Running Out of Disk Space

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rabaroo

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After 6 months of photography I'm now running out of space on my laptop Hard drive.... my heart is telling me to buy a Quad Core Desktop with 4GB RAM and a 20+" screen :D, however my head is saying that I cant really justify that just now :razz:

So I have three real options

1. archive some of my old pics off to my external HDD, this is only ever connected to the laptop for backup purposes and is a bit big and cumbersome to use.... it also means I cant go back and play with old photo's unless i make a conscious decision to hook it up.

2. Buy a new lightweight and portable external HDD - I could probably live with this as long as its USB powered.

3. Buy a NAS and access my files over WiFi

what do we think? - also any suggestions on 2+3 appreciated.
 
rabaroo said:
After 6 months of photography I'm now running out of space on my laptop Hard drive.... my heart is telling me to buy a Quad Core Desktop with 4GB RAM and a 20+" screen :D, however my head is saying that I cant really justify that just now :razz:

So I have three real options

1. archive some of my old pics off to my external HDD, this is only ever connected to the laptop for backup purposes and is a bit big and cumbersome to use.... it also means I cant go back and play with old photo's unless i make a conscious decision to hook it up.

2. Buy a new lightweight and portable external HDD - I could probably live with this as long as its USB powered.

3. Buy a NAS and access my files over WiFi

what do we think? - also any suggestions on 2+3 appreciated.
Click to expand...

here is a more serious point - you don't seem to account for any BACKUP in any of your options! When I buy a drive I buy pairs and sync them using.

here is a FACT - YOUR DRIVE(S) WILL FAIL it's just a matter of time. When your drive fails it's either goodbye to your files or it's VERY expensive to recover any data lost. I've been there seen it wore the T-Shirt.

Drives are so cheap just now it makes sense to minimise data loss relatively cheaply and buy a pair of drives and mirror the data.

NAS drives are ok but as I don't have a network I didn't see the point for me. I now have over 3Tb of disk space over about 8 drives. I have every file backed up at least once. Still not 100% safe but minimised as much as I am comfotrable with. When i fill a disk the copy goes off site to further help seiure it. i'd like to keep a permanent copy off site (at my mums :) )

How would you feel having copied data over and your drive fails? make a second copy and at least you'll also feel safer.....

You have been warned :)
 
#2 works for me

As eosJD says.. wheres your backups now ?
 
Valid concern raised, but relax... for my existing set up my data is stored on the laptop HDD and I have an external HDD that I run a regular backup too.... my ultimate aim is to have a further external HDD that I store away from my house at my parents, but the logistics of doing the updates to that have prevented me doing it thus far....... using DVD's for the same doesnt work either due to organisation as updating images and taking new pics all the time leads to masses of DVD's and no clear way (that I've found) to understand where I am at a point in time and whats on what.....

If I was going the NAS route I'd look for a RAID array and retain my existing HDD which would then be the backup drive for that
 
rabaroo said:
using DVD's for the same doesnt work either due to organisation as updating images and taking new pics all the time leads to masses of DVD's and no clear way (that I've found) to understand where I am at a point in time and whats on what.....
Click to expand...

I backup to DVD every month.. there cheap.. one DVD per month Mclearly marked and stored in order. However they are backup #3 as I ahve HD /USB External / DVD
 
I only keep the photos I’m working on my laptop. My main store is my external hard drive (stored behind the sofa for convenience!) and I back everything up on monthly DVD's (then if I want to go back to something and am not by my sofa I just use the disc).

I tend to back up pretty much once I’ve finished editing.

Anna
 
so how do you work your backups to DVD as its something I have problems maintaining....

my folder set up is quite logical....

A top level folder for unprocessed pics (thats my DNG's)
01 - Day 1 photos
02 - Day 2 photos
etc etc

A top level folder for processed pics (touched up and exported JPEGs)
01 - Day 1 photos
02 - Day 2 photos
etc etc

I also have shared pictures that I keep in the "Public Pictures" folder which are holiday snaps kind of thing.

... maybe where I am going wrong is merging the three onto the same DVD sometimes, perhaps I should have a seperate set of DVD's for each.... in which case, how do you know where your up to? - i.e. do you have to remember that your last backup went to folder 65, and what do you do if you dont have a full DVD to burn, do you re-cycle the same disk until its full?

slightly off topic but still useful :)
 
I have a 500Gb large format external drive for backup and a 250 Gb small format external drive for normal everyday use and that I take when travelling. When I fill up the small format drive I will get another - and there will still be space on the 500Gb for backup. External disk storage is cheap/economical these days - so good to double up and then is one breaks you are safe and can get another disk...

Which reminds me - must go and do a backup now!
 
Another option is to have a hard look at the images you have on your laptop, I try to do this every 6 months and focus on all images more than 6 months old. I ignore anything that has been used/sold and then go through all the other images, only keeping the absolute corkers, working on the basis that if I haven't used an image in 6 months and there are better ones available from the same shoot what is the point in keeping it on my HD...
 
I've just replaced my laptop 250GB HD with a 500GB & reinstalled the OS & software, bought another external 500GB portable HD, and I've just ordered a USB case to put the old laptop HD in, so I now have 3HD's for the laptop.

(my desktop has 6 HDs plus 3 portable HDs about 7TB of space & they are all filling up too!)
 
Just a small point Raid isn't a total backup solution, if you delete a pic from raid it deletes that pic from all the drives, if a virus gets in and wipes or overwrites, it does it on all the drives. Raid helps speed wise and gives some redundancy against a drive failing, but it's not the ideal answer for backup, seperate external drives are safer. Wayne
 
rabaroo said:
so how do you work your backups to DVD as its something I have problems maintaining....

slightly off topic but still useful :)
Click to expand...

I think the best way to do this will vary as to how many and why you take photos.

I take lots but don't do it professionally so the method i use on my external harddrive is-

A folder for the year
Subfolder for the month
subfolder for each project or session e.g. holiday jan 09, Helen mar 08 etc

on dvd its basically the same, a disc for each month with the session folder named as above.

It works for me:)
 
swanseamale47 said:
Just a small point Raid isn't a total backup solution, if you delete a pic from raid it deletes that pic from all the drives, if a virus gets in and wipes or overwrites, it does it on all the drives. Raid helps speed wise and gives some redundancy against a drive failing, but it's not the ideal answer for backup, seperate external drives are safer. Wayne
Click to expand...

To clarify RAID isnt any part of a backup solution - its a resilience solution to protect the data as stored on the disk
 
KIPAX said:
I backup to DVD every month.. there cheap.. one DVD per month Mclearly marked and stored in order. However they are backup #3 as I ahve HD /USB External / DVD
Click to expand...

DVDs are too slow, and too small to backup most photographers's work. Also they are NOT very reliable. i lost data from a few DVDs a few years ago and have never trusted them. i have also lost data from a hard drive but for ease of use, speed etc, dual hard drives makes more sense.
 
Craikeybaby said:
Another option is to have a hard look at the images you have on your laptop, I try to do this every 6 months and focus on all images more than 6 months old. I ignore anything that has been used/sold and then go through all the other images, only keeping the absolute corkers, working on the basis that if I haven't used an image in 6 months and there are better ones available from the same shoot what is the point in keeping it on my HD...
Click to expand...

Yes I removed 60Gb of images a couple of weeks ago from one drive - duplicated on my other drive means 120Gb of data freed up!!!!
 
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