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External Drives

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External Drives


Seagate Expansion 6TB External Desktop Hard Drive (STKP6000400)

Explore a wide range of fantastic external drives, from manufacturers including WD, Crucial, Seagate, and Samsung. These storage drives are available in capacities from 1TB up to 8TB and utilise either HDD or SSD technology to store your data. An external drive features a robust case to protect the storage drive from everyday knocks and bumps. As they leverage a highly flexible USB connection, external drives are compatible with a variety of devices, such as PCs, laptops, and Macs. Plus, the latest USB standards deliver blazing fast speeds of up to 20Gbps, ideal for quickly transferring data between your computer and the drive. External drives offer many advantages, like adding a large amount of additional storage to a computer, creating backups, and transferring data from one PC to another.


What type of drive do I need?

External drives are generally available as either an HDD or SSD. These are almost identical to the drives that are used for internal storage, they just use USB in lieu of SATA. Each type of storage has their own advantages.

A Hard Disk Drive, or HDD, utilises spinning platters which are thin discs manufactured from a range of materials, such as aluminium, glass, or ceramics. These disks are then coated in a magnetic material, which is what stores your data. Multiple disks are stacked on top of one another, then spun at high speeds, generally between 5000-7000RPM. An actuator arm moves the read/write heads over the platters, which then encode your data or read any existing data.

An HDD is the more budget-friendly solution, with the price per gigabyte being lower than that of an SSD. They are an ideal solution for storage that will not be frequently accessed, such as backups or media. Meanwhile an SSD is better suited for activities that require high-speed access to data, such as gaming.

A Solid-State Drive, or SSD, uses non-volatile flash memory to store your data. They function similarly to your PC’s RAM but are non-volatile and can retain data when not powered. To store your data, the SSD controller encodes the information as multiple electrical charges which are kept on NAND flash memory cells. These cells can later be accessed by the controller to retrieve your data.

As there are no moving parts in an SSD, they offer exceptionally fast data transfer speeds. This makes them ideal for storing applications, such as your OS or games. Furthermore, they are not subject to issues caused by knocks and bumps, meaning there is less chance for data corruption to occur due to physical factors. An SSD is generally more expensive in terms of price to gigabyte of storage.



Want to Read More?

An external drive is an excellent way to keep your data safe. But you can protect it even further! Learn how to password protect an external drive on the Overclockers UK blog.

Read More

External Drives FAQ


What brands of external drives does Overclockers UK stock?

Here at Overclockers UK, you can find external drives from brands including Samsung, Crucial, WD, and Seagate.

What capacity can external drives come in?

External drives come in a variety of capacities. Our range includes 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 5TB, 6TB, and 8TB models.

Do external drives require power?

Whether an external drive will require power depends on what technology it uses. An HDD external drive will need its own power source, while an SDD external drive can generally operate using power from its USB connection.

How fast are external drives?

External drives vary in speed. This is affected by whether they use an HDD or SSD to store data. Plus, the generation of USB interface they utilise can greatly impact data transfer between an external drive and PC.

Can I use an external hard drive with other devices than a PC?

An external drive can be used with a wide range of devices, such as PCs, Macs, laptops, tablets, and phones. This can vary depending on the manufacturer.




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