How reliable are external hard disks?

Q I bought an external hard disk for my backups, largely because it is so much more convenient than burning and storing multiple DVD discs. Can they be relied upon as much as an internal hard disk?

Elysium, Computeractive forum

A In many respects external hard disks are just as reliable as internal hard disks because they are normally the same hardware just in a different box.

Hard disk failures are rare although they do happen. It is worth bearing in mind that external hard disks are more at risk from being knocked or dropped because they are not fixed.

Hard disks are fairly resilient when they are turned off and not connected to a computer, but be very careful when they are running.

Ideally you should have a couple of backups to be absolutely safe but they don’t have to be as regular. You could use the external hard disk for regular backups and then save important files to DVD every couple of months, perhaps.

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