Whether you’re collaborating with team members or stakeholders or need somewhere to store important files, you may be looking to transfer those large files to an external hard drive. While external hard drives are a great solution for storing files to save your local disk, it’s not the best way to store them. Here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t download large files to an external hard drive:
1. Slower Uploads/Downloads
Copying large files to an external drive can involve some CPU overhead. This can impair your computer’s performance, no matter if you store them on an internal or external hard drive.
2. Reliability & Security
If you are trying to use an external hard drive to store a large file that you can share with others, it may not be the most reliable or secure way to do so. If it gets lost or falls into the wrong hands, it could compromise any project you’re working on.
3. Insufficient Space
Depending on the contents of the file, it may be too large to fit on any external hard drive, or you face the slow upload problem mentioned above because of its size. Without enough space, it makes it difficult to share large files like videos or data sets without compromising the assignments.
If you want to download files directly to an external hard drive, you’ll need to configure your browser settings to select the download location. In Chrome, click the three-dot menu in the upper-right window and navigate to “Settings.” Scroll down to the “Downloads” section where you can choose your default download folder. Click “Change” to select your external hard drive as the destination. Google Chrome will now download directly to external storage whenever you initiate a file transfer. For those who prefer more control, enable the “Ask where to save each file before downloading” option, which allows you to select a different folder for each download. This web-based approach works similarly across browsers—Firefox, Safari, and Edge all provide comparable settings to download files directly to an external location.
When setting up your browser to download directly to an external hard drive, ensure the drive is properly connected before initiating any transfers. Some users want to download large media files, datasets, or backup archives directly to external storage to preserve local disk space. However, this method introduces potential bottlenecks that can significantly impact transfer speeds. The USB connection between your computer and the external drive creates an additional layer that slows down the download process compared to saving files to your internal drive first. If you frequently need to download folder archives or multiple files, consider whether the convenience of downloading directly to an external hard drive outweighs the performance penalties and reliability concerns associated with this approach.
Yes, it does take longer to download to external hard drive compared to your computer’s internal storage. The primary reason involves the data pathway—when you download files directly to an external location, data must travel through your network connection, then through your computer’s processor, and finally across the USB or Thunderbolt connection to the external drive. Each connection point introduces latency that compounds the overall transfer time. External hard drives typically connect via USB 2.0, USB 3.0, or USB-C interfaces, and while modern USB 3.0 and USB-C connections offer faster speeds, they still cannot match the performance of internal SATA or NVMe drives. The bottleneck becomes especially noticeable when attempting to download large files or when multiple processes are competing for bandwidth on the same USB bus.
File system limitations also affect how long it takes to download to an external location. Many external drives come formatted with FAT32 by default, which restricts individual file sizes to 4GB and can significantly slow down transfers of large datasets or video files. Converting to NTFS or exFAT resolves the size limitation but doesn’t eliminate the fundamental speed disadvantage. Transfer speeds to external drives can be 30-50% slower than to internal storage, depending on your connection type and drive specifications. When you download files directly to an external hard drive through your browser window, you’re essentially performing two operations simultaneously: downloading from the web and writing to external storage. This dual process consumes additional CPU resources and can create I/O bottlenecks that further degrade performance. For optimal speed, download files to your internal drive first, then transfer them to the external location once the download completes—though this requires sufficient local disk space and an extra transfer step.
If you find that copying large files to an external hard drive is not going to work because of any of the previously mentioned reasons, there are a few other methods you can try to get files to team members or stakeholders.
Convert the drive to NTFS or HFS+
If you receive a message that the file is too large for the destination, even if the external hard drive has enough space, it may be that the drive has been formatted to FAT/FAT32, which only allows for a maximum limit of 2 to 4 GB per file. This makes it difficult to transfer any files larger than that unless you convert the file system to NTFS, HFS+, or another filesystem that supports large limits.
Reconnect the external hard drive or USB
If the file is too large and the drive is already in NTFS, it still could be identified as FAT/FAT32. You’ll need to reconnect the drive, and without having to physically unplug it. You can access this through Device Manager where you directly Disable or Enable. You can also access through Disk Management, ejecting and changing its status back to Online. On a Mac computer, this can be done through Disk Utility.
Break the large file into multiple smaller files
If your file has the ability, another option for transferring a large file is to break it up into smaller images or files and upload them one by one. Backup images can take up less space than an exact copy.
Use file transfer software
In order to move large files and datasets at top speeds without compromising the quality of the content and eliminating all bottlenecks and risks associated with other technology, your business needs file transfer software that allows you to collaborate and deliver without interruptions.
Aspera is one of the most secure services for transferring large files. Built on an award-winning FASP protocol, it is a fast alternative to storing on an external hard drive. It helps you transfer and deliver files, using available bandwidth without impacting other business-critical network traffic.
Using Aspera, your business can:
On top of being the world’s fastest file transfer system, Aspera’s hosted service allows you to transfer, exchange, and deliver files from any location to anyone in the world. It can deliver hundreds of times faster than FTP and HTTP, migrating and transferring 100 TB of data per day.
If you want to learn more about how your organization can quickly transfer large files without compromising workflows or quality, consider contacting the team at PacGenesis. As an IBM Gold-status partner with over 10 years of experience, we have helped many organizations adopt new file transfer solutions like Aspera. We can help your business and answer any questions or concerns you may have.
To learn more about PacGenesis, follow @PacGenesis on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or go to www.pacgenesis.com.
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