Today we keep more than ever on our hard disks: work, passwords, home movies and digital photos.
Is our data safe on our 500gb external hard disk Not really, hard drives have many moving parts and are therefore fundamentally prone to break downs. On top of that they can also be damaged physically, by for instance fire or flood, or by malicious software.
Clearly what everyone needs is a reliable, easy way to backup their files. I suppose you could backup your data to flash drive or DVD. But only an external hard disk has both the speed and capacity that you need. Using either a package that you bought or the software that came with your device, you can setup your system in such a way that your files are backed up, regularly and automatically.
eSATA external device:
The bus to a standard hard drive has always been a bottle neck, slowing connection to your disk drive. Running at twice the speed of a conventional Firewire or USB connection the eSATA bus will give you the fastest connection to your external disk. The problem is that this only works with newer computers. So check your motherboard booklet to see if your PC supports eSATA. If it does I recommend going for an eSATA hard drive.
Wireless external hard disk:
Another option is a wireless disk drive. The benefit of using this is that you can put it anywhere in your house and everyone can use it.