External hard drives are taking over when you really get to the coreof it. A usb isnt to different the only difference is in size of memory that is offered. For example 16 GB and 32 are considered standard today, but the 250GB to 1TB drives that are out are being used wrong.My first external drive I recieved was when I was in vocational school. Looking back I didnt appreciate my first drive enough to comphrend the needfor it now and days. For me I used it to store digital copies of O.S. and at the sane time keep up with music movies and all.Sadly that was still a small use. It wasnt til I had a job in another town. Did I get the brillance of the item. Its ability is being a mini computer as long as there is an output divice and usb cables you can use your harddrive in multiple ways.For me I had needed to transferr an entire o.s. from another town and install it. Of course another use is for ram and keeping track of server play is easy if you install windows servers and a mini visual screen hour personal computer can come to life. Its important to realize its uses. Otherwise the data can get dull and the drive will erase on its own if data isnt in use repeatly and that just doesnt sit will with you if your intent is mass storage get a personal desktop for. Multi purpose work enviorments and fast pace work use an external.Thank you for your time and its a pleasure to be writing to you again.