Hi everyone, I find myself quickly running out of free storage space on my computer so I have decided to buy an external hard drive. This is my first time considering one, so I was wondering if anyone has one they would recommend or what considerations I should have when choosing one? Thank you.

What kind if computer do you have? Like the make/model/year type deal?

Depends on how much space you need. Take that, and double it.

These days, you'll need st least 500 GB to start, maybe around 1 TB.

500 GB is pretty good for just an average laptop, but if you're gonna be doing a lot of downloading of games or whatnot then 1 TB would be better. I have a 500 GB and it works fine for me, I've had it for over 3 years and haven't even even used 100 GB of space yet haha.

Originally Posted by MercyGrim96

500 GB is pretty good for just an average laptop, but if you're gonna be doing a lot of downloading of games or whatnot then 1 TB would be better. I have a 500 GB and it works fine for me, I've had it for over 3 years and haven't even even used 100 GB of space yet haha.

Keep in mind, sal's asking about an external drive. These days, 500 GB is a minimum; you'll usually find drives with 1 or 2 TB of storage space, going upwards of 4 TB(that I know of).

Also, it depends on what you're going to be storing. If you have a lot of videos or music files, then a larger drive would be better.

Thank you so much everyone for your responses <3

What I ended up doing was I ordered an external hard drive from Seagate. I was looking online and that seemed to be a brand a lot of people, including "experts" like. I ordered two 1 TB hard drives from them. I am going to give one to my sibling and use one for myself :D

Seagate isn't the best brand. It's known for being unreliable.

Most people would recommend Western Digital and I would to.

Sorry I couldn't post here sooner about this but i'll tell you know for the future. Which you might need to replace your drives due to Seagate having a higher failure rate than the other brands.

One of my externals is a WD; the other is a Hitachi, I think.

I keep telling myself I need to get an external notebook drive enclosure so I can see if there's anything worth getting off of my old laptop's hard drive...

My PC internals are all Western Digital and my only drive that failed was a Seagate and that came with the PC when I got it so that drive failing was no surprise after a few years due to it being Seagate.

My two externals are also Western Digital.

They're still working fine. Haven't had a single problem with any of them. And they've been through alot.

That is so odd! I purposely chose Seagate over Western Digital because the internet was telling me Seagate was better. For example:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-...ility-q4-2015/

but yikes, I wish I had heard from the other perspective as well before choosing one to purchase.

Thank you all for your input <3 I am crossing my fingers hoping this first external hard drive of mine will last me a long while but if not, I will perhaps consider another model or brand

I'd personally recommend Western Digital if those Seagate ones go out. And trust me, they probably will.

You can search Google about seagate drive failures and find out many reasons why not to have them.

wow yeah I saw this article from earlier this year

Seagate slapped with a class action lawsuit over hard drive failure rates | PCWorld

man that is not reassuring haha

Oh man. Not surprised Seagate ended up with a lawsuit; my old external was a Seagate, and it broke when it fell over on its side. Onto a padded area.

Good luck?