Storage Issues - advice required

TGphoto · 15 Oct 2018

Hi all,

Having a bit of a storage issue and want some advice.

Currently using a 2015 13inch MacBook Pro 128gb for all my photography editing. Due to the limited space I also have an additional 256gb micro SD inserted - not ideal but it does a job.

I bought this at a time when photography was an irregular hobby so that space was fine. Now I take photography much more seriously and am building up towards doing weddings. I have maxed out the space and am eating into a 1tb external HDD. I don’t want to constantly have an external drive plugged in as it just isn’t practical, and I sometimes like to go back through old images that I didn’t get round to editing - this would be a PITA if I had moved them to an external drive. I realise that when I start doing weddings - I would have to do this eventually no matter what internal memory I had but I am at this stage with just landscape images and a few other bits.

I guess my options here are to stick with what I have and use external drives, upgrade the current SSD (not sure how easy or costly this is), move to a higher memory windows laptop (higher memory MacBook is too expensive as would want 512gb and maybe 15 inch).

Now I do have a 21.5 inch Mac on backorder as it was cheap on amazon (£1050) for 1 day only and has a 1tb drive and a retina screen (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iMac-Retina-display-All/dp/B072N2FNZM?ref_=mw_olp_product_details). Having second thoughts though as I do like laptops for their portability and like to edit whilst sat on the sofa - clearly not possible on a desktop.

What would you recommend? Are there any better windows laptops with a better than retina screen etc?

I would want anything else to be as reliable - MacBook runs exactly as it did on day 1 after 2 years of use. Edit: might be worth mentioning my previous laptop was a Dell with a quad core i7 processor, 16gb ram, FHD screen, mixture of SSD and 1tb HDD so it was a half decent machine but so slow after 2-3 years that I had to completely reinstall the OS.

Thanks,

Tom

Meeten · 15 Oct 2018

However you look at it, you really should have some form of backup.
A NAS may suit requirements?

Work on current projects on the mbp, and full the NAS / online storage for completed work.

I have an older mbp and got rid of the dvd, and put in a 128gb ssd to go with the 500fb hdd. This is matched with a nas where I store older images

Work on the ssd, have completed files on hdd, then back up to nas and when I get to it, online as well.

I'm sure there are other solutions but it does mean I am not cluttering my ssd with older images as they are moved onto other storage options.

TGphoto · 15 Oct 2018

Meeten said:
However you look at it, you really should have some form of backup.
A NAS may suit requirements?

Work on current projects on the mbp, and full the NAS / online storage for completed work.

I have an older mbp and got rid of the dvd, and put in a 128gb ssd to go with the 500fb hdd. This is matched with a nas where I store older images

Work on the ssd, have completed files on hdd, then back up to nas and when I get to it, online as well.

I'm sure there are other solutions but it does mean I am not cluttering my ssd with older images as they are moved onto other storage options.

Yeah that’s one solution but again, a bit of a hassle to do.

I do have backups for everything, have multiple spare external HDD drives so usually have 2 backups of everything.

admirable · 15 Oct 2018

Where do you keep your backups?

TGphoto · 15 Oct 2018

admirable said:
Where do you keep your backups?

External HDD's.

Do want to look into cloud storage but hasn't been worth it for personal stuff, I have 3 copies of everything so hasn't been an issue up to now but something I need to consider moving forward.

rob-nikon · 15 Oct 2018

Tom Green said:
External HDD's.

Do want to look into cloud storage but hasn't been worth it for personal stuff, I have 3 copies of everything so hasn't been an issue up to now but something I need to consider moving forward.

I think @admirable is saying location of the data is critical. If you have 3 copies of data but all three copies are stored together it’s similar to having only one copy in the case of theft or fire. It may not be the biggest issue losing everything if it’s only personal use data but when you get into paid work such as weddings it’s going to be critical having offsite backups. For backup I use Carbon Copy Cloner for all of my backups. Easy to set up and runs the backups automatically for you.

With such a low SSD the only thing you can do is keep the latest files on the SSD and move the older stuff to an external drive. Having a backup of both would be a good idea too.

TGphoto · 15 Oct 2018

rob-nikon said:
I think @admirable is saying location of the data is critical. If you have 3 copies of data but all three copies are stored together it’s similar to having only one copy in the case of theft or fire. It may not be the biggest issue losing everything if it’s only personal use data but when you get into paid work such as weddings it’s going to be critical having offsite backups. For backup I use Carbon Copy Cloner for all of my backups. Easy to set up and runs the backups automatically for you.

