Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Speed is nice.

5 seconds to load or 25 seconds to load, doesn't really bother me.
I'm not that much in a hurry.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Well, definitely don't buy a computer with a conventional hard drive built into it. Conventional drives make excellent long-term, *external* storage.

I think the issue most folks are afraid of is wear. They would rather have a less expensive drive to replace in a few years than a more expensive one.

Personally, I want speed. A large SSD or NVMe drive is speedy for two reasons. First, the drive itself is quite quick. Second, the startup drive is nearly always used for swap memory by the operating system, and the more available space it can grab for swapping data, the quicker your processes happen. Slow drives are the worst bottlenecks in most computers.

Especially on the new M1 Macs, having more internal storage AND unified memory will ensure both easier "breathing" for the operating system, and spread the wear across more memory on the SSD/NVMe. Early on, there were reports from some users that their systems were swapping memory much more often than Intel Macs. With OS and software upgrades, that has been minimized, and we no longer hear about it.

My next machine will have plenty of external storage, but at least 16GB memory and 1TB storage. Additionally, I'll have two 8 to 12TB external 7200 RPM drives for backups and storage, and use portable NVMe m.2 drives of 1 to 2 TB for project work.

marycar53 Loc: Tuscumbia Al

I have a 256 computer with an internal 1T hard drive with a 6T, 8T, 14T external. A NAS tower that I back up important stuff to, and on line back up with BackBlaze with all externals and computer. My reason for the on line is that if there is a fire or tornado that destroys my house, or burglary I can get my files back.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Key operator: afraid?

Or is it latest-and-greatest.

KindaSpikey Loc: English living in San Diego

I have 2 external SSD hard drives. 1 is my "working" drive and the 2nd is a copy of the 1st. That way I have a back-up of all my files for safety /security. It negates the worry of losing years of work. Also I have a PC and a laptop, so it's easy to work on either and transfer all of my work from one to the other. I can take a SSD easily with me to a friend's place in my pocket if I like to share, or work on whenever I like. SSDs also mean that if either of my computers goes bad I won't lose my work or have to pay for "maybe" getting it recovered, and if I get a new computer I don't have to spend tedious hours transferring everything across. The price of external vs internal SSDs is getting less expensive and for me seems like the best way to go.

WJShaheen Loc: Gold Canyon, AZ

I also use the C drive just for OS, programs, etc. All "data" goes on an internal hard drive (D). C is for software; D is for data.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Good design (and BIG SSDs), but just wondering why it takes so long (days to transfer TBs) to transfer from your backup SSD to your primary? Are they SATA or m.2 NVME (or PCIe) interface drives?

goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

RJI

I think the best policy is to use the "C:" drive for software and separate drives for data. My personal choice is to use mirrored RAIDs for all important documents, photos, and videos, but it is important to maintain duplicate files on several physically separate devices. Cloud storage such as Flickr, with is system of tags, albums, and groups, should also be considered.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

My computers have a 500 GB SSD and a 3 or 4 TB hard drive. I figure that's a good compromise between cost, storage, and speed. The SSD holds the OS and programs. My external hard drives are for backing up the data.

JBRIII

I'd say the answer is in your data. How many photos of what size do you accumulate per year? How much space is now used by programs? Do keep everything from the past available or do you off load material and rarely examine it again?

Each person is different, some people here talk of a few hundred photos on a two week trip, others speak of many thousands. Astro photography can accumulate tremendous amounts od data if short exposures or video used.

Me I keep everything and buy bigger and bigger hard drives for data, retire the old ones when filled and move everything to new one, presently have 5GB data drive on computer, 7GB backup. I think about .5GB on SSD. I have an automated telescope which produces between 1200 and 1800 photos a night (10 secs each, 4/min), using around 40Gb per night on average. Lucky or unluckily, I only get on average 1-2 nights per week or I'd be filling 10 TB drives yearly in duplicate with backups.

Someone did a mosaic of milky way recent, I believe it consisted of 150,000 stacked and combined photos. Depending on the camera that would be TBs of raw data to store for one final photo if you get my drift.

What of us does doesn't mean a lot depending on what you do or may want to do really.

Just some thoughts.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

My main computer has two 2TB M.2 drives and a 8TB regular HDD. The 1st M.2 is for OS and drivers, etc. and the 2nd M.2 is for applications. The regular HDD is for data. I use 2 external HDs for backup... one a 4TB M.2 and the other a 10TB regular HDD... works great. The M.2s provide the speed for applications and the 'cheap' HDDs provide the storage.

radiojohn

"You must remember the First and most important guideline about SSDs. Performance for running software applications are adversely affected if you fill more than 50% of the capacity of your SSD. Half of a 256GB SSD is very little storage space for your operating system and most used applications."

I have never read this anywhere and would like to know the reason why it is only for SSDS. Can you provide a link to some article about this?

From doing many years of digital audio on spinning drives, I do know that I need about as much space for "temp" files as for the one hour audio I do to work well. Is that what you mean?

I have heard that the SSD needs some "balancing" to even out what I guess is wear. Windows 10 now offers that in the OS. Thanks.

photoman43

My Win 10 desktop: 1 TB SSD for operating programs only: Internal Drives D: and E: , each HDD at least 12 TB or larger for image files. External HDDs for image file backups. Multiple copies of images on different external drives.

My win 10 laptop: 1 TB SSD; with external hard drives, SSD and HDD. The 1 TB SSD is rarely over 50% full. Images transferred from laptop to Desktop after culling. Most image processing done on Desktop. Laptop is used for image processing when traveling.

Carl1024 Loc: Kaneohe, HI 96744

I'm in the process of re-installing my Brother MFC-J985DW back 2 my computor. A jam was detected by me so i had my brother-in-law check it. I told him a "Jammed C Rear", & a Jammed A Front plus levers L&R @ the side walls, was posted on the LCD screen.He indicated that the black cover inside top, wasn't latched proper?
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