external portable hard drive..

[stan the man]

i purchased an external portable hard drive today,to store all my photo's on..either as back up,or so that i can delete them off my computers hard drive,thus freeing up space on it...so my question is..

what do you knowledgeable folks recommend i do....just use the portable drive to store them and delete them off my computers HD..

or

use the portable HD as back up,and keep them on my compuers HD as well..

:shrug:

thanks in advance

 

[RobbieW]

backup only, and ensure you have more than one backup too

 

[Mr THX]

Second option for me............

Moving your images on to the new external HD does solve a problem for you in terms of space, but doesn't really offer you any piece of mind that should your HD fail your safe in the knowleadge that you have the information saved else where.

Go down the 'back up' route 'AND' trawl through some of your old stuff deleting what you'll never use/need/process etc, you'll be surprised how much crap we keep from old shoots.

 

[AliB]

I write all my pics that I would not want to lose to HD and burn them to DVD.

I can usually get all the critical ones for a year onto one DVD, even if it's only JPEG's. I'd rather have a backup JPEG than nothing.

 

[stan the man]

thanks folks...i think i'll use it as back up,plus burn them onto CD and save the keepers(there ain't that many lol)on the computers HD..just in case.

 

[GerryD]

I do something similar to AliB. But move all files across to DVD after removing oof shots, etc.
I should really use to hdd. 1st for working on and 2nd for backup. If you're then looking for an extra bit of security use a DVD for 3rd storage.

Just make sure that you use quality disk as cheap disk then to lose data rather quickly.

 

[Les McLean]

I use an excellent bit of free software 'allwaysync'
http://allwaysync.com

that automatically sync's between the 'keepers' on my computer and 'keepers' on the external hard drive.
So if I add an image to my 'keepers' folder on the computer, it will automatically make a back up into the keepers folder on external hard drive, similarly if I delete (or change) an image, the same happens.

Highly recommended bit of software.

 

[stan the man]

cheers gerald and les...will take a look at your link

just started sorting through my photo's...didn't realise how many images i had,and how many of them were complete dross...lol

 

[Graham_P_Clarke]

Use 2 External 1 for working and one for backup

 

[stan the man]

what do you mean by using one for working,and what are the benefits..

i have lots to learn oh wise ones...

 

[Graham_P_Clarke]

By one for working I mean I tend to keep one external for my working copies, I use both PC's and a Mac for processing access is slower to load but the flexability is worth it to me. One day I will build a server for the working copies. The second is my backup copy.