genocolo wrote:
Recently an experienced member posted a comment suggesting that rather than buy a new computer with a large resident hard drive (1TB), it might be better to have a smaller hard drive (256gb) and then use external SSD drives for photos, movies, etc.
Why would that be better than the one large drive? What are your thoughts and recommendations?
Thanks in advance
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Genocolo...
In your OP, you wrote:
..."Recently an experienced member posted a comment suggesting that rather than buy a new computer with a large resident hard drive (1tb), it might be better to have a smaller hard drive (256gb) and then use external ssd drives for photos, movies, etc..."
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In Ref. to the above, May I offer two observations with regards to any computer and Important data...
1) ~~ Always, Alway assume that if you own it, it will 'Break' or 'Fail'...
2) ~~ Always, if you can, follow the 3-2-1 Rule with regards to backups...
For your consideration and any other reading here, I would like to offer the design of my current system, and the way it works which adds not only "speed" but, lots of "safety backups" and travel options to consider... I have been in photography for many years, and I have been in Digital photography for over some 10 years now... I have had "losses" (Trust me ~~ Drives will Fail) and I have been hit by "RansomWare" BUT, I have always been able to recover...
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First, I run a windows 10, (very clean) gaming-style machine with Intel Core i7-8700 CPU and 32 Gig Ram...
My Primary C: Drive is M.2 1TB SSD (can be bigger or smaller) which has only O.S., & EXE, including Lightroom
... Reason for the above is should you have Drive Failure or OS failure, NO Data is affected.
My next drive is M.2 1TB SSD (can be any size) which is a "working Drive" for "current catalog & working photos"
... Reason for the above is for "speed" between EXEs on C: and Data files being worked on by Lightroom
..... Because I have lightroom files here, I also keep the "current" lightroom catalog on this drive
My third "internal" drive is a WD 14TB, (or any size) SATA Drive which is where prior years of photos are stored.
... Reason for the above is that "Storage" does NOT need the speed... Also, Catalogs are there for Old stuff
...... Each year, working files are "imported" from the "working SSD" over to the "Storage SATA" drive.
In addition to the above, I have Cloud Storage with "BackBlaze.com" w/ unlimited storage for $ 6/Month
... In the above, all of the above, coming from 1 IP address counts for unlimited 1 acct which is about 10 Gbs now
... BTW, if you attach any USB Drives to your Computer, they count under 1 account @ no additional charge.
Next, besides the "off-site cloud" storage, I have a 28TB QNAP NAS, at my residence for a "duplicate" backup
... The above NAS give me the third component of the 3-2-1 backup scenario
Important Note...ADDED to all of the above, my "current working" drive has a "directory" which is tired to "Sync.com"
... In above, I use a "sync" directory for my "working directory" for lightroom, and that is cloud-based DIR.
... Everything which goes in the "Sync" DIR, goes to the cloud, and also is my working Lightroom DIR which
.... is synchronized with my home computer & laptop while I am away from home during my travels....
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All of the above works fine for me and establishes the full features of a robust 3-2-1 Storage System ~~
~~ BUT, in addition to the above, my wife and I travel a lot, and I use a Laptop with the following...
With my laptop, as I travel, I "offload" my images to my laptop "C:" drive which is a 1TB M.2 SSD
On my laptop, that personal directory on the C: Drive has also a "Sync" DIR which backup up to the cloud
Then that drive backs up, all of my laptop "Sync Data" (via the internet) is going to the cloud, BUT, show up on my home SYNC DIR back home, at a very, very fast rate...
In addition to the above "C: Drive" on my laptop, I have a second SATA SSD in the same laptop, and everything which I offload onto the "C: Drive" of my laptop... also gets back up to the second SATA SSD inside the Laptop.
Soooooo, When I get home from a long trip of 2,3, or 4 weeks, all of my full images are on my home machine.
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I hope the above makes sense and is only 1 way which I know many, many things can be done....
....... BUT, the above work for me because I travel so much for long periods of time and work with a laptop.
AND....... YES, other options are to be considered. I know the above is a lot of info, and should you have question, let me know and I will try to clarify...
Cheers
George Veazey
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