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The original was posted on /r/datahoarder by /u/goal_dante_or_vergil on 2024-01-22 10:42:43+00:00.
I have spent the last few hours browsing this sub and I am confused because I received conflicting information. Some people are saying that external hard drives are bad and it is better to buy an internal hard drive and put it in an enclosure with a fan. But there are also others that say that for the average user, a regular external will be sufficient.
I use my external hard drives to store the movies, tv shows, manga, anime and video games that I download via torrent. Once they finish downloading and uploading to a ratio of at least 2.0, I stop and then transfer them to my external hard drives. So my external hard drives are not plugged in and running 24/7.
Only when there is a movie or tv show that I want to watch then I will connect them to my pc and run them off the external hard drive. In those instances, the external will be connected and running for several hours while I am watching but once I finish, I always disconnect before shutting down my pc. So my externals are not plugged in and running overnight.
If there is a video game that I want to play, I will connect the external to my pc, install the game, then once the game has been installed, there is no longer any need to keep the hard drive connected so I always disconnect the external so they are not running while I am gaming all day.
So is it better for my usage to get an external or an internal with an enclosure with a fan?