Using an external hard drive can potentially speed up your computer in several ways. Connecting an external drive adds storage capacity and provides additional bandwidth for reading and writing data. This can help improve performance for storage-intensive tasks. However, the impact depends on several factors.
Quick Summary
Adding an external hard drive can make your computer faster if:
- Your internal drive is nearly full or fragmented. An external drive adds capacity and reduces fragmentation.
- You move applications or files to the external drive. This frees up space and bandwidth on the internal drive.
- The external drive has a faster transfer rate or rpm speed than your internal drive. Faster drives improve access speeds.
- You use the external drive as a scratch disk for memory-intensive applications like video editing.
However, if the external drive is slower than your internal drive, it could potentially slow things down instead of speeding them up in some cases. The performance boost also depends on proper configuration and your workflow.
Does an external hard drive increase storage capacity?
Yes, adding an external hard drive effectively increases the total storage capacity of your computer. For example, adding a 2TB external drive to a computer with a 500GB internal drive increases the total storage space to approximately 2.5TB. This provides more room for storing files, applications, and data.
Can external drives reduce fragmentation and optimize space usage?
External drives can potentially help minimize fragmentation issues and optimize space usage on your main internal drive. Here’s how:
- Moving files from your primary drive to an external drive frees up storage space on the internal drive. This enables it to read/write files more efficiently with less fragmentation.
- Frequently accessed files and applications can be stored on the faster internal drive, while less used data goes on the external drive.
- External drives are easier to defragment than internal drives. So moving files to an external drive can reduce fragmentation issues.
However, fragmentation and space usage optimization also depends on your file storage habits and drive maintenance.
Can an external hard drive speed up access to data?
In some cases, external drives can improve data access speeds:
- If the external drive interface (USB 3.0, eSATA, Thunderbolt, etc.) offers higher transfer speeds than your internal drive interface (likely SATA), then the external drive can read/write data faster.
- External SSD drives typically have much faster access speeds than traditional hard drives. So replacing your internal HDD with an external SSD can dramatically improve speed.
- A high RPM external hard drive can provide faster access than a lower RPM internal drive.
However, the external enclosure and connection interface introduces a small bit of overhead slowing things down. So real-world speeds may not quite match the drive’s rated speeds.
Can using an external drive as a scratch disk improve performance?
Using your external drive as a scratch disk for memory-intensive applications like video editors, 3D modelers, and photo editors can improve performance:
- These applications require fast temporary storage access to function smoothly.
- If your internal drive is nearly full, the external drive provides needed workspace (scratch disk space).
- Faster external drives provide faster scratch disk performance over internal storage in some cases.
Just make sure to configure the application to use the external drive for scratch space. Using multiple external drives can further enhance performance for high bandwidth multi-stream editing.
Can an external drive help speed up your operating system and software?
Storing your operating system files and software applications on an external drive does little to improve speed in most cases:
- The system still needs to load the data from the external drive into RAM during boot and application launch.
- External connections like USB have more latency than internal SATA connections, which can slow things down a bit.
- External SSDs can help improve launch speeds compared to internal hard drives. But the boost may be modest for many applications.
For best performance, it’s generally better to keep your OS and active software on the fastest internal drive. Use external storage for data and inactive programs instead.
Does drive speed matter for performance gains?
The relative speed of internal vs. external drives impacts whether an external drive can improve performance. Some key considerations:
- A faster external drive improves overall bandwidth for data access and transfer.
- Using an older, slower external drive may slow things down rather than speed them up if your internal drive is newer.
- An external SSD provides a big performance boost over internal hard drives for certain workloads.
- High RPM HDDs provide faster sequential speeds while lower RPM drives have slower access times.
Always compare the interface and rated speeds of your potential external drive against your internal drives to determine if it can provide a performance benefit.
Does the connection interface matter for speed?
The type of connection interface used by your external drive also affects speed:
- Newer interfaces like USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 and Thunderbolt 3 offer the fastest potential transfer rates, over 2000 MB/s.
- USB 3.0 and eSATA provide reasonably fast speeds, around 500-600 MB/s.
- Older USB 2.0 is quite slow at just 60 MB/s maximum throughput.
- Thunderbolt and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 can provide nearly as fast performance as internal SATA 3 SSDs.
Always choose your external drive interface wisely – a faster interface means faster data transfer and overall performance.
Are there any disadvantages to using an external drive?
There are a few potential downsides to external drives that maynegate or limit the performance benefits:
- The extra overhead of the USB/Thunderbolt enclosure can reduce real-world transfer speeds compared to the drive’s rated speeds.
- External connections introduce a bit more latency than internal SATA connections.
- Cheap or poor quality external enclosures can bottleneck drive performance over the interface.
- Largercapacity external drives may spin down or sleep more frequently to conserve power, slowing access.
- If the external interface or drive is slower than the internal drive, overall performance may decrease rather than improve.
You need to choose the right combination of external drive and enclosure to maximize the performance benefits.
Tips for improving performance with an external drive
Follow these tips to ensure your external drive provides the best performance possible:
- Choose a high speed interface like USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 or Thunderbolt for best performance.
- Select an external SSD over a hard drive for working with large media files or scratch disk type workloads.
- For external HDDs, choose a drive with at least 7200 RPM for faster speeds.
- Limit the workload on very large high capacity external drives as they may slow down when full.
- Connect your external drive directly to a rear port on your computer rather than through a hub.
- Use a short, high-quality cable designed for optimal data performance.
- Avoid crowding your external drive with non-essential files to optimize space usage.
Benchmarking your internal vs. external drive speeds can help determine if you are getting the expected performance boost.
Some real-world speed test examples
Here are some real-world tests that compare internal vs. external drive speeds for common file transfer tasks:
| Test / Drive Compared | Time |
|---|---|
| Copy 17GB video file from 250GB internal 5400 RPM HDD to 1TB external 5400 RPM HDD via USB 3.0 | 4 min 17 sec |
| Copy 17GB video file from 250GB internal 5400 RPM HDD to 250GB external SSD via USB 3.0 | 2 min 53 sec |
| Import 150 RAW photos (9GB total size) into Lightroom from internal 7200 RPM HDD vs. external 7200 RPM HDD via USB 3.0 | Internal: 1 min 14 sec External: 1 min 8 sec |
| Export edited 4K video from Premiere Pro to internal vs. external SSD via Thunderbolt 3 | Internal: 2 min 22 sec External: 2 min 18 sec |
Based on these examples, you can see that external drives – especially SSDs – can provide moderate performance boosts for certain tasks. The speedup depends on the specific workflow and the interface/drive capabilities on both internal and external storage.
Conclusion
Adding an external hard drive can potentially improve your computer’s performance and speed for certain tasks, provided it is faster than your internal drive. Key benefits include:
- Extra capacity to reduce fragmentation and free up internal drive space.
- Faster transfer rates and access speeds if the external drive’s specs exceed the internal drive.
- Ability to use as a fast scratch disk to improve workflow for creative applications.
However, to maximize the performance boost, you need to choose the right interface (Thunderbolt, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) and drive type (SSD, high RPM HDD). Testing real-world speeds can confirm if your external drive setup delivers better performance over your internal storage.
