Many people are looking for an affordable way to increase their digital storage capacity. One of the easiest and most common ways of doing this is with a 500GB external hard drive. External hard drives are a great way of increasing storage capacity without the need for any technical know-how.
However there are a few things you should be aware of if you are looking to buy one. As a PC technician with over a decade of experience I have created this website to share my expert insights while making it easy to digest and understand.
After reading this, you will be armed with the right knowledge to buy the best 500GB external hard drive for you.
Recommended 500GB External Hard Drive Retailers
Before we jump into the meat of the guide, I would like to highlight some of the best online retailers to purchase your drive from.
I know some people are nervous about buying products online, but if you stick to a well known company you can’t go wrong. Shopping online for your external drive offers a number of advantages including a greater choice and more importantly, much cheaper prices than you will find in your local PC World etc.
Through my experience as a PC technician I constantly needed to order replacement parts and have found the following 3 retailers to be extremely reliable in both service and price.
A lot of retailers also provide customer written external hard drive reviews which can help give you a good idea about how good a drive is.
What Is An External Hard Drive?
First of all let me explain what a hard drive is. A hard drive is a piece of computer hardware that is used to store data/files. All of your pictures, programs and documents are stored on your hard drive.
There are 2 types of hard drive-
Internal – An internal hard drive is fitted inside your computer and physically held in place with screws.
External – An external hard drive sits outside of your computer and plugs into a free USB port.
To fit an internal hard drive you need to know what you are doing and be confident in taking your computer apart. Obviously this carries some risks and I would not recommend doing it if you do not have previous experience.
Generally the best way to go is with an external hard drive, they are very easy to use and all you need to do is plug a cable into your computer. They also have the added advantage of been portable, meaning you can take all of your files with you.
Avoid Cheap Unbranded External Hard Drives
If you’re anything like me, then your data and files are very important to you. Whether that’s your music collection or your entire archive of family photos, it is likely that your data is very precious.
The problem with cheap unbranded external drives is that they are often made of low quality components and as such have an increased chance of failure and data loss. Hard drives are mechanical by nature and have a lot of moving parts which will degrade over time.
I would strongly recommend that you buy a drive from a proven reliable manufacturer such as LaCie, Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba or Hitachi. To be honest they are usually only £10-£15 more expensive than their unbranded counterparts.
In short, don’t gamble your precious data for the sake of ten pounds. Trust me when I say to stick to a reliable brand, I learnt this lesson the hard way.
Is 500GB Big Enough?
For someone that is not familiar with the in’s and out’s of computers it can be very difficult to judge what size external hard drive you will need. This largely depends on the types of files you’re wanting to store.
Here are some typical file sizes-
- Word/Excel Documents – 0.1MB
- Pictures/Photos – 3MB
- Music Files – 4MB
- TV Shows – 400MB
- HD TV Shows – 1400MB
- Movies – 800MB
- HD Movies – 4500MB
There are 1024MB in 1GB, so a 500GB hard drives can hold up to 512,000MB of data. If that doesn’t make sense then this table might help make a bit more sense of it-
As you can see, if you were looking to store HD movies you might want to consider a 1TB external hard drive or bigger. But if you are just looking to store music, documents and non-HD video then a 500GB external hard drive will be more than enough for you.
Wrapping It Up
If you have made it this far you should now know everything you need to know about external hard drives. To be honest it isn’t that complicated; just remember to keep these points in mind-
- Reliability – Don’t risk data loss with unbranded drives. Buy a well known manufacturer that has a good track record of producing reliable drives.
- Get USB – Make sure the drive you buy uses USB. USB drives are very easy to work with, just plug them in and you’re good to go. They are also compatible with a range of devices including games consoles.
- Capacity – Make sure a 500GB external hard drive is big enough for your storage needs, take your future needs into account as well.
Where Is The Best Place To Buy A 500GB External Hard Drive?
Shopping online for your drive is your best bet. In general you will find the same products as you would in the high street available online at a reduced rate. Places like Currys, PC World and even Tesco charge a premium price for external hard drives, even the unbranded ones are expensive.
Buying your drive online not only opens the door to better prices but a wider choice as well. Over the years I have spent stupid amounts of money with the 3 retailers below who have proven themselves time and time again-
I hope this guide has been helpful and you find the right 500GB external hard drive for you. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you need any further help or advice, I’m always glad to help out where I can.
Thanks for the article, some helpful points for someone like me!