G-Technology HD

[Sommer sweeney]

I just received my New G– technology HD, I hooked it up to the computer but I’m not sure what to do from here. The icon is already on my desktop and in my finder window under devices. What do I do from here?  How do I get my pictures over to the device?

Also once everything is on it , how do I work off of it in the future. I recently made a move to bridge so I’ll be working out of Bridge and PS. 
 

What will my new process of importing images be now that I have the device? 

[Brian]

Since you have a Mac and G-Drives come Mac formatted AND it’s appearing on your desktop...

Guess what?

You are done. No need to do anything hardware-wise. 

At this point, double-click I’m the new G-Drive and start creating a file / folder hierarchy. Create main folders, e.g., “Personal” “Business” “Website” “Uploads” (whatever you choose.) Then under the main folders create years, then months, then project names. Find a way to make things logical and methodical so that things are easy to find down the road. 
 

Take a hard look at your naming structure. Where are your photos stored now? What kind of folder? If it’s just a “Photos” folder, which is a dumping ground, that’s a issue. If you are a LR user and leave it up to LR to organize stuff, that is also very bad. Most people find out just how badly they are disorganized and have shit all over the place. Time to change habits.
 

One more thing, are you using a card reader or your stupid camera to transfer images to your computer? 

[Sommer sweeney]

I understand all of that which you told me to do in the new G-Drive.  
 

*about where they are stored now I uploaded through Lightroom and they are stored in files on my desktop-pictures- file name . Yes I know this is not a good thing but that’s why I am using bridge from sessions forward.  Bridge and ps only.  What’s the best way to organize ? 
 

 

lastly I am using a card reader to import.  How does this work with the new HD? 

[Brian]

When you put a card into the reader, it will appear on the desktop just like your G-Drive. Then all you have to do is double click on the reader and navigate to where your Raw files are. Do a select all and then right click copy. Then navigate to where they are to be located on the G-Drive EHD and then create a folder with the project name and then you right click and then paste. You simply treat the card reader as another “Hard Drive,” for lack of a better term. 
 

For how to organize, I answered that above. That is a very personal thing. You tell me how you want it organized. Here is a sample, and I will tweak this on my computer later. Doing this from my phone is tough:

— G-Drive EHD —

Client

–Weddings

—2020

—May

—-> 5-23 

———> Smith-Jones Wedding (Bride’s Last name first)

————-> Raw Files

——————> CF1

——————> CF2

——————> CF3

——————> SD1

————-> Raw Edits

————-> To the Client

————-> To Social Media

——————-> Facebook

——————> IG

——————-> Pinterest 

-June 

-Headshots 

-Commercial 

-Family Portraits

-Headshots

 

-2019

Personal

Business

iPhone

Website

 

[Brian]

I’m going to have to completely redo the above comment. Talk about messy. There is only so much I can do from my phone. 
 

Before jumping in, why not get a piece of paper and plan out your directory tree? Then create folders on the G-Drive? LR is going to BITCH about you moving stuff, so the better your folder structure and easier it is to find things, the easier everything will be for you. 

[Sommer sweeney]

Ok.  I understand everything you are saying.  I don’t know that I even need to bother with taking the ones out of Lightroom because I’ve already copied them from my internal hard drive over to the External hard drive. 
I created three folders on my external hard drive , actually The one you had mentioned earlier. Business personal and uploads. Under business I branched to the years that I have files for: 2018, 2019, 2020. Within each year I branched to the sessions. Each session is label starting with the year clients name, month and type of session. Example 2020_client name_march_newborn. Within this folder contains all my raw and JPEG files. I added a folder within this folder which contains that particular clients JPEG edited files.

Business  

-2018

-2019

-2020

2018

-2018_client name_January_ newborn

 

I will branch my 2020 tree Out more, 2018 and 2019 I only have 25 sessions between those two so there wasn’t much to catalog. Let me know your opinions or suggestions thank you

[Brian]

You have to treat your new EHD as a File Cabinet. Some File Cabinets have 4 drawers, some have 2 and others are bigger, like 6 or even 8. Most people have 2 - 4 drawers. Each one of these "drawers" is a main folder that is at the top level. For example, here is how my 12TB G-Drive looks:

Here is another shot, with a few levels down:

 

