Summary: With the rise of fast solid-state storage that doesn’t offer much room for data and Macs that don’t let you swap out their hard drives, external drives have become essential in the Mac world. But are you treating yours well? Josh Centers offers some advice on keeping your hard drive and its data healthy.<p> </p><p>Read the <a href="http://tidbits.com/article/14708">full article at TidBITS</a>, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and <a href="http://tidbits.com/member_benefits.html">become a TidBITS member</a>! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.</p>
