For all you laptop photographers- Internet storage the answer the external hardrives?

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lukewoodford

FYI, I am Luke Woodford.....by Luke Woodford
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Ok so I am going to buy a Macbook Pro because I am sick of being stuck on my desktop. I have a full 500 gig hardrive. Now I will be transferring all my photos and lightroom library over to the laptop so that means 500 gig hardrive minimum. I am also going to be taking it everywhere and working in lots of different places so I thought what I would have to do for comfortable storage is to buy a 1TB external hardrive and basically carry it around with me and plug it in everytime I use the laptop. However I have just been in Currys and he introduced me to this unlimited storgae internet things for £90. I cant actually remember the name because I was half asleep when I went inn there this morning but I was wondering if any of you who have 1000's of photos use this method. Sounds good to me however i'm worried about how my lightroom catalogue will work? Will it not mess it up? Will I not be able to go back and re adjust photos like usual? I'm not sure exactly how it works so if any of you have an idea that would be great :)

Luke
 
neil_g said:
i dont think youd be able to run your lightroom catalogue from it, i think its just for storage/backup.

loads of potential for corrupting catalogues..
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Yeah thats what I thought, so is the answer to just carry a massive external hardrive everywhere then do you think?
 
lukewoodford said:
Yeah thats what I thought, so is the answer to just carry a massive external hardrive everywhere then do you think?
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Don't carry a massive one, simply carry a small one :) Some of these new portable hard drives are really small and dinky now and can be up to 1TB at least I think. They're also powered directly from the usb connection so you obvioulsy don't need a power pack, supply or plug.
 
File server ;)

(although this idea also works on a external hardrive)

Keep your work flow (what your doing) on the laptop, as well as small copies of the jpegs, archive all the old RAW files onto the external run the catalog from there(then once you've done the work flow, stick them on the external. (and change catalog where appropriate) Saves taking it everywhere with you, and if you dont have any backups, if the bag with it in gets stolen, you dont lose everything.
 
It would perform terribly.

Consider how long it would take to move files back and forth between online storage across a typical internet connection.

Why do you have to take your entire catalog around with you?

Personally, my laptop only has a working catalog on it for those files being worked on for the duration of travel, plus a portfolio collection.

As soon as I get back from travelling the catalog is transferred / sync'd with the main machine. No need to have everything in the laptop.
 
Try transferring files from one computer to another over your home network. That'll give you some idea of how slow an on-line storage facility would be.

You'd be better off spending the money on a small portable hard drive and it'd be much quicker as well
 
I recently purchased a 1TB 21/2" external drive, which runs directly off my MBP. A little more expensive MB to MB than the 500Gb drives but really worth it.
 
Also I very much doubt Curries would offer true unlimited storage option for £90. Take a closer look and I bet it has the same cravets as the "unlimited" internet deals, texts and mobile broadband.

Not to mention most ISP's would have a hissyfit if you tried to upload 500GB in a month (or possibly even a year)!
 
I use Flickr pro for storage, and i dont think there is a limit on that?

But its not the route you need to go down... also if you go for external drives, please buy at least 2 and perform regular backups.

I'm from an IT background and know how often these things can just go 'pop' and you would lose EVERYTHING.
 
Chappers said:
Try transferring files from one computer to another over your home network. That'll give you some idea of how slow an on-line storage facility would be.

You'd be better off spending the money on a small portable hard drive and it'd be much quicker as well
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Network transfer is way quicker than ftp or internet transfer.
 
Alright mate,

I work from a mpb laptop for everything, location shooting tethered and also editing and management at home.

For the best performance, I tend to keep the mbp's hd clean of archives and us it solely for apps.

I have, so far, 4 external drives totalling over 4TB from the last 3 years worth work.

I am pretty ruthless, I keep useable raws and psd files only. When running LR properly, it's all you need.

I still earn an income from events and shoots that happened over three years ago, so I must keep and back them up.

I'll be buying the 5th drive sometime soon.

I don't carry these HDD's with me but I do carry a single firewire 800 compact HD for on location storage that I can also copy over both raws/psd's and Lightroom catalogues from other commissions, should I need them.

