Hard Drives

Internal/External: Internal hard drives are found inside the computer and are connected either via IDE connectors or SATA connectors. They stay inside the computer until the user is ready to upgrade. External hard drives are located outside the computer and are connected either via USB or Firewire connectors. External Drives come in various portable sizes and can easily connect to other computers.

Interface: The hard drive can be connected to the computer via various connectors. IDE is the more standard internal connector. SATA (or Serial ATA) is a more advanced connector which is faster than IDE. SATAII is even more advanced than SATA and can go almost twice as fast. USB 2.0 and Firewire are the standard connectors for external drives. USB 2.0 has a transfer rate of 480Mbps; Firewire 400 has a transfer rate of 400Mbps; Firewire 800 has a transfer rate of 800Mbps. However, differences in the architecture of the two interface types allows Firewire it have a faster sustained thoroughput.

Drive Width: There are two types of drive widths: 2.5 inches which is a notebook size drive and 3.5 inches which is for a desktop drive.