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Earlier this month my Thinkpad died accidentally. Because, I didn’t buy an accident coverage warranty, Lenovo support denied giving a free repair. And, the repairing fees were so high that I decided to buy a new laptop.  But, that was not the main part. The main issue was how I would recover the data from my ‘dead’ laptops hard disk? Much of the data was backed up in my Western Digital external hard drive. But, to recover the rest of the data I must need to plug it in to a PC or a docking station connected to one. Because, I have long given up using desktops both at work and home, the only viable option was to use a docking station. And, I ordered one hard drive docking station (though it is yet to arrive).

Because of this incident, I decided to give external hard drives as gift this Christmas. Although, external hard drives don’t have the luster of iPhone 4S or Kindle Fire they are one of the most useful presents that “keeps on giving”. I have brought a few tips for those who are planning to gift external hard drives or docking stations to their loved ones this Christmas.

Because you are planning to give external hard drives as gift items you should consider the following points before deciding which one to buy.

• Style: There is no market leader in external hard drives in terms of style. A variety of styles can be found on the market. Just try to imagine which one will be considered ‘cool’ to your loved one.
• Portability: For me, portability is a must for external hard drives, though it may vary depending on the intended use. However, my personal favorite in this category in Western Digital My Passport Essential SE, which fits into my pocket pretty easily.
• Multimedia: If you would like to use your hard drive as a multimedia player to watch movies or videos directly in your TV then multimedia capable hard drives should be the catch. You can try Western Digital Elements play or iOmega multimedia hard drive.
• Data Protection: In terms of data safety, I haven’t found anything praiseworthy other than Western Digital hard drives with hardware protection feature. They are the best in class.

If you are not sure which external hard drives to choose from, then I will personally recommend you to buy a Western Digital external hard drive. Be sure, it will keep on giving.