Out of space....

keef32

keef32

Messages
1,139
Name
Richard
Edit My Images
Yes
Recently I have managed to max out the hard drive on my laptop (mainly due to photos).

I have 3 other older laptops which I don't use anymore and have one from of issue or another, what I was wondering is it possible to use one or all of the older laptop, after clearing, as external hard drives for storage?

I'm looking to be able to just connect up a USB or Network cable and freely get them across.

Any ideas?

Thanks
 
Surely it would be a lot easier to take the hard drives out of the old laptops and put them in a docking unit.
 
Its going to depend on if your working laptop sees your old laptop as a drive when its plugged in to USB-try it and see, you might have to format the old one first or it will probably try to boot up.
 
troutfisher said:
Its going to depend on if your working laptop sees your old laptop as a drive when its plugged in to USB-try it and see, you might have to format the old one first or it will probably try to boot up.
Click to expand...

Macs let you do that via thunderbolt and firewire. I'm not aware of a windows machine with the same capabilities.

keef32 said:
How would I go about that?
Click to expand...

Depends on the make and models but mostly with a screwdriver and something like an icy box usb enclosure.
 
neil_g said:
Macs let you do that via thunderbolt and firewire. I'm not aware of a windows machine with the same capabilities.



Depends on the make and models but mostly with a screwdriver and something like an icy box usb enclosure.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I'll have a look at that
 
 
mickledore said:
Would it not be simpler just to buy a standalone hard drive? 4tb for less than £100. Solve storage problems for some time to come and far less hassle.


https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/external-hard-drives/wd-my-passport-portable-hard-drive-4-tb-black-10154526-pdt.html?store=2081&cmpid=ppc~gg~(PLA)-LOCAL~~Exact&istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istItemId=xwimapippi&istBid=t&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~1023 (PLA) DATA STORAGE - Adaptive~1023 (PLA) DATA STORAGE - Adaptive ad group~Exact&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=m&ds_kids=92700029652236144&PLA=1&tgtid=1023 (PLA) DATA STORAGE - Adaptive&gclid=CjwKCAiA7ovTBRAQEiwAo8dPcWJ9wJ3J5GUQ0rhroxIecsWRGNYmQ8QjfSyp3_VRcmcTNtYdMeLGXhoCf4gQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Click to expand...


Saving for a wedding mate, very little spare money at the moment ☹️. Hence searching for the cheap approach :LOL:

I've bookmarked it though, thanks
 
Quick question, how big is the HDD in your laptop and how much is taken up with photos?
 
These work on xbox one and I assume work on PC`s. There only about £6 - £12

s-l1000.jpg
 
GeeJay57 said:
Given that the old laptops have one issue or another, would they really be a reliable backup storage option?

External hard drive would be my preferred solution.

You could get some of these and put in the hard drives from your old laptops.
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/components-upgrades/hard-drive-enclosures/dynamode-2-5-usb-3-0-sata-hard-drive-enclosure-10159106-pdt.html?store=2250&cmpid=ppc~gg~(PLA)-LOCAL~~Exact&istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istItemId=xpaqarqmtl&istBid=t&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~1023 (PLA) DATA STORAGE - Adaptive~1023 (PLA) DATA STORAGE - Adaptive ad group~Exact&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=t&ds_kids=92700027233286320&PLA=1&tgtid=1023 (PLA) DATA STORAGE - Adaptive&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIss2B27Xm2AIVbbXtCh0B8Q65EAQYAyABEgIPMvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Click to expand...

The issues are things like cracked screens, cosmetic issues.

troutfisher said:
Quick question, how big is the HDD in your laptop and how much is taken up with photos?
Click to expand...

Not sure, not home this weekend to check
 
Has your internet router got a number of ethernet ports on the back?

Mine (BT HH 5) has 4 and these will allow any connected computers to network through the router.

Two gig ethernet cables should be about £3 from Amazon.

You need to set the permissions on both computers to allow file sharing. Cannot remember how to do this but it was simple enough back when I did it last.


.
 
If the laptops are working, you could try selling them, even for £20 - £30 each, and then buy an external hard drive with the proceeds.
 
Where else are the photos stored? If you already have multiple backups you may be able to slim down your ‘live’ photos stored on the laptop?
 
Cheapest and fairly to do is that you could use a crossover cable via the network ports on each machine, that gives a direct link between then rather than going through the router but does mean some faff with ip addresses on each machine. Plugging them all into your router is probably the easiest way to do it, only needs some cheaply acquired network cables as you just need to make sure sharing is enabled on each machine and they should be detected on the network.

The easiest way but more costly is a portable hard drive or a monthly cloud subscription
 
Furtim said:
Where else are the photos stored? If you already have multiple backups you may be able to slim down your ‘live’ photos stored on the laptop?
Click to expand...

Looking at it last night, I have them catalogued in lightroom as well as in windows folders.. so basically duplicated most things... Just not sure which ones :rolleyes:

Mr Bump said:
is your stuff backed up?
Click to expand...

Nope
 
keef32 said:
Looking at it last night, I have them catalogued in lightroom as well as in windows folders.. so basically duplicated most things... Just not sure which ones :rolleyes:



Nope
Click to expand...

Catalogued in LR doesn’t mean another copy, it may be referring to the pic in the windows folders and in any case, it’s likely on the same disk, so alarm bells should be ringing.

There are plenty of free places to backup stuff to (google photos etc), is very strongly recommend you make some backups - offsite (like google photos) and to one of your other hard disks. The old adage goes you should not consider your photos backed up until they exist in three different places.

It’s not overkill.

If you value the images don’t skimp on the time investment to get them backed up.
 
Furtim said:
Catalogued in LR doesn’t mean another copy, it may be referring to the pic in the windows folders and in any case, it’s likely on the same disk, so alarm bells should be ringing.

There are plenty of free places to backup stuff to (google photos etc), is very strongly recommend you make some backups - offsite (like google photos) and to one of your other hard disks. The old adage goes you should not consider your photos backed up until they exist in three different places.

It’s not overkill.

If you value the images don’t skimp on the time investment to get them backed up.
Click to expand...

When I say catalogued I mean they are imported through lightroom and there are destination files on there as well.
 
keef32 said:
When I say catalogued I mean they are imported through lightroom and there are destination files on there as well.
Click to expand...

You don’t have a meaningful backup and you’re running with a disk at near full capacity.

If there was a recipe for data loss, this would be it.

Backup before you do anything else. Moving data from one disk to another to create space isn’t a backup.

Three copies of each file, each on a different disk (or cloud) is.

Best of luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top