Buying external hard drives is a necessity in today’s times. Before we get down to recommending the best 500 GB external hard disk available in the market, we give you some reasons as to why you should buy one in the first place.
Note: You can skip the below points if you are just looking for hard disk recommendations.
- We all click pictures on our smartphones, but how many of us safely store those captured memories? Some of them are uploaded to Facebook and others remain in the phone. When the storage gets full, pictures are either deleted or stored on the PC. A better idea would be to buy a hard disk to store all the pictures that you take. 5 years from now, those pictures will be memories that will be close to your heart. Don’t lose them.
- The same applies for all those beautiful videos that you capture using your mobile phone. Since they consume a lot of storage space, most of us delete videos to free up space. Transferring those video to your external hard disk will ensure that the video is stored safely and can be viewed at any time!
- Hard disk storage is a much cheaper option as compared to buying memory cards for your mobile phones or digital cameras. For example, a 32GB MicroSD card for your mobile phone would cost you around Rs 800. A 500 GB hard disk offers 16 times extra storage and the price is just 5 times more than a 32GB memory card.
- When your are buying a 500GB external hard disk, always look for 2.5 inch drive. The bigger 3.5 inch external hard drives are slightly cheaper, but they are not at all portable. You need to connect them to an external power source, which means when you’re travelling you can’t directly connect it to the laptop and start using the hard disk. Also the 3.5 inch hard drives are mostly used with desktop PCs, so they are heavy and much bigger in size.
The other question that we get asked quite frequently is, how much data can be stored in a 500GB external hard disk. This can’t be put in exact numbers, but here are some estimates.
- Songs: Most MP3 songs are between 4-5MB. You can store nearly 10,000 to 12,000 songs if you decide to use the 500GB hard disk just for storing music!
- Photos: Since there are so many different types of cameras with varying megapixels and quality, this number would vary. But the average size of photos captured from mobile phones is 1-2 mb. That means you can store 25,000 to 50,000 photos on your 500GB external HDD. Digital camera photos, especially those captured in RAW mode, are much larger. Still, even with 8-10MB as an average, you will be able to store 5,000 – 6,500 high-quality photos!
- Videos: Again, the quality and resolution would vary. But more than 50 hours of Full HD video can be stored on a 500GB hard disk. That numbers goes much higher for 720p and lower quality video.
1. WD My Passport Ultra 500 GB External Hard Disk – Rs 4000
Honestly, we love the Western Digital 500 GB hard drives. In our office, we have been using the ‘My Passport Ultra’ version and it has never failed on us in the last 3 years. It’s slightly more expensive than ‘WD Elements’, but has two extra benefits. One, you can password-protect your hard disk, which means every time you disconnect and reconnect your hard drive, it would ask for your password to access it. Second, it’s slightly thinner and a little more portable. If you have the money, just buy it! Do note that password protection is optional, you can opt not to set a password. Read the manual!
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2.WD Elements 2.5 inch 500 GB External Hard Drive – Rs 3500
The ‘WD Elements’ 500 GB hard disk doesn’t come with password protection, but people who are looking to quickly connect their hard disks and access or transfer their files can opt for this. If you’re sharing the hard disk with people in your office or other family members, this would be a better choice. The ‘WD Elements’ is usually cheaper by a couple of hundred rupees too. Both are good, you can’t go wrong with them. You can buy using the Flipkart, Amazon or Snapdeal link below.
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