Salena Posted November 21, 2022 Share Posted November 21, 2022 Hi Brian, My laptop is overloaded and I need some help. I'm a bit of a photo hoarder for personal photos and need a better way of storing them. Do you have an article about what type of HD to buy? I feel like I've read one before but not sure where. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 I've never gotten around to writing that article, but I did answer a question about a HD just yesterday, with some links: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salena Posted November 22, 2022 Author Share Posted November 22, 2022 Cool, shall I ask follow up questions on that thread or my one? Don't wanna break any rules!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 Just post it in this thread. In reality, I need to know how much you need storage-wise? How much of a Hoarder are you. Also, you do not need 75 photos of your lunch, taken over 10 years ago, so delete those out-of-focus and underexposed photos with ruthless intent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salena Posted November 22, 2022 Author Share Posted November 22, 2022 Ok cool. So I make a yearly book of photos for my kids, mostly cell phone photos but also others of trips we've taken that I've taken on my dslr. I'm behind on my mission and currently at 2019. So I've been keeping anything relevant on my laptop. When I am working on my book, I'd like to be able to work off an external drive. Using bridge I'm hoping this will be easy enough. Currently I've got everything on portable hard drives and a spreadsheet with the details keeping track of it. Do you recommend desktop ones over portable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 So are you looking to be mobile or not? Are you looking to consolidate your externals to one large drive? What capacities do you have now with your externals? How many drives are we talking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salena Posted November 22, 2022 Author Share Posted November 22, 2022 I've got 5 in total 2 full. So I update onto 3. One is just for client work and the other 2 are a mix. Every set is on 2 or 3 of them. It would probably be best if I consolidate but I am quite untrusting of them so feel like spreading them over is less risk. I am not particularly mobile with them. When I am mobile, I just have my laptop and not a drive. My laptop has 1TB and yesterday after adding the weekend's work it was reduced to 5gb and scratch disks were full. So I've moved some around and deleted from laptop and now I've got 146 odd gb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 2 hours ago, Salena said: reduced to 5gb and scratch disks were full This is very bad. Ultimately, you never want to go more than 75%-80% full on your Main Drive. So even at 146GB, it's still not enough. You want around 300GB free. It's just not the PS Scratch Disk you need to worry about, Windows has its own "Scratch Disk" called Pagefile.sys, which was formally known as the "Windows Swap File." At 5GB free, you are in danger of things getting corrupted, in addition to things coming to a screeching halt. 2 hours ago, Salena said: spreading them over is less risk. While this is true to some degree, it doesn't eliminate all risk. Not having an off-site backup (duplicates) negates "spreading things out..." AND if they are el-cheapo consumer grade drives, like the "$99 Special" or a "Eco-Friendly or Green" Drives, raises your risk even higher. I like my hard drives to be beefy and reliable. I get the "Don't put all your eggs in one basket!!" Mentality, but honestly? It really is a wash. If a Hard Drive fails, and you are looking at professional recovery at a cost of $1500+, it doesn't mean a damn thing in the grand scheme of things. While it's true that you "Only" lost ________ set of images, it still sucks to deal with it, especially if you need those images. Even if it's a 500GB External Drive. In addition, there is the whole Fire, Theft and Floods to deal with, even if you are in an area that isn't in a Flood Plain. A busted Water Pipe in your ceiling above your desk can ruin things. I typically recommend the G-Drives. I have two sitting on my desk as I type this. One 4TB that I use for my Time Machine Backups and one 12TB that's duplicated to another 12TB and kept off-site. Plus, I have really important things backed up to my OneDrive account. So if something dies, it's more of a Pain in the Arse than a Catastrophe. All I waste is an afternoon or so. Here is the default drive choice that I've been recommending lately, G-Drive - 6TB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salena Posted November 22, 2022 Author Share Posted November 22, 2022 Thank you. Yes I took it quite seriously when it was saying 5gb and was in red writing. Does anyone work off external hard drives? Like could I put all my archived photos on one and then plug it in when I want to focus on one of my books? And then just keep my images that are a work in progress on my laptop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 It really depends on the interface that you are using. I personally work off an External Drive, but I also have a Thunderbolt 3 port on my Mac, which is extremely fast. So for me, my external almost feels like an internal drive. That said, USB 3.0...there is a bottle-neck and you won't get the performance as you would off of your internal. I would seriously copy your images over to your external, and verify that everything transferred correctly. Delete the images off of your internal laptop. Why not just "Move" the files all at once? Because sometimes Windows screws up. When you Copy / Paste, the original files are intact and if Windows screws up, you can always Cancel and try again. If you move the files (Cut / Paste) and Windows screws up, your original files go "Poof" and you are looking at data recovery. Once you get everything transferred over, only edit current projects on your internal drive. Once they are completed, transfer them to the external. Rinse & Repeat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salena Posted November 22, 2022 Author Share Posted November 22, 2022 Great thanks Brian. Last question for now. Are the plug in ones faster or better than the portable ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 The 7200 RPM Drives, which plug into an AC outlet are much faster than their slower 5400 RPM counterparts. Yes, there is a noticeable difference. The "Enterprise Grade" HDs that I recommend, do plug in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salena Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 Ok great I'll look at that number when looking too. My laptop keeps crashing when trying to drag and drop files from hard drive to my external hard drive. Recently I updated all my drivers and I think maybe that's the problem. Could it be that the external hard drives have a driver that is incompatible or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salena Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 It says all my drivers are up-to-date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 Why the F*ck are you using Winzip Driver updater? Yeah, it's probably screwed things up, and way too much for me to attempt any recommendations; you might have to take your laptop into a local repair shop to have things checked out. Sidenote: I'm thinking either the USB Drivers or Chipset Drivers are really screwed up, and I would never use a program like that to update drivers for a laptop. You head to the Manufacturer's Support Section of their website to get the drivers. (They usually have their own free scanning tool.) It might just pull the Microsoft Drivers which aren't always 100% compatible with your hardware. Worst Case Scenario: They are going to have to Nuke your HD and reload everything. Best Case Scenario: Someone will be able to find out why it's crashing and correct it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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