Home is still photo HQ. ;)

One thing that has been interesting me for some time, is the idea of having a few large external HDD's that I leave at home that stay connected to the net. So if I get a call from an existing or potential client that needs a certain image(s), I can log in and begin a download.

I think Lacie do such drives :thinking:....
 
peterc2609 said:
I use Flickr pro for storage, and i dont think there is a limit on that?

But its not the route you need to go down... also if you go for external drives, please buy at least 2 and perform regular backups.

I'm from an IT background and know how often these things can just go 'pop' and you would lose EVERYTHING.
Click to expand...
Agreed.... I have 2 1tb drives on a server and use Goodsync to maintain them in case of the 'pop'.

If I'm desprate I access images via VPN ( https://secure.logmein.com/login.asp ) how ever keep the latest stuff on my lappy - again also synced. I also do an off site backup via disk every so offten although my needs for this are not in the TB region

Been in IT I can tell you paranoia sets in quick :help:

Terran
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
One thing that has been interesting me for some time, is the idea of having a few large external HDD's that I leave at home that stay connected to the net. So if I get a call from an existing or potential client that needs a certain image(s), I can log in and begin a download.

I think Lacie do such drives :thinking:....
Click to expand...

They do, they're rubbish. I bought one, wish I hadn't, awful to manage and use online and directs you via the LAcie HomeServer website all the time.

If you can get a good NAS with FTP support, you should use that instead.
 
JasonRS said:
They do, they're rubbish. I bought one, wish I hadn't, awful to manage and use online and directs you via the LAcie HomeServer website all the time.
Click to expand...

i was surprised to find a hitachi "deathstar" in a quadra d2 the other day.. not what youd expect for a "decent" reputation brand. that and we've had 2 lacie enclosures fail in the last month so theyre at the stop of my sh** list at the moment.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Alright mate,

I work from a mpb laptop for everything, location shooting tethered and also editing and management at home.

For the best performance, I tend to keep the mbp's hd clean of archives and us it solely for apps.

I have, so far, 4 external drives totalling over 4TB from the last 3 years worth work.

I am pretty ruthless, I keep useable raws and psd files only. When running LR properly, it's all you need.

I still earn an income from events and shoots that happened over three years ago, so I must keep and back them up.

I'll be buying the 5th drive sometime soon.

I don't carry these HDD's with me but I do carry a single firewire 800 compact HD for on location storage that I can also copy over both raws/psd's and Lightroom catalogues from other commissions, should I need them.

Home is still photo HQ. ;)

One thing that has been interesting me for some time, is the idea of having a few large external HDD's that I leave at home that stay connected to the net. So if I get a call from an existing or potential client that needs a certain image(s), I can log in and begin a download.

I think Lacie do such drives :thinking:....
Click to expand...

I'm in much the same situation, use my laptop for everything, but keep images on external drives, however rather than a NAS at home I use Photoshelter to store full res processed jpegs (you can host raw/tiff/PSD with them too) and if a client wants to buy I can send it to them from there, or even better they sort theorder out themselves and download the high res file.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Alright mate,

I work from a mpb laptop for everything, location shooting tethered and also editing and management at home.

For the best performance, I tend to keep the mbp's hd clean of archives and us it solely for apps.

I have, so far, 4 external drives totalling over 4TB from the last 3 years worth work.

I am pretty ruthless, I keep useable raws and psd files only. When running LR properly, it's all you need.

I still earn an income from events and shoots that happened over three years ago, so I must keep and back them up.

I'll be buying the 5th drive sometime soon.

I don't carry these HDD's with me but I do carry a single firewire 800 compact HD for on location storage that I can also copy over both raws/psd's and Lightroom catalogues from other commissions, should I need them.

Home is still photo HQ. ;)

One thing that has been interesting me for some time, is the idea of having a few large external HDD's that I leave at home that stay connected to the net. So if I get a call from an existing or potential client that needs a certain image(s), I can log in and begin a download.

I think Lacie do such drives :thinking:....
Click to expand...

Thank you for taking those words from my mouth Tom :D

What he says ^^^^ :)
 
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