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Liam is 14 years old, and from the United Kingdom. He definitely has a bright future ahead of him. He sent in this top 5 list, with his tips on buying an external hard drive. Pay close attention to these tips if you’re in the market for one of these devices. Liam’s advice is right on target.

• Decide on where and when you will be needing the hard drive. If you’ve got a laptop, then you’ll need a small, compact device, that only has one cable, and no bulky power supply. You’ll probably need a 2.5 inch drive, also called a notebook hard drive. These tend to smaller in size, but also smaller in capacity. Desktop hard drives, or 3.5 inches, tend to be a lot bigger in capacity, but have a separate power supply, and have a noisy fan running in the background.
• Check the connections. What has your computer have that the hard drive will plug into? USB is the most common, but you need a dedicated port connected straight to the computer. They cant really be used in a USB hub, and tend to be quite slow. From my own experience, fire wire hard drives are the best. They are extremely fast at moving data and are virtually silent. But, they are a bit more expensive and are a little harder to come by than USB. If you’re using the hard drive between several computers, get an Ethernet hard drive that can be plugged straight into your router or hub/switch, but are a lot more expensive. eSata drives offer the fastest connection, but require a special connector and are extremely rare in most shops.
• Check the speed. If you’re a dedicated game player and use the best games that money can afford, no matter how fast your system is, unless you’ve got a fast hard drive, you’re toast. Most hard drives, both external and internal tend to run at 7,200 RPM. smaller drives will run at 5,400 RPM. But, if you’re someone who needs fast connections, go with something above 9,000 RPM. Of course, the speed of the cable does help, but the faster your hard drive spins, the faster you can get information to and from it. Beware, faster drives run a lot warmer, and will probably have a big, noisy fan hanging out the back.
• Backup software. If you’re running OS X Leopard, then you’ve got Time Machine, but windows users will probably need extra software for regular backups. Check the packaging of the hard drive, or its website, to see if it comes with dedicated back-up software. Backing up is a must, even for the smallest users, because you never know when your internal hard drive will fail, or windows goes ahh and dies in front of you.
• Read reviews. Whenever buying anything costing more than a few bucks, check the web and several different websites for reviews and ratings of the product. Check to see what people say about the noise of the fan, the speed of the machine, and what its like in general. Chances are you’ll find a good deal, especially in the January sales, but there is normally a reason for a hard drive to be priced lower than all of those around it.

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How to Buy a Hard Drive