Hey！Do you know why you should keep your external hdd？

There are many types of digital storage, but in the end, the most popular forms are the good old external hard drives (HDDs) and new solid-state drives (SSDs). Each of the platters has a reading/writing head hovering on top. A modern external hdd is very different from earlier generations, which dated back to the late 1950s.

However, essentially, the basics remain the same. It’s a box that contains a few magnetic disks attached to a spindle, very similar to a spindle of blank CDs or DVDs. This is because as external hdd’ storage capacities increase while their physical sizes remain the same, the density of information written on the platters becomes so great that if we use measurement units, such as foot or inch, to talk about certain parts of a external hdd, we’ll have to deal with decimal numbers of unimaginable proportions.

Some question about external hdd：

Q：Why can’t my computer detect an external hdd?

A：There are two general possibilities: ‧Lack of power: The hard disk should be attached to the USB power cable connector into the USB slot on the back of the computer. Make sure your computer supplies enough power for the external hdd to run.

Do not use a USB Hub, extension cord, or other USB devices together, because doing so may cause power undersupply, resulting in the external drive being unable to be read. Volume has not been added: In Windows XP/Vista/7 operating systems, go to Disk Management to confirm that the external hdd is installed.

Q： How do I partition a external hdd?

A：In Windows XP, you can partition disks through Control Panel / administrative tools / computer management / disk management. Select the installed external hdd, and press the right mouse button, and select the option to partition the drive.

From：Mai's life