Using an external solid state drive

Pt. 3 of 5 | 3:12 |

How do I - Install a Solid State Drive (SSD)

Wednesday February 16, 2011

If you don't want to

install a new hard drive

into your computer, you can always get an

external hard drive

. And if it's an

external solid state drive

, you'll have one that's not only rugged but energy-efficient as well. We'll tell you some of the

highlights of having an external SSD

for data storage and also explain some of the drawbacks.

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Show Notes

In this episode, we'll tell you why you might want to use an external solid state drive to

store your data

and tell you how to use one. Essentially, if you've ever used a USB key then you've used an SSD. USB keys are just smaller capacity, easy-to-carry flash memory with a USB attachment. External solid state drives are more rugged, come with a cable for power and data transfer, and carry upwards of 64 GB of data.

The Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 128GB is an external SSD that can store up to 128 GB of data and uses USB 3.0 technology to transfer data. This drive can also use USB 2.0 ports but data transfer won't be as quick.

One good reason to use external SSDs for data storage is that they're rugged. These are built tougher than regular hard drives and can withstand more damage due to their lack of moving parts. Another reason is that they use less power and don't heat up as much. This means you will get more out of your battery while using one of these. Also, solid state drives are generally smaller than other hard drives.

As to the disadvantages of external SSDs, they often aren't able to hold as much data as mechanical hard drives. Also, they cost more money per gigabyte and some of the higher capacity models can be extremely expensive. However, for quick and reliable data storage, SSDs win out.

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