External Hard Drive Information

If you need 64 GB of storage space or less, see our report on USB flash drives. USB drives use solid-state flash memory, and they are less prone to drive failure. Most USB flash drives are about the size of small pack of gum.

Here are some useful articles and resources about external drives:

InformationWeek has a buyer's guide to external hard drives. No actual testing is done, but it's a good place to get an overview of what's available.

StorageReview.com does not review external hard drives, but it is a good source for technical information about hard drives and reliability.

You can find a good buyer's guide on the Seagate website.

Bit-tech.net has an introduction to hard drive technology.

MaximumPC provides a primer on doing hard drive backups.

Computerworld has an article that focuses on protecting data from human rather than mechanical errors.

StorageSearch.com has industry business-oriented information.

For more features and specification information on external hard drives, see the manufacturers' websites below:

Apple

Clickfree

Iomega

ioSafe

LaCie

Maxtor (Seagate)

Pogoplug

QNAP Systems

Seagate

SimpleTech

Synology

Western Digital