Storage of photos: I read the latest topic about what to buy for an external hard drive to store photos. I really didn't understand a whole bunch of the answers but I'm circling the...

cindy11 Loc: Honeoye Falls, NY

I read the latest topic about what to buy for an external hard drive to store photos. I really didn't understand a whole bunch of the answers but I'm circling the edges. I have a Mac laptop 4G and I already have about 25,000 pictures stored. But I definitely feel a slow down. First question: Can a flash drive hold this amount? Second question: What "strength" external drive do I need to store this many? Stop laughing at the word strength. I don't understand the real lingo. Thanks to those who can simplify this
for me. Cindy

Erv Loc: Medina Ohio

With the price of the drives now,I would get the biggest one you can. I just got a 1 tb for around $100 at Christmas. It is an iomega. I have it next to the computer and down load as I play. Also have 2- 500 MB drives that do not need external power. So they go where I go and also get down loaded to on the road. I always have my laptop with me too. It really makes sense to have 2 or 3 places to keep your pictures.
If you watch the papers, they have good sales all the time.
Erv

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

I would seriously look at an external hard drive in the 2TB range. A flash drive won't do it, unless you want a LOT of them.
If you have an Office Max nearby, they have an in-store special on a Hitachi Touro 2TB that includes a free 3TB of CLOUD storage and sells for $101.00. I just bought one last week and its the best bang for the buck out there. Its USB 3 but backwards compatible to USB 2 so it should do the job just fine.

cindy11 Loc: Honeoye Falls, NY

MT Shooter wrote:

I would seriously look at an external hard drive in the 2TB range. A flash drive won't do it, unless you want a LOT of them.
If you have an Office Max nearby, they have an in-store special on a Hitachi Touro 2TB that includes a free 3TB of CLOUD storage and sells for $101.00. I just bought one last week and its the best bang for the buck out there. Its USB 3 but backwards compatible to USB 2 so it should do the job just fine.

Thanks, once I download the pictures, can I delete them on my laptop?

eglide02 Loc: Titletown USA

once you have them on an external drive, if you delete them off the computer, then you have only one backup and if it is lost or fails they are gone, so back up on two drives, they are cheap compared to losing memories

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

cindy11 wrote:

quote=MT Shooter I would seriously look at an ext... (show quote)

Yes you can. Any precious files it might be a good idea to write them to CD's too, just for longer term storage. And its cheap.

cindy11 Loc: Honeoye Falls, NY

Thanks everyone, I think I get it.

RaydancePhoto

CD's are not reliable over long term, unless you get Gold CD's.

Flash drives are not reliable for storage of precious data, they can easily be trashed by not ejecting them properly.

I backup to 2 external drives, same data on both. I have been in computer business since the 1980's and I do not trust hard drives, although I do use them for ext storage. I keep 1 of the backup drives unplugged unless I am using it.

I have seen more than once, all my drives get fried by power surge, even while off.

Several years ago, I had a computer with full RAID system with 4 redundant drives. My drive controller went bonkers and ate all 4 drives leaving me with trash.

Never trust anything when it comes to computers.

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

something else to think about is transfer speed. since you have a Mac you're guaranteed to have FireWire - get external drives that support FireWire as it WAY faster than USB drives.

As for deleting them after you copy to an external drive... as eglide02 said, the idea is to have duplicate files on physically separate devices. Also keep one of your backup drives at a friends house or at your place of work to reduce the risk from bigger issues like fire.

danielb59 Loc: The South

I use two external hard drives, one is 1.5 TB and the other is 2.0 TB. I copy all my photos onto both of them. Several times a year I also copy my most recent ones, the ones that I value highest, anyway, to a DVD and retain them all.

Can't be too careful. I can't count the number of times that I have had to go back 10 years or more looking for a shot. This is a product of the digital age, I guess. I used to save negatives, but file retention was a real problem. Digital has changed all that.

iresq Loc: Annapolis MD

your a Mac so I don't know what software is available, on my PC, I use a freeware program called syncback. At a specified time every day, it backs up specified folders to two additional hard drives. It also has a backup now function so I can make immediate backups if desired. It will also sync folders too.

Keithmphoto Loc: Seattle area

Hi Cindy, I am currently using dvd's and hard drives. A mix of both for personal projects as well as business. Then I found www.macgurus.com. They have the best info on starting a image archive. I have a "burly" system consisting of 4 hard drives 2 which are my main storage disks, each of theses back themselves up. It works on a e-sata cable which is much faster than FireWire. All avenues of backup have issues, hard drives fail. Buy the best and don't spin them all the time. Back up and shut them down. Mac Gurus has all the info you could ever need on this subject

WNYShooter Loc: WNY

I work with both Audio and Photography files and my standard operating procedure for years has been to store two copies of all my current files over to permanent media, now using DVD, on the 1st and 16th of every month. I've lost a few drives and a few disks, but never any of my files over all of that time

montanasoybean Loc: Montana

I understand about backing up and the risks involved, but my question adds file management to the lot. How do I back up everything but still keep an idea on my computer about what I have taken photos of. With over 100,000 shots I begin to forget where "that picture" is. As the good book says about council of many, what are the UHH people using to solve this problem?

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

montanasoybean wrote:

I understand about backing up and the risks involved, but my question adds file management to the lot. How do I back up everything but still keep an idea on my computer about what I have taken photos of. With over 100,000 shots I begin to forget where "that picture" is. As the good book says about council of many, what are the UHH people using to solve this problem?

Classifying your folder and subfolder is key to good organization. I have one external hard drive for wildlife and one for landscapes, all with folders and subfolders further breaking down what they all contain. With a large number of pics it does get tedious. I am just getting started with Lightroom and hope that organizer will help in retrieval time shortening.
Soybeans? You must be up on the Hiline somewhere?