Expansion Hard Drives

Learning About Expansion Hard Drives

Expansion hard drives increase the storage capacity of the hardware that you use every day. If you need to store a lot of data, photos, videos, and more, then investing in an expansion hard drive is a viable solution.

What's an Expansion Hard Drive?

An expansion hard drive is similar to the HDD on your computer. Find 3.5-inch expansion drives that fit your desktop, 2.5-inch drives for your laptop, and portable, plug-and-play drives that work with either. Internal expansion hard drives are a suitable choice for enhancing internal storage, while external drives are portable, and are often used as backup hard drives for your data and other important documents.

Expansion Drive Interface, Capacity, and Speed

How your expansion drive connects to your computer, how much data it can store, and the speed with which it accesses your files are all essential considerations.

Interface

Internal hard drives come with connectors that interface with your computer. Most personal computers have SATA connectors, while servers and corporate workstations connect through SAS. Portable external hard drives use USB cables and adapters that can plug into any computer with a USB interface.

Capacity

Expansion hard drives vary in storage capacity, from 32GB to 48TB. One terabyte is equal to 1,000 gigabytes, so the difference between the smallest and the largest available is vast. You'll need larger capacity drives if you intend to store many large files.

Speed

The drive's speed refers to how quickly it can find a file. HDDs display an RPM, a number from 5,400 to upward of 15,000. The larger the number, the faster the disk spins and finds your information.

Find a wide array of expansion hard drives and other computer hard drives and storage devices for your PCs or workstations, at B&H Photo Video.