The choice is wide, with most people opting for an external hard drive with a storage capacity of at least two TB. On this you have enough space to store <a href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/50819\/save-picture-inserted-in-excel-document-as-file\/\" title=\"Save picture inserted in Excel document as file\">pictures and files<\/a>. On the other hand, if you want to store videos, you can easily buy an external hard drive with eight or ten TB. Especially if the internal hard drive has very little storage space, it is good if the external model has a correspondingly large capacity for storing various documents, films or pictures.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_much_do_you_want_to_spend_on_the_external_hard_drive\"><\/span>How much do you want to spend on the external hard drive?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Depending on how large the storage capacity of the hard drive should be, the prices also differ. These can range from under 100 euros to well over 200 euros. Interested parties can find out more about this at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.externe-festplatte.de\/\">externe-Festplatte.de<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"SSD_or_HDD_%E2%80%93_which_hard_drive_is_better\"><\/span>SSD or HDD &#8211; which hard drive is better?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>It is not only when buying a laptop that the question arises whether one prefers an SSD or HDD hard drive. The same question is also very important when buying external models. The HDD (also called Hard Disk Drive) are the classic variants &#8211; they are very suitable for storing large amounts of images. In addition, the advantage here is that if <a href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/Datenrettung\/Festplatte\/Daten_von_defekten_Laptop_auslesen\/index.html\">the data<\/a> is lost, much of it can possibly be recovered. The models also have different inch sizes. If you want to store a lot of pictures, you should opt for the 3.5-inch hard drive. Otherwise, the 2.5-inch version will also suffice.<\/p>\n<p>If, on the other hand, users want to transfer their files quickly, the SSD hard drive has proven to be much more practical in tests. This works at an increased speed and is therefore perfect for people who want to transfer large amounts of files.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_problems_can_arise_when_using_an_external_hard_drive\"><\/span>What problems can arise when using an external hard drive?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If the external hard drive doesn&#8217;t work so well anymore, you can format it. For other problems, you will get answers below.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Hard_disk_is_not_recognised_%E2%80%93_what_to_do\"><\/span>Hard disk is not recognised &#8211; what to do?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>If the external hard drive no longer appears at the workstation as it would otherwise, this can have various causes. In this case, it is first helpful to open the data carrier management, in which the correct drive can be identified. Once you have identified the drive by its size or missing drive letter, all that remains is to assign the letter. This can be done via &#8220;<em>Drive letters and paths<\/em>&#8221; (select with a right mouse click). Now a letter can be assigned. If you are unsure how to solve this problem, you can find more information in <a href=\"https:\/\/praxistipps.chip.de\/ssd-festplatte-wird-nicht-erkannt-was-tun_17249\">this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_hard_disk_has_read_errors\"><\/span>The hard disk has read errors<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In many cases, the PC struggles to read the data stored on the external hard drive. Those who are affected by this can use the hard disk check. This is responsible for detecting surface damage. These areas are now marked and no longer used.<br \/>\n\n<div class=\"aawp\">\n\n            \n            \n<div class=\"aawp-product aawp-product--horizontal aawp-product--bestseller aawp-product--ribbon\"  data-aawp-product-asin=\"B07CRGSR16\" data-aawp-product-id=\"115655\" data-aawp-tracking-id=\"ekiwide0b-21\" data-aawp-product-title=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe Festplatte 2.5 Zoll USB 3.0 inkl Datenrettungsdienst  STGX4000400\">\n\n    <span class=\"aawp-product__ribbon aawp-product__ribbon--bestseller\">Bestseller No. 1<\/span>\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__thumb\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__image-link\"\n           href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B07CRGSR16?tag=ekiwide0b-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1&keywords=hard%20drives\" title=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aawp-product__image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/21Y2T3kG97L._SL160_.jpg\" alt=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...