This post is to follow up my post about installing OS X on an external hard drive.

Have you pondered a second hard drive, but don’t wanna poke inside your computer to get an internal one? Or, are you just not sure whether you need an external hard drive or not? There are a few reasons why you might want, or even need,  an external hard drive.

Backup. Your data is important. Why not clone it on another hard drive? This is probably the main thing people get external hard drives for.

Store all your media. If you like music, taking photos or movies, or like backing up all your DVDs, but you are running out of hard drive space, you probably want more space. And, you aren’t a computer geek. This is the perfect solution, because most hard drives are plug and play, so right away, you can copy your music, photos, movies, and ISOs to a larger hard drive, opening up space on your main hard drive.

Have a portable operating system. If you are more of a geek, then you probably have installed an operating system on any hard drive. Well, generally, depending on the OS, you are allowed to install it on a USB drive. As you have read below, it’s easy to do with OS X. It’s easiest to have a portable OS with Linux, because there are tons of drivers preinstalled, or available for install.

Just extra space. If you ever get low on space on your main hard drive, you will start freaking out, cause “everything is important and I can’t delete it.” Well, an external hard drive will provide as a bleed-over either just in case, or if you have big files that won’t fit elsewhere.

Extra hard drive. Generally, if you are more of a DIY guy, then you can actually take apart the hard drive, and use it internally. This would require opening the drive, which may cause damage to the drive if you even touch it with your prying tool. Then, you could pop the drive in a computer. Generally, if you get a portable hard drive, the drive inside will default  to  fitting in a laptop. A regular external hard drive will only fit inside a desktop.

Those are probably just a few. Comment here if you have anything else for me.