Darrian629 Loc: Boston

Hello fellow UHH's,

I need assistance/direction as how to properly store my photos on an external hard drive. Right now I have them on my iPhoto and I would like to retrieve them from time to time in the same manner as in iPhoto. The only problem as everyone knows, this in the future, will cause my MacBook to slow down.

I have approximately 20K photos and I'm currently researching on the retrieval process and the quickness on how this can be achieved. We, like to view events in iPhoto pretty often.

I appreciate everyone's input.

Thank you all,

Curl Loc: Toronto, Canada

I upgraded to Aperture for approx $70. and it allows me to have multiple libraries on different devices. I keep some photos on my Mac and transfer the others to large external hard drives. The external hard drive should be copied and kept off site. In addition to solving the capacity problem, there are a lot more photo enhancement features in Aperture.

Although Photoshop is more powerful and more sophisticated, I found that Aperture was more comfortable and familiar (coming from iPhoto). I do use Photoshop from time to time for some features.

OK. One more thing - if your Mac supports USB3, make sure and get external drives that support USB3. The speed difference is significant. Thunderbolt is also very fast but much more expensive.

Curl

dusty3d Loc: South Florida

I have never tried Aperture so I can't say anything about it. I started out with Elements then graduated into Photoshop, now have CS5 and use it all the time. I also use Lightroom which I prefer over IPhoto. Nice thing about LR is that I store ALL my photos on an external Hard Drive and the copies are in LR. I can make adjustments in LR or edit in Photoshop or OnOne (a plug-in) that I use. I even have a second external HD so my photos are quite safe. Thank goodness for Ext. HD, i used to save my photos on cd/dvd's. PS, I do use a MAC.

Meredith Images Loc: Stratford, CT

Remember, no matter which editing program you use (including Lightroom), your photos are not "in" that program -- they are stored on your hard drive. I use an external "expansion drive" which stays plugged in and I keep only photos on it. Documents and such are on my internal hard drive.

MOST IMPORTANT!!!! BE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR DRIVE, NO MATTER WHAT YOU USE!!! A few weeks ago that external hard drive of mine crashed -- and I hadn't run a backup in 2-1/2 years!!! Stupid me!! I got VERY lucky and Seagate was able to retrieve 100% of my files from the drive! The $399 fee included a new drive -- which you can be certain is now backed up and kept at my office (in case of fire). It will get backed up at a minimum once a month - more often if I'm doing a lot of shooting. I had 187,000+ photos on the crashed drive!!!!! A lot to lose if you don't have duplicates!!!

"It's not a matter of IF your drive will crash, but WHEN it will crash".

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I'm a Windows user and have about 33gb of photos since
2002. I don't use a program to store my photos as you do.
I store on an external drive under disc names... as in disc 22, or disc 23, etc.

I find access pretty easy because all are dated and since about the time I took a particular photo I can get there pretty easily and quickly - my computer doesn't slow down at all.

Best of luck... I don't know if I helped or not.

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

Miss Meredith;

Thank you for your post!
I'm also heading in the same direction that you WERE heading! I'll try to explain; a few months back, I purchased a new 1TB Seagate ext. drive; less than a year ago, I bought a new 27in. iMac with a 1 TB HD; (I probably shouldn't admit this on a public forum), but so far, I STILL have not "gotten around" to transferring all of my data (from 8 years), from my OLD iMac, to my NEW one. Then, about a week ago, I ran across the new Seagate ext. drive, STILL in it's packaging, still un-opened; you will doubtless think I'm the world's worst procrastinator; ( I plead guilty as charged!)

So.....now that I've heard what recovering all of that data cost you, I'm hoping I can FINALLY find time to transfer all my data into my "more or less" new iMac, from my old one, and THEN hook up my still unused 1 TB ext drive, (which I should add, cost me all of "about" $80 !

Possibly, your story plus my mine may help others from experiencing the same painful lesson you received, ( and I'm well on my way to possibly having.)

I had just mentioned in another post yesterday, regarding how best to store ones picture files, just how VERY inexpensive HUGE ext. HD's have become, in comparison to what ones with one tenth the capacity USED to cost just a few years back.

Now that I've read your story, the next time I'm in Terre Haute, (possibly yet this week), I think I'll stop by Sam's Club and buy a second 1 TB Seagate ext drive, and make TWO copies of everything from the "get-go".

Darrian629 Loc: Boston

Thank you all for suggestions. I went out and purchased 2 TB external hard drives where I was able to export my photos from iPhoto. I'm able to recall any photo using iPhoto, which is the way I intended.
Easier than I expected!

Thanks again,

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

That should be enough storage space for the next 50 years!
(And isn't it amazing how cheap these things have become, when compared to a few years ago?)

KennyMac Loc: Lynchburg, VA

Years ago, I also had a NEAR DEATH experience with all my data. Since then I have configured my desktop with 2 drives, one 500Mb for system & applications, and one 1Tb for "data" & scratch disk. I also have a 3rd 1 Tb external drive which I use for automatic image backups(weekly) using Norton Ghost. After 3 yrs lost a system drive and was able to rebuild a new system drive within a couple of hours ! If you don't use image backups, it can take hours to copy 20-30,000 raw files to a new disk.
Laptop users should have at least one backup drive and consider using an image backup software with minimum of 1 backup / week.

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

Great advice Kenny; it's exactly what I need to do ASAP.

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

The above just made me realize something I may not have thought about; that my new iMac does support both USB 3 & Thunderbolt, but does the new 1 TB Seagate ext drive that I bought, (and still haven't hooked up)?

Thanks for sharing, Curl!