I need an external hard drive

rockdodger

rockdodger

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I am wanting to transfer 36,000 images of my computer and on to an external hard drive but I have no idea which is a good or possibly bad hard drive to purchase and was wondering if anyone on here could give me a bit of guidance.
I was initially thinking of something say 2TB, but I have no idea if that would be enough. I was also considering a solid state one. I am currently using a desk top computer and running windows 10.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers Steve
 
Hi Steve,

No idea how much space 36k images would take. What size HDD do you currently have in your pc. Check the size and get one larger.

I would also suggest getting two drives as opposed to one so that you have a back up. If you are going to use it as a back up you don't need SSD just two normally usb HDDs would be better.

In terms of usb HDD I prefer western digital.

If your machine has usb3 get a usb3 HDD either 2.5 or 3.5. 3.5 would need a power supply.
 
Thanks for the reply wallyboy. Is it an easy job to transfer all the images i have to an external hard drive.
 
Depending on the transfer speed and amount of data to be transferred you be there for hours transferring it.
 
Surely if the files are already on your computer you can right click and get info on their size?

If they are important files I’d get two hard drives so you have a backup copy. Standard spinning disk hard drive would be fine. You don’t need the extra cost of SSD if it’s for storage only and not a working disk.
 
rockdodger said:
Thanks for the reply wallyboy. Is it an easy job to transfer all the images i have to an external hard drive.
Click to expand...
Yes an easy job, what I would suggest is do it in small batches, that amount of pics will take a lot of time.
You can drag and drop, or send to hard drive.
when you plug hard drive in PC it will show on PC and ask what you want to do. If it doesn’t go to files it will show up there.
So highlight pics to transfer, right click on mouse and you will have option to send to hard drive, click on your hard drive in pane and your good to go.
 
wallyboy thanks for that i will give it a goo when i buy a hard drive and like you say i will do it in very small chunks
Cheers Steve.
 
Just an update on my storage solution.
After considering a load of option and with Christmas on its way i asked Santa to get me a Sandisk SSD which arrived on Christmas day. i am more than happy with it and it will store a load of images due to it being 2TB.
Thanks for all the advice its much appreciated and i hope you all have a good covid free new year.
Cheers Steve
 
Glad you found a good solution for you Steve @rockdodger - At least for the time being and perhaps for a long while. But if you shoot RAW an average image file size might be 25Mb (depending on the camera) and so even 2TB of storage can get filled up surprisingly quickly if you shoot a lot (as I do, average 1,000 per week and can be 3,000 per day when I am overseas) even though I cull them.

If/when the time comes when your 2TB Sandisk SSD fills up, I would consider a 4TB but also one which has the performance and connections to be able to edit your images while they are still on your external drive connected to your computer. This will also save filling up your computer's HD. I use LaCie external drives including rugged portables.
 
Hi RedRobin thanks for that info.I did actually bid on the well known auction site for a LaCie External drive but the price went to high for me. I will still keep my eye out for one even though i don't shoot anywhere near the amount you do i still think its a good idea to have good storage system.
Cheers
 
rockdodger said:
Hi RedRobin thanks for that info.I did actually bid on the well known auction site for a LaCie External drive but the price went to high for me. I will still keep my eye out for one even though i don't shoot anywhere near the amount you do i still think its a good idea to have good storage system.
Cheers
Click to expand...
.... Yes, LaCie are a very well respected brand and always have been relatively expensive. They usually use *Seagate drives which also have a good reputation.

* I now learn that LaCie are owned by Seagate.

As usual it's a matter of choosing the right horse for the course to suit your individual needs and sometimes those needs justify spending the extra. I need very rugged portability and fast read/write performance. The inclusion of an integrated SD card reader when out in the field is a huge bonus for my uses.
 
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I use a 2TB drive as one of my backups, 82,234 raw images taking up 1.45Tb of space.

Every manufacturer will have a group of people saying their drives are the best and an equal number saying they fail al the time, just buy a simple portable usb drive, from the likes of Seagate, WD or Toshiba.

I've got 2 from Sony, 2 from HGST (WD) and 2 from G-Tec, never had an issue with any of them.

I also have a couple empty USB caddies (£20 each) and stuffed 6TB drives in to backup my NAS
 
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sep9001 said:
Hi Steve,

No idea how much space 36k images would take. What size HDD do you currently have in your pc. Check the size and get one larger.
Click to expand...
.... 500 RAW image files are just under 9GB based on a 25Mb RAW file. So I'll let you do the maths calculation.

I know this because I have just been testing my new LaCie Rugged RAID Pro and timing the copy from camera card (7.5 minutes).

As advised by Kev, always buy bigger than you need because you'll quickly grow into it just like school uniforms :D
 
whiteflyer said:
Every manufacturer will have a group of people saying their drives are the best and an equal number saying they fail al the time, just buy a simple portable usb drive, from the likes of Seagate, WD or Toshiba.

I've got 2 from Sony, 2 from HGST (WD) and 2 from G-Tec, never had an issue with any of them.
Click to expand...
.... Seagate own LaCie which are their premium product brand.

All my various external drives are LaCie and so far no problems over several years of use.
 
RedRobin said:
.... Seagate own LaCie which are their premium product brand.

All my various external drives are LaCie and so far no problems over several years of use.
Click to expand...

It's all a personal choice, but at the end of the day it's still a Seagate inside.

It's the same with my premium brand FireWire G-Tec drives, inside it a just HGST drive, nothing special, but the case looks nice :)

I don't think drives fail anywhere near as often as some folk say, my G-Tecs must be at least 10 years old and still going fine.

If I had my time again, for desktop use I'd just go for one of those drop in caddie, where you can just pop bare HDDs in and out, for on the move outside personally I use an SSD ( no moving parts) I think my Sandisk 1Tb SSD was only around £90 and they probably gone up in price now.
 
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