Thread: Torrenting on an external Hard Drive

Is it safe to download files to an external hard drive? Is there any side effects such as a shortened life span? I move all my movies to the external hard drive after downloading them and sometimes it can take hours for an extremely large file. Thats why i decided to just download them to the hard drive directly instead of transferring them after i finish downloading. I just want to make sure that there are no harmful side effects from downloading directly to the external hard drive. Your input would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't think so. External harddrives are just regular hardrives attached to enclosures so that you can connect them to your computer via USB.

Also, if you find file transfer to be slow, it's faster to copy the file to the external harddrive and then delete the file(s) on your local harddrive becuase the read speed is faster than the write speed.

I just download everything to the External, honestly. I have multiple directories on there (Moves, Games, Programs, Music, etc) and I just change the directory, but everything goes on (now one of 2) externals. Stuff from my seedbox goes straight the the externals as well.

I also do all my downloading to my external hard drive never had no problem as of yet, keeps my computer free of junk

Well I did have that one drive that died shortly after I got it, but I think that was just a defective drive. LOL

Yeah man i used to use external to host most of my files but the transfer speed is slower to them if they are usb particularly.

But if you disconnect the hdd then your pc wil have less files to index so in theory you will only have the data connected when needed.


Personally i need a 2tb and an external with a psu annoys me.

But if you are a person who uses Media servers with External HDD support or need them on the go then i guess external is your best bet.


Or if the cops come to the door straight out the window followed by acid and a whopper magent.

I'm also downloading directly to my external hard drive. There are actually no problems when you're using for the first years.

Side effects of this methods is that you may have varying speeds which usually depends on the write speed of the hard drive. Other would be if you're having a faulty connection due to a aging usb cable or drive, this may cause some data loss or slower speeds.

My advice, if you're going to do this, is that you maintain it properly and don't use it like forever like ten years or more. One more thing, don't interrupt a file transfer, it may cause problems both in terms of hardware and data.

I been using a external hard drive for almost 5 years now and i still have yet came across a problem the only thing is it wont extract any file larger than 4gigs about if its in fat32 format but if u change the format to ntsc it would be no problem to extract/unrar any size file. you can store,download to or seed from it if its in fat32 format but you cant unrar say a dvdr over 4gigs a simple format change and backup all your files and u can unrar/extract any size file u want . thats the only down side of a external hard drive well at least in my experience

I am downloading torrents direct to my exteranl hard drive for two years,
and there are no problems...