Storing photos on Laptop: Greetings Lady & Fellow Hoggers: My old laptop had a 1tb hard drive. My "Pictures" folder is about 213gb. I recently upgraded my laptop and it has a 512gb...

Triplets Loc: Reading, MA

Greetings Lady & Fellow Hoggers:

My old laptop had a 1tb hard drive. My "Pictures" folder is about 213gb. I recently upgraded my laptop and it has a 512gb SSD. I have a Seagate 1tb portable hard drive I use to backup my "Pictures" folder.

As you can see, most of the space on the SSD is taken by photos. I'm considering purchasing a second 1tb portable hard drive and moving the "Pictures" folder to the new portable drive and removing it from my laptop, thus freeing up the space. I use PS and LR (subscription) for editing. My question: Would there be a significant -- if any -- negative impact if all editing is done on an external hard drive.

Thanks,

Dennis

mh2bttb Loc: NC

Did you say if you use Windows or Mac? I can give you a decent Mac scenario. (assuming you don’t want all your photos in one of a dozen ”clouds”. The key is to have your applications on the ultra fast SSD. So I do the following. 1. USE the laptop (512ssd) for all applications and various other things. 2. You can use your 1tb portable drive for all your pictures. NOW, effectively you have 1.5 Tb of drive storage. 3. USE TIME MACHINE to back up both your laptop and 1TB to another external backup drive. MASSIVE DRIVES ARE AVAILABLE That ARE SO CHEAP They are almost free today! So in summary: you now have a) speed b)plenty of storage c) the easiest backup system on the planet.

Triplets Loc: Reading, MA

mh2bttb wrote:

Did you say if you use Windows or Mac? I can give... (show quote)

Thanks...Windows 10 16gb RAM. I'm keeping the app on the laptop and I'll plug in the portable drive when I want to access the photos via LR/PS for uploading/editing/viewing.

Dennis

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

If your editing is to be done on the laptop and then saved to the portable Seagate that should be fine. You will, of course, need another drive purely for backing up.

Triplets Loc: Reading, MA

Delderby wrote:

If your editing is to be done on the laptop and then saved to the portable Seagate that should be fine. You will, of course, need another drive purely for backing up.

Sorry...I probably didn't state it correctly. My plan is to have two separate 1tb portable hard drives. One will be used to store/edit/view the photos and the second would be strictly as a backup for the photos.

Dennis

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Triplets wrote:

Sorry...I probably didn't state it correctly. My plan is to have two separate 1tb portable hard drives. One will be used to store/edit/view the photos and the second would be strictly as a backup for the photos.

Dennis

You explained it correctly. That wasn't what they wanted to talk about.

Todd1959 Loc: Bluffton South Carolina

I have 3 external hard drives. One is always connected to my PC. The other 2 are back up

Triplets Loc: Reading, MA

traderjohn wrote:

You explained it correctly. That wasn't what they wanted to talk about.

Thanks...never can be too sure how I stated it.

Dennis

barrdennis

I back everything up to an external hard drive and also burn 2 data dvd of all real important files.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's one problem with SSDs and laptops. SSDs tend to be small, and laptops don't have room for two internal drives. I don't know why makers don't simply use an M.2 SSD and install a large HDD.

A large external hard drive should solve your storage problems. You could even get an external SSD and not worry about dropping of shaking. Your plan for editing should work just fine.

Triplets Loc: Reading, MA

jerryc41 wrote:

That's one problem with SSDs and laptops. SSDs tend to be small, and laptops don't have room for two internal drives. I don't know why makers don't simply use an M.2 SSD and install a large HDD.

A large external hard drive should solve your storage problems. You could even get an external SSD and not worry about dropping of shaking. Your plan for editing should work just fine.

Thanks Jerry.

Dennis

therwol Loc: USA

jerryc41 wrote:

That's one problem with SSDs and laptops. SSDs tend to be small, and laptops don't have room for two internal drives. I don't know why makers don't simply use an M.2 SSD and install a large HDD.

A large external hard drive should solve your storage problems. You could even get an external SSD and not worry about dropping of shaking. Your plan for editing should work just fine.

My 17 inch HP Envy laptop came with a 1Tb HDD, which I replaced with a Samsung SSD of the same size. It also has a place for a second M.2 SATA hard drive, but it is on the underside of the motherboard, requiring taking the entire laptop apart to install one. Stupid. I'm going to put a 4Tb SSD in the thing, delivery scheduled for tomorrow. This will solve any space problem, but I won't have internal backup in case of hard drive failure.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

therwol wrote:

My 17 inch HP Envy laptop came with a 1Tb HDD, which I replaced with a Samsung SSD of the same size. It also has a place for a second M.2 SATA hard drive, but it is on the underside of the motherboard, requiring taking the entire laptop apart to install one. Stupid. I'm going to put a 4Tb SSD in the thing, delivery scheduled for tomorrow. This will solve any space problem, but I won't have internal backup in case of hard drive failure.

Sounds good - and I'm sure you realise that regardless of internal backup you need an external backup stored away from the house.

tcthome Loc: NJ

jerryc41 wrote:

I don't know why makers don't simply use an M.2 SSD and install a large HDD.

A large external hard drive should solve your storage problems. You could even get an external SSD and not worry about dropping of shaking. Your plan for editing should work just fine.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Delderby wrote:

Sounds good - and I'm sure you realise that regardless of internal backup you need an external backup stored away from the house.

I'm still not that smart.