Questions about external hard drives?

Question

I'm sure a few of these may be stupid questions but I personally don't know anyone who has an external hard drive or how they look or work. I know they hook into the USB, I have one on the front of my tower and it looks as if there are a couple in the back of it, is that what they are? I hate to get one and find I have to have it plugged into the front, as to I plug in my player and stuff there. I know, stupid question but if I don't ask, I won't ever know. Also do the external hard drives always have to stay plugged in? I basically want one so I can store more pictures, music etc... do they really backup everything on your computer? Like what would happen if I get one and then down the road get a new computer, what will happen? Will it all stay in there, will it automatically go into the new computer? I have read some stuff on them but I want to really understand how it works and what it can do before I think of getting one.

Sorry if all this is stupid to you computer whizzes but I'm wanting to learn about this. Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

1.the hard drives that use USB are the once that have a tail similar to your player :) (got it?). you can connect it to the couple of USB port that you have already identified and leave the front ones for the player and stuff, they are the same (both front n back)

2. if you have not installed any operating system (Windows) on the external hard drive, you can plug it out any time you want, just use the "safely remove hardware" option on the lower right side of your task bar

3. the hard drive will save anything you want it to, including your music pics, etc... you can even plug it out as mentioned above and transfer the files to another computer

4. like I said you can use the external hard drive with any computer, to use it on your new pc, just plug it out of the older one and plug into the new one, simple

5.whatever you save on it, stays on it, till you delete it :P

points 2-5 apply only if you dont have your operating system on the external hard disk, which is not recommended anyways.

Answer 2

USB2 External drives are more or less universal, how it store your data depend on what software you use and how you backup, you can plug them in front or back as long as they are USB2 ports so speed wont vary .

Answer 3

Yes,you can use the ports on the back, they are the same.You can leave it plugged in or not,I leave mine plugged in all the time.You can back up anything you want.I have one for my music and photos and another has copies of everything else on my computer on it.Make sure you get one that will work for xp and vista,in case you do get a new computer.I know you will read that because they have an aluminum case they will not get hot.I can tell you from personal experience that is just not true,so make sure you get one with a built in fan.Don't buy a cheap one, you will just end up replacing the case in a very short time.If you want some recommendations,get the 4th one down on the newegg page and the the 3rd one down on the egoodz page.For $100, you will be getting everything you will need for a long time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...

http://www.egoodz.com/dept.asp?dept_id=2...