Write an article based on this "Understand how to add an external hard drive to your computer. Check your computer's connections. Consider your space requirements. Choose between a traditional hard drive and a solid-state drive. Know which brands to look for. Buy an external hard drive that fits your requirements."

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While some external hard drives will be usable immediately after plugging them into an available USB port on your computer, most external hard drives need to be formatted to fit your computer's specific file system before you can use them. Formatting is a quick process that you can perform from within your computer's built-in settings. Most computers have USB 3.0 ports—which resemble rectangular holes in the side or front of your computer's housing—but modern Macs and some Microsoft-produced Windows computers use USB-C connections instead:   USB 3.0 — A rectangular port found on the majority of computers produced before 2017. Most external hard drives use USB 3.0 connectors.  USB-C — An oval port found on MacBooks and some Microsoft laptops. If you have a USB-C port, you'll either need to buy a USB 3.0 to USB-C adapter or find an external hard drive that includes a USB-C cable. External hard drives usually come in flavors of anything from 512 gigabytes to several terabytes in size. Make sure that you buy a hard drive that has more space than you need. Generally speaking, it isn't much more expensive to buy a terabyte (1024 gigabytes) hard drive than it is to buy a 512 gigabyte hard drive. Storage also tends to get cheaper the more of it you buy (e.g., a two terabyte hard drive will cost significantly less than two one terabyte hard drives). Solid-state drives (SSDs) are significantly faster than traditional external hard drives, but they're also much more expensive. If you're planning on running an operating system or editing software from the external drive, though, an SSD will be better for responsiveness than a traditional hard drive. Storage is cheap, but you'll still want to make sure that you're buying from a reputable manufacturer; don't pay more for a hard drive with a fancy case but a low-quality drive inside. If you're backing up something important, you want to make sure it's going to work! Popular external hard drive manufacturers include the following:  Western Digital Adata Buffalo Seagate Samsung Once you've purchased your drive from a tech department store or an online outlet, you can proceed with installing it on your Windows computer or Mac.