Personal Computers Questions

What are the downsides to using a USB hard drive instead of an internal hard drive?

by on June 9, 2010

Q: What is the downside to using an external hard drive plugged into a case that uses a USB port to connect to a computer verses the hard drive actually installed on your computer?

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3 Responses to “What are the downsides to using a USB hard drive instead of an internal hard drive?”
  1.  
    Picked as best answer

    There are two that come to mind.

    1. Speed – the external hard drive won’t perform as fast as one inside your computer, because a USB connect isn’t as fast as the connection a hard drive inside your computer uses. Not a big deal if your storing music and videos on it, but if you’re running programs or Windows itself of the external drive you’re going to notice it.

    2. Reliability – External hard drives have a nasty habit of getting knocked off desks or unplugged by accident causing all kinds of problems (like data loss).

     

    Mark (Uber Geek) says: on June 9, 2010 at 7:50 pm

  2.  

    Out side of the OS, I’m thinking of running a mIRC program that is on the USB HD that acts like a server for chat purposes as well as writing files to the same HD. Primary functions would include scripts and send/recieve data over the internet

     

    lynchmobjr (Newbie) says: on June 9, 2010 at 8:16 pm

  3.  

    That won’t be very hard drive intensive at all. You won’t notice much difference, if any, performance wise.

     

    Mark (Uber Geek) says: on June 9, 2010 at 8:22 pm