One of the problems I've had with moving from an old PC to a new system is transferring all of my files over. Ultimately, I decided to purchase an external hard drive.

In terms of data storage, it's a good idea to have all your photos, music and videos accessible no matter which computer you are at. On the other hand applications and software tend to require an installation on the local hard drive of the computer you are using.

Nowadays, I keep all of the files related to the software, such as photoshop images, photo uploads, saved games, and other personal files on my external drive, making it easy to transition to a new PC permanently or temporarily without much hassel.

The average external hard drive at the moment can store hundreds of GB of data and can be purchased for around $200 or less.

One alternative, is purchasing a USB key instead of an external drive. USB keys normally store between 4GB and 16GB of data and are smaller than the size of a finger. However the problem I've faced with using USB keys to store all of my data is that they fill up pretty quickly.

You can just as easily purchase a "pocket sized" external drive that works via USB cable for 2 or 3 times the price of a USB key (which substantially more data storage).

External hard drives are a much better option than CD or DVD storage for a number of reasons:

• Faster data transfer
• Data can be removed and changed unlimited times, unlike burned CDs
• There is no need for multiple devices
• Many drives are both Mac and Microsoft compatible, making them ideal for data back-up