Fair Backup

Flash and external USB hard disk drives are one of the most popular when backing up fairly large amounts of data, and for a reason. But when do you need to backup to a flash USB drive or to an external hard disk drive?

First of all, let\’s see how the USB drives are different:
- flash drives are smaller than HDD drives
- flash drives can only be written to a limited (albait large - around 100 000) amount of times
- flash drives are easily portable in a wallet (latest external HDDs can be ported in a pocket, too, though)
- flash drives are durable, but if you drop an external hard disk drive, it might break (except for latest durable external hard disk drives, which cost more than their ordinary brethren)

So, when to use a flash USB drive over an external hard disk drive?

You might use a flash USB drive when:
- you need to copy a medium-sized amount of data (from 100Mb to 4Gb)
- move it from one computer to another, which are not connected by a network
- have less space to store the backup medium (say you don\’t have a bag or a packet)

Alternatively, you may use an external hard disk drive when:
- you need to copy a large amount of data
- you either don\’t need to move it (store it inhouse) or have a reliable hard disk drive, which can stand moving
- you don\’t mind tagging along a larger disk than a flash USB drive

Basically, if you find a durable, small, external USB hard disk drive, you might as well buy it, because you can also use it where you would otherwise use a flash drive (the difference in usage is relatively small). Granted, an external USB drive admits really immense amounts of data and doesn\’t cost a fortune.