External or portable hard drive

[woosie]

i'm looking to buy an external hard drive to back up our desk top. What is the difference between a portable external hard drive and a normal external hard drive ?

 

[Estrella]

What is the difference between a portable external hard drive and a normal external hard drive ?

All external hard drives are portable.

 

[woosie]

So why do all pc sites list 2 different types of external hard drive ?

 

[Estrella]

When listed as portable they tend to be smaller and more convenient to store. But they are all still portable.

Portable tend to be powered by USB rather than mains as well

 

[disinfo]

Possibly refering to a 2.5 inch laptop HDD which is powered via USB. Or a larger capacity desktop 3.5 inch HDD which requires its own power.

 

[woosie]

Thanks for that

 

[FordPrefect]

What is often a good idea is to buy a caddy separately from the hard drive as the external hdds have 1 year guarantee typically where a standard drive (All that externals use) has normally at least 3 years.

Definitely worth thinking about.

 

[woosie]

Sorry, whats a caddy ?

 

[FordPrefect]

Sorry, whats a caddy ?

A caddy is the box that the hard drive lives in.

Try ebay or ebuyer for these!

Rysz.

 

[woosie]

Thanks