1TB External Hard Disk Drives

Store Movies and Files Conveniently and Securely with an External Hard Drive

External hard drives come in all shapes and sizes and are convenient for backing up data. A portable hard drive can allow you to carry large files anywhere, easily. Whether you're looking for a 1TB or 2TB external hard drive, you can find a wealth of options on eBay.

The brand and material of the hard drive can affect the durability. Among the external hard drives on eBay, you can look specifically for one that's rugged or stress-tested, if durability is a concern.

Different connectors may not be available on certain devices, though partial compatibility exists. Note for example, that a USB 3.0 hard drive can connect to a USB 2.0 port, but the speed advantage of USB 3.0 will be lost. As a rule, the following connectors stand out as fast and commonly available:

• USB 3.0 is much faster than earlier versions of USB, and it is one of the most common connector types.
• eSATA offers 3 to 6 Gbps, and it's usable in certain hardware configurations that USB might not work within.
• USB 3.1 is faster than USB 3.0, but some devices may not fully support it.
• Thunderbolt offers up to 20 Gbps, compared to 5GB for USB 3.0, but it is generally less common than USB.

Usually, storing movies and games is much more demanding than storing photos. A 1TB external hard drive offers enough space for many purposes, though not all. If you can find a 2TB external hard drive that's almost as affordable as one with less space, it's likely worth the price difference, just in case you need more storage space later.

A high RPM improves read speed. 7200 RPM is measurably faster than 5400 RPM for copying files from an external hard drive, although the effect may be smaller for writing to the disk. Notably, the amount of space to be read does not usually affect speed like this. An external hard drive of 1TB and one of 2TB will be equally fast, assuming RPM and all other factors are equal.