Q:
A: Hi Melanie, An external hard-drive is a way of storing files outside of your computer. So you can have documents, pictures, music etc on a separate hard-drive to carry around and use on different computers. They're handy to create a backup of your important documents, or to carry your work around with you - e.g. from home to work. They range from smaller memory sticks (USB Pen drives) or bigger boxes. Quite often they'll be about the size of 1/2 the height of a tub of butter, or a normal A5-sized book. Prices and sizes can vary, so if you're looking for one be sure to first check out online shops like Amazon, Google's Shopping etc and then local high-street places. In terms of capacity, you can have sizes like 10, 20, 40, 80, 100, 200 GB etc - the limitations these days are getting very high. - For small Word documents, few songs, pictures etc, a small USB memory stick (1, 2, 4GB sticks) are cheap and very portable. - Regular amount of music, documents, videos etc: 10 to 40GB is more than enough. - DVDs, lots of TV and games: 40GB upwards is appropriate. Often bigger external drives (e.g. 100GB and above) may need a plug socket to power, but many can run off your PC without problems these days. Hope that gelps!