Repair or replace? Which upgrade pays off? Is the slowdown fixable or is it time? Plain-spoken maths and honest guides for everyday PC problems — type your question and get a straight answer in seconds. The full detailed report costs less than a coffee: $2.95.
External drives are sold on specs that mostly do not matter for the two jobs people actually buy them for: carrying files and backing up. This guide cuts through the marketing with the honest rules: for backups and archives, a hard drive is the value pick and plenty fast; an external SSD only pays off if you work directly from it, like editing video or running games. It walks the portable-versus-desktop choice, gives real capacity maths (a 1 TB drive holds roughly 200,000 photos), and closes with the honest truth that the cheapest drive is the one you actually plug in — a backup drive in a drawer protects nothing.
How to choose an external drive — portable or desktop, HDD or SSD, and what capacity you actually need — without overpaying for speed you will never use.
For backups and file archives, an HDD is the value pick — portable 1-2 TB drives run about $50-70 and are plenty fast for backup jobs. Choose an SSD only if you will work directly from the drive: video editing, large projects or a portable game library.
Match or exceed the space you actually use on your main drive — the storage audit tool tells you that number. For most home users that is 1-4 TB; a 1 TB drive holds roughly 200,000 photos or 500 hours of video. Buying double what you use today gives headroom for years.
Portable drives are 2.5-inch, powered by the USB port and built for carrying; desktop drives are 3.5-inch, need mains power and are cheaper per gigabyte. For a drive that sits at home as a backup target, a desktop drive gives the most capacity for the money.
Every tool answers instantly from our own knowledge and calculators — no AI wait, no account. Honest maths and plain guidance, always educational and never pushy about buying new gear: repair, upgrade, backup and security decisions explained in language a human actually uses. Results are estimates and guides, not guarantees, and nothing you type is stored. Want the deeper, personalised version? Each has a $2.95 full report.