jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I think the drive itself is what's important. You can buy an attractive case, but what's the quality of the internal drive. It's usually a mystery. I don't think either type has an advantage. Drives that are physically larger seem to need 120v, but the small drive get by with USB power.

I buy HGST internal drives and put them into enclosures for external drives. I also have some small carry-around USB drives.

Mr Bill 2011 Loc: southern Indiana

I'm not a computer expert, but if it were me and I had a place to plug it in, I'd buy a big AC powered hard drive, plug it in, and use that. Keep it simple!

rrkazman

I don't believe I read anyone speaking about OneDrive and the feature to sync with an installed HHD, or SSD. I started using this for all of my data files. Once it is set up OneDrive looks just like any other drive on your computer, except there is an ongoing back-up occurring to the cloud. It can also be set up to sync to more than one computer. If you save a file to the local installed location in your computer it is very shortly up-loaded to the OneDrive cloud system. Also OneDrive is web based so it can be retrieved from any computer anywhere. There is a fee for this, of all the systems I looked at I liked this the best since it was a no brainer, once set up I do nothing on a day to day basis everything is backed up in real time. For my local sync drive I use Samsung SSD drives, they cost a bit more but have a higher reliability. SSD is faster as well.

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

No one is answering the question because we don't know. The only difference is where the DC power comes from, an A.c. adapter or from the computer power supply. I don't see much difference.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Okay.....
The speed of hard drives (or lack thereof) does not bother me in the slightest.

rrkazman

Oh yes the answer to the original question, external HD using Computer internal power, or using a plug in the wall power supply work exactly the same, both in performance and reliability. The USB drive interface operates the same. I have many of both types, I started using these with IDE drives, and continued with the SATA drives. 2.5 Inch sizes SSD or HDD do not need the 12 Volts that is required by 3.5 Inch or what is considered full size drive today. There are varying cost for these external units. I recommend getting a case off E-Bay or Amazon, and buying a SSD from the same. HDD which are mechanical have larger storage capacities than SSD. HDD do not do well with constant handing, like traveling in a computer bag and bouncing around in an Airplane. SSD have no moving parts so slight impact and bouncing about present no issue. Early SSD drives had some issues with constant read write applications, newer units no longer suffer this problem. I currently have no Mechanical HDD in service. I have only SSD. If you chose to use a Mechanical HDD I strongly recommend that it stay in one spot and not travel and if it does travel it should be carried in a shock case, and never ever move a mechanical when it is in operation. There are disc in these drives than are spinning at a speed from 5400 to 10000 RPM, there are tiny magnetic heads traveling over the disks, with air gaps smaller than a hair. Bouncing or quickly moving a mechanical drive while it is operating can cause non recoverable damage to the drive media. SSD drives have no such issues.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

True..... Bothers some people. Others don't worry so much.
I still use HHDs, even the ones from old computers as backup units in a drive dock.
Never used, or will use, a 'shock case'. They're not as sensitive as nitro-glycerine.
Normal handling is just fine for HHDs, I just don't drop them.
Our laptops travel in the car trunk, albeit in shoulder bags, lots of bouncing around.....
An airplane is probably a lot less bouncy.

Amadeus Loc: New York

Since I don't really take my drives any where, stay in the home, I use powered drives. I read some where that the transfer rate is faster and that's what I based my decision on. I'm not certain if that is correct but there's no inconvenience for me in that regard.

gkl Loc: Old Lyme, CT

If your ever have to upgrade your "main Frame" don't have to transfer files, just plug-in.

goldenyears Loc: Lake Osewgo

On a PC, the C: drive needs space for the operating system to temporarily swap some of what is in RAM on to the C: drive. When there is less available space for that purpose the PC slows down. (I don't know if Apple products also work this way.) To keep my PC operating at full speed I do not use the C: drive for anything but the operating system and programs. All data gets stored on an external solid state drive, and backed up on a second external solid state drive. I have a third external drive to backup programs and the operating system. If you don't have enough USB ports, you can connect multiple USB devices to an USB hub which is connected to your PC with one USB cable. Since the external drives are powered through the USB cables, you should use a powered USB hub in order to supply sufficient power to the USB drives.

Gilkar

I love the way UHH'ers answer the simplest of questions. I read four pages of opinions and advice and requests for more information. All of those folks who talk about drives failing are correct. All will fail in the long run but your question wasn't about failing drives it was about additional storage space.
No one seems to have answered the question so here's my 2 cents.
I have use an external drive station made by EZ-DOCK. The system allows you to dock 3.5 " internal drives. They make several models and the choice is only governed by how much you want to pay, They are very inexpensive. They are AC powered and data is transferred over a USB3.0 port. If you are only interested in storing photo files, you can import them directly to the drive as you would to any internal drive. I have a 3 TB drive in mine. You can also use them as an external back-up drive using your favorite software if you wish. (I use Sync Toy for that. It's free software provided by Microsoft). What I like about the EZ-Dock system is that it allows me to switch out drives whenever I want. There are no wires to plug in etc. you simply push the drive into the slot to use it or pull it out to change it. There is a convenient on/off switch on the dock so switching is accomplished with ease. So I use one 3 TB internal hard drive in the dock for my photo archives, and second one as a complete system backup drive. I bought EZ-Dock from Microcenter in Columbus, Ohio, (they have other locations throughout the U.S.), and Microcenter always seems to have great deals on internal drives as well. (I just checked their webpage and they are selling a Seagate 4TB drive for $99.00). So I hope I have answered your original question. OH, and I believe there is a GREAT benefit to using this system, it is simple and cost effective.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

And tests from large users show they are more reliable in addition to being immune to shock, etc.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Even if the drives/power connectors are “hot swap”, good practice is to eject the drive before unplugging. If you remove it during a write operation, which Windows does routinely for housekeeping, you can trash the allocation table, and that can range from painful to disastrous.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Your OS drive (typically C:) should be your fastest drive, and if you have adequate memory, paging to disk should be a rare occurrence - even if you’re swapping to an SSD, paging to disk is THE performance killer.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I have an array of A.C. powered hard drives used specifically for photo storage, scratch disk, and system backup. The are all G-Tech drives.

If I am going to be using my laptop, I’ll take a portable drive for that. I’ll copy whatever files I need to take with me.
—Bob