With such a low SSD the only thing you can do is keep the latest files on the SSD and move the older stuff to an external drive. Having a backup of both would be a good idea too.

Yes that’s helpful advice but my question isn’t really about data backup at all. I know that is a consideration but my question is about the best option to handle the amount of data I will be working with, regardless of backups. Essentially whether the system I am using is best or whether and alternative would be better.

holty · 15 Oct 2018

i have the same i mac fkn brilliant
i also have 3 4tb ext hdd as back up you can never know when 1 will give up the ghost
nothing wrong with 128gb on your MacBook thats plenty for a days shoot
by the way affinity is brilliant for the mac / i mac
don't think you will take that many pics at a wedding if you do
you must be machine gunning
a wee tip use small capacity cards 8gb so if it goes tits up you only loose 8gb
not like 128gb as what happened to my mate

holty · 15 Oct 2018

forgot to say you cannot upgrade the ram on the 21inch as its soldered onto the pcb
the 27inch is plug and play
if i had known that when i bought mine i would have got the 16gb version
but got to say it handles my d850 files lovely

rob-nikon · 15 Oct 2018

Tom Green said:
Yes that’s helpful advice but my question isn’t really about data backup at all. I know that is a consideration but my question is about the best option to handle the amount of data I will be working with, regardless of backups. Essentially whether the system I am using is best or whether and alternative would be better.

Fully understand that it’s about how you set up the working files and the archived files but backup is important too and is part of the overall storage system. It’s good to consider how you are going to back up when setting up the main storage system. With a laptop you have limited options if you want to work away from a desk. The only options if you don’t want to use wired connections are some kind of wireless connection. Only things I can think of are Apple timecapsule or a wireless powered hard drive like a WD mycloud or a NAS. For working files it’s probably best to keep those on the SSD until you are finished with them.

I current use a 21 inch iMac for editing. My internal 1TB hard drive was getting too full so had to move the RAWs to an external about a year ago. At the same time I added a raid drive as onsite backup. My external hard drives then became offsite backups. If interested I explained it all on my website: https://spark.adobe.com/page/Os6kX8G8QcZoA/

TGphoto · 15 Oct 2018

holty said:
i have the same i mac fkn brilliant
i also have 3 4tb ext hdd as back up you can never know when 1 will give up the ghost
nothing wrong with 128gb on your MacBook thats plenty for a days shoot
by the way affinity is brilliant for the mac / i mac
don't think you will take that many pics at a wedding if you do
you must be machine gunning
a wee tip use small capacity cards 8gb so if it goes tits up you only loose 8gb
not like 128gb as what happened to my mate

Good points - 128gb goes nowhere. I have my general daily stuff and apps on it and literally about 100 images and am left with 5gb - don't have 1 RAW file on the mac HD, only a few exported JPEGS. But yes, very much doubt I'd ever shoot 100 gb in a day, you're right there.

True, that's why I use a D750 for the dual slots and just run the 2nd as a backup.

holty said:
forgot to say you cannot upgrade the ram on the 21inch as its soldered onto the pcb
the 27inch is plug and play
if i had known that when i bought mine i would have got the 16gb version
but got to say it handles my d850 files lovely

Ahhh I didn't know that, thanks for sharing that. Cheeky buggars Apple aren't they. It's a shame their stuff is so good :LOL:

rob-nikon said:
Fully understand that it’s about how you set up the working files and the archived files but backup is important too and is part of the overall storage system. It’s good to consider how you are going to back up when setting up the main storage system. With a laptop you have limited options if you want to work away from a desk. The only options if you don’t want to use wired connections are some kind of wireless connection. Only things I can think of are Apple timecapsule or a wireless powered hard drive like a WD mycloud or a NAS. For working files it’s probably best to keep those on the SSD until you are finished with them.

I current use a 21 inch iMac for editing. My internal 1TB hard drive was getting too full so had to move the RAWs to an external about a year ago. At the same time I added a raid drive as onsite backup. My external hard drives then became offsite backups. If interested I explained it all on my website: https://spark.adobe.com/page/Os6kX8G8QcZoA/

Yes I see what you mean. Going to have a look more into a time-capsule or one of the wireless HD's - they might make a good solution.

Might also get the Mac as well because I think it will last years - £1049 is still a decent amount of money but might be a worthwhile investment.

Thanks for the advice

Will also have a look at your website. Cheers