\"  \/>\n        <\/a>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__content\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B07CRGSR16?tag=ekiwide0b-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1&keywords=hard%20drives\" title=\"Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            Seagate Portable Drive 4TB tragbare externe...        <\/a>\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__description\">\n            <ul><li>Amazon Exclusive<\/li><li>Erweiterung der Kapazit\u00e4t Ihres Computers mit einer leichten, kompakten L\u00f6sung. Kampatibel mit PC...<\/li><li>Sofortige Plug-and-Play-PC-Kompatibilit\u00e4t; Einfache Drag and Drop Funktionalit\u00e4t<\/li><\/ul>        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__footer\">\n\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__pricing\">\n            \n                            <span class=\"aawp-product__price aawp-product__price--current\">128,99 EUR<\/span>\n            \n            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/gp\/prime\/?tag=ekiwide0b-21\" title=\"Amazon Prime\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"aawp-check-prime\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/plugins\/aawp\/assets\/img\/icon-check-prime.svg\" height=\"16\" width=\"55\" alt=\"Amazon Prime\" \/><\/a>        <\/div>\n\n                <a class=\"aawp-button aawp-button--buy aawp-button--icon aawp-button--icon-black\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B07CRGSR16?tag=ekiwide0b-21&#038;linkCode=ogi&#038;th=1&#038;psc=1&#038;keywords=hard%20drives\" title=\"Buy on Amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\">Buy on Amazon<\/a>\n            <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n            \n            \n<div class=\"aawp-product aawp-product--horizontal aawp-product--bestseller aawp-product--ribbon\"  data-aawp-product-asin=\"B0B94L4K2J\" data-aawp-product-id=\"115100\" data-aawp-tracking-id=\"ekiwide0b-21\" data-aawp-product-title=\"Seagate IronWolf Pro 8TB NAS Interne Festplatte HDD 3.5 Zoll 7200 U\/Min CMR 256 MB Cache SATA 6 GB\/S inkl Data Rescue Service  ST8000NTZ01\">\n\n    <span class=\"aawp-product__ribbon aawp-product__ribbon--bestseller\">Bestseller No. 2<\/span>\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__thumb\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__image-link\"\n           href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B0B94L4K2J?tag=ekiwide0b-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1&keywords=hard%20drives\" title=\"Seagate IronWolf Pro 8TB, NAS Interne Festplatte...\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aawp-product__image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/419ha7HDahL._SL160_.jpg\" alt=\"Seagate IronWolf Pro 8TB, NAS Interne Festplatte...\"  \/>\n        <\/a>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__content\">\n        <a class=\"aawp-product__title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B0B94L4K2J?tag=ekiwide0b-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1&keywords=hard%20drives\" title=\"Seagate IronWolf Pro 8TB, NAS Interne Festplatte...\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\">\n            Seagate IronWolf Pro 8TB, NAS Interne Festplatte...        <\/a>\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__description\">\n            <ul><li>Leistungsstark: Alle IronWolf Pro-Festplatten nutzen Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) f\u00fcr...<\/li><li>Konkurrenzlose Zuverl\u00e4ssigkeit: Workload-Leistung von bis zu 550 TB\/Jahr, 2,5 Mio. Stunden MTBF und...<\/li><li>Sorgenfreiheit dank Datenwiederherstellung: 3 Jahre Rescue Data Recovery Services zur...<\/li><\/ul>        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"aawp-product__footer\">\n\n        <div class=\"aawp-product__pricing\">\n            \n                            <span class=\"aawp-product__price aawp-product__price--current\">349,99 EUR<\/span>\n            \n            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/gp\/prime\/?tag=ekiwide0b-21\" title=\"Amazon Prime\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"aawp-check-prime\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/plugins\/aawp\/assets\/img\/icon-check-prime.svg\" height=\"16\" width=\"55\" alt=\"Amazon Prime\" \/><\/a>        <\/div>\n\n                <a class=\"aawp-button aawp-button--buy aawp-button--icon aawp-button--icon-black\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/dp\/B0B94L4K2J?tag=ekiwide0b-21&#038;linkCode=ogi&#038;th=1&#038;psc=1&#038;keywords=hard%20drives\" title=\"Buy on Amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\">Buy on Amazon<\/a>\n            <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n    \n<\/div>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Techies who work a lot with their PC often reach the point where the storage space of the internal hard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1551],"tags":[2621,2622],"class_list":["post-48910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware-en","tag-hard-disk","tag-hd-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}