Many of us associate the power and value of a computer based on the capacity of its hard drive. To a certain extent, this is true. After all, newer (and presumably better) computer models come with robust hard drives. As you may know by now, this may not be enough what with the kind of computing needs and habits many people have. Those who download, upload and store large amounts of files know that a built-in hard drive is often insufficient to meet the needs of regular computer users. As a result, many turn to an external hard drive for better support but is it truly useful and necessary? Here are reasons why an external hard drive is important to you

Extra space

Of course, the function of an external hard drive is to provide some much-needed extra storage space. If your memory is used up or about to get saturated and replacing your current hard drive is out of the question, getting an external hard drive is a wise decision. You will have more space with which to store additional data in text, images or audio form. You could also use the extra room to transfer files to unload your computer and boost its performance. Definitely a handy must-have external storage device to have.

Storage for old files

If you have files that have been sitting on your computer for months (or years) but you still cannot get around to deleting, you might find an external hard drive very useful. Many of us are wary about removing old files from our computers, believing that they will come in handy someday. The problem here is that it tends to clog up the system and eat up resources. With an external hard drive, old files may be transferred and memory freed up to increase speed and improve performance of the computer.

Backup important data

Many computer users fail to back up their data. This can be a problem, particularly when important files are involved. If there is no available space on your computer or you simply want to stash important data someplace else, then use an external hard drive to store extra copies of your files.

Convenient and handy

External hard drives are smaller, lighter and more portable than a laptop, so these can be detached, carried around, placed in a bag or purse and stored without requiring a lot of space. These are handy enough to be brought anywhere, allowing you to access your files from another computer unit.

Storage for copying and transferring files

External hard drives can come in handy if you have large amounts of files you need to copy from one computer but want a secure way of copying and storing them prior to transfer to another computer.

Security

Some external hard drives allow encryption, so once files are transferred, they as good as hieroglyphics to anyone who wishes to access them without permission. For heavy internet users, it is also possible to keep files secure by transferring them to another storage device for safekeeping. Once data has been saved, simply turn off the external hard drive and detach it. Even if it remains attached to your computer, no hacker will be able to access your files from anywhere.