As you can see, the more detailed you are, the easier it is to keep things organized. If you have multiple camera bodies, it might be a good idea to have your bodies listed separately, each with their own folder system, that are duplicated in terms of hierarchy. So my D4s has a Raw folder, under that is the type of Cards that were used, and are numbered separately. So if I use several XQD cards during a Wedding, When I download them, I put them in chronological order. D4s >> Raw Files >> XQD1...XQD2...XQD3, etc. If I use my D850 during the gig, those images are put in the D850 >> Raw Files >> XQD1 >> SD1 folders. This way if I ever had two files that were named the same, at least I would know that DSC_0425.nef in the D4s folder came from that camera body. Of course, you usually can change the way your file names are created, it's just a setting in your camera body that you need to tweak. For example, I have 4 "Banks" in each of my camera bodies. Each "Bank" has its own unique three letter code. "WED" is for Weddings, "LND" is for Landscapes, "TVL" is for "Travel & PS," and so forth. I could also change this ID to "D4S" or "850" If I wanted to. Again, this is a personal thing. There is no "correct" way, just a way that makes sense to you.That being said, create a folder structure that would make sense to others. In the event is something terrible happens to you, someone could figure out where those Life Insurance Forms are stored, as well as other important files. KWIM? Really think things out, even if you have to write them down on paper first, THEN go diving into your files.

[Brian]

One more important thing! If your Mac has a Thunderbolt 2 or Thunderbolt 3 port, make sure you use that cable and not the USB Cable. I know everyone is so used to using a USB Cable, but if you have a newer Mac, and a Thunderbolt 3 port, plus a G-Drive that contains a Thunderbolt 3 connector, it is so much faster than using a USB Cable. So much that I work directly off my EHD, which Damien disagrees with. My reasoning, is that Thunderbolt 3 is so fast, that it's almost the same speeds as working with my internal HD. Now if all I had was a USB drive to work with, I would be importing my current gigs to the Main HD, while keeping a similar file / folder tree. This way I can drag and drop each file / folder from the Main HD to the EHD, the only difference is physically they are stored. I can find them using the same searching methods, regardless of drive.

Most importantly, when it's all said and done, create a File Hierarchy AND STICK WITH IT. It is so easy to get sloppy and I'm guilty as charged. I have a bunch of crap in my personal folder that is all over the place. The business & client stuff though, is where its supposed to be.

 

[Sommer sweeney]

Any idea what I should choose here ?  This was on the screen when I got home from work.  

[Sommer sweeney]

Brian , this is the back of my Mac. So I guess the answer is I have the thunderbolt 3 port.  But I’m not sure about how to connect the G-drive since the connector cable is a usb style.  Is there a converter cable I should use ?

 

let me know what I should do?  

[Brian]

7 hours ago, Sommer sweeney said:

Any idea what I should choose here ?  This was on the screen when I got home from work.  

If you are using this drive as a Data Drive, TELL IT NO...AS IN NO I DO NOT WANT TO USE THIS DRIVE FOR TIME MACHINE.

Keep your Time Machine separate from your Data Drive. What happens is if you do use the drive for Time Machine, it will attempt to backup to itself, and that is very bad. We want this drive excluded from Time Machine. For that, head into Time Machine's preferences and put the new G-Drive on the exclude list. Time Machine's Preferences are pretty straightforward, and I'm sur you can find the exclude list if you poke around.

[Brian]

As for the Thunderbolt 3, you don't have that option for your EHD, so please disregard what I mentioned above. You will know when you have a Thunderbolt Version because you will have a Thunderbolt Logo on the front of the Drive:

 

In the future, if you do purchase another G-Drive, be sure to get a Thunderbolt 3 version. Once you experience the speed of TB3, it will be tough to go back to USB3.0.

[Sommer sweeney]

Ok great.  I can always purchase a better EHD if needed.  I thought I was getting a good one when I purchased.  I didn’t know about the thunderbolt part.  But now I do! So am I ok to continue as I am. All should be good?!  
 

* here is a screen shot of the time machine on my Mac. Hopefully this is right, when you said exclude the drives from the back up list.  They were already in the list so I just hit save.  

[Brian]

Yep! You are good! 
 

You did purchase a good drive! I did the same thing! When I got my new fancy iMac, I just used my older 4TB USB G-Drive for a “TM Only Drive” and bought a larger 12TB Thunderbolt 3 Drive for use as a Data EHD for my new Mac. Keep in mind, some of the larger TB3 G-Drives are quite expensive, like around $600-$700, so budget for that.
 

Yes, it is worth it. 

[Brian]

Here is a 14TB Thunderbolt G-Drive:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1480233-REG

The cool part with G-Drives, is they include cables...which they should for that amount of money.