computer question about drives causing errors.

[jann1033]

i have a western digital drive that is almost full( a few gb left open) with my photos. i had read it is better not to leave them connected if you aren't using them much so i disconnected it. went to retrieve a photo yesterday using lightroom 2.4., the photos show up in the catalog but when i tried to edit it in another program it wouldn't load it to the other program. ( painter x since my pse isn't working) it would convert to tiff but then not load( the error message just said it "couldn't edit it and would now close") i rebooted a few times and this morning seems to be working fine. i could always load and edit etc from my internal drive, it was just photos from the external i had problems with

so my question is, should i keep it connected? was it just a fluke it wouldn't edit? could it have been since it was so full?( less than 2 gb open when i first reconnected, now 3.5)

wondering since 1) i don't want to have it happen and lose all my photos permanently some time .2) wondering if since the internal hard drive i have lightroom and phshop elements on is also almost full( 22 gb open so not the same external drive obviously) if that could be messing up my elements( that error says it can't find the address so access denied)
any ideas would be appreciated
thanks

 

[DisneyGrampa]

First, it;'s not good practice to leave less than 10% free space on a drive.
Second, some programs create temporary files when they run which can "overfill" a drive with little space left. I don't know if the software you're using might write a temporary file to your data drive, but if it does, that could be your problem.
Third, are you saying your files aren't backed-up? If not, then it isn't a question of if you'll lose your pictures, but when.

 

[Groucho]

It's possible that a different drive letter got assigned somehow and your software couldn't find the photo where it expected it, then your unplugging/plugging/rebooting got it back on the usual drive letter... that is one possibility. But if Lightroom is successfully converting it to a TIFF, then that is probably not the problem... it's more likely an issue with the external editor not accepting Lightroom 100% of the time for whatever reason.

I would not bother disconnecting the drive unless you're actually taking it somewhere. I don't think it should significantly affect the lifespan of the drive. Drives go bad no matter what you do...

 

[sanschag]

I would not bother disconnecting the drive unless you're actually taking it somewhere. I don't think it should significantly affect the lifespan of the drive. Drives go bad no matter what you do...

I have to disagree with this. While not as important as it once was since drives automatically spin down nowadays, I would still disconnect a drive not in regular use. This prevents any regular access (like programs checking the presence of files or if they have been changed), any power spikes/surges being transmitted to the drive, and any virus/malware/etc. from being able to access the drive. (It also prevents accidental deletions.) I wouldn't do it for a drive you're going to be accessing a couple times a day, but otherwise, mine are disconnected. (Especially if it's not going to be used for days or weeks.)

To the OP, one potential issue is that the drive wasn't "safely removed". This can sometimes cause problems in the file tables if files are being written. I believe Lightroom stores information about the images (including thumbnails) internally, so these images might still show up. As mentioned above as well, if this is the only place you have your images, it's highly likely you will lose them at some point. (All of my images are in at least 2 places, some are in 3, including one stored off-site at my office.)

 

[jann1033]

i have them backed up and have the 50 or so dvds to prove it but i 'd rather not lose them from the drive.

what do you mean by "safely removing" it? anything other than using the icon for safely removing hardware?

i am going through my photos to get rid of duplicates and ones i'll never use to free up more space till i can get another external drive. i think the tiff files are just goggling it up since my camera is only 10mp. i think i knew that bout the 10% but like so much in life, it slipped my mind.

part of the problem i think was painterx only accepts 8 bit evidently, hard to believe but when i changed it to 8 bit it went through. i know the adobe viewer has upgraded a few times, not sure if that is what isn't working with elements(5) or what.
it'
s just hard to believe the program i had downloaded and the disk went bad at the same time so i figure something is messing the pse program up but it's probably not the drive for that then since i have close to the 10% open( i have 2 /250gb internal drives)

 

[sanschag]

what do you mean by "safely removing" it? anything other than using the icon for safely removing hardware?

That's all I meant. Part of my job is IT support and some users have, let's say trouble, with the basics.

 

[jann1033]

That's all I meant. Part of my job is IT support and some users have, let's say trouble, with the basics.

Oh, i totally own my computer "non savvy-ness", just for once i saw an icon I needed to use

 

[Groucho]

I still disagree about the hard drives. Spinning down is the problem - server drives last relatively long because they never stop spinning. What concerns me is folks who sit a bunch of data on an external drive on a shelf and expect it to work when they go to get something off it months later. There's no guarantee - hard drives are still the least reliable storage method. It's also more difficult to do proper tests on USB-attached drives to ensure that there aren't bad sectors developing that you haven't noticed yet.

Jann - 10% isn't a hard and fast rule - after all, 10% on a 1.5tb drive and 10% on a 160g are quite a bit different! The amount of space depends on the OS... with XP, I would want to keep maybe a gig free; with Vista or Win7, maybe a few gig free. Then again, I did have a time when my winsxs folder (a sort of cache used in Vista and Win7) was grew in space by about 10g in a short period of time.

 

[jann1033]

i just did a computer status check and the one drive i thought was for backup only is almost full..said it would cause slow operation/ memory problems so i need to back that one up as well and never have ....wish i had stock in some dvd company, they must make a bundle

 

[Groucho]

Slow operation/memory problems? What status check did you run? Was it one of those that is trying to sell your something?

The only time the fullness of the drive can affect how your PC runs is if it's the drive where Windows is installed (usually C: ) - if you're using an external drive, it doesn't matter if it's 1% full or 99% full, it will work just as quickly. (Pulling up a list of files may take slightly longer, since there's more of them, but that's it.)

On your C: drive, running out of space can potentially cause some Windows errors as it uses your free space for "virtual memory" (so it can run more programs than will fit in the normal RAM on your PC). As long as you have enough space for virtual memory (usually about double the amount of ram you have - so for a PC with 1g of memory, about 2g free), again, it doesn't matter if it's 50% full or 80% full or whatever.

Fragmentation can cause slightly slower operation, but that's different that free space available. Hard drives are there to store data; if you don't use the whole thing, it's going to waste.

 

[jann1033]

Slow operation/memory problems? What status check did you run? Was it one of those that is trying to sell your something?

The only time the fullness of the drive can affect how your PC runs is if it's the drive where Windows is installed (usually C: ) - if you're using an external drive, it doesn't matter if it's 1% full or 99% full, it will work just as quickly. (Pulling up a list of files may take slightly longer, since there's more of them, but that's it.)

On your C: drive, running out of space can potentially cause some Windows errors as it uses your free space for "virtual memory" (so it can run more programs than will fit in the normal RAM on your PC). As long as you have enough space for virtual memory (usually about double the amount of ram you have - so for a PC with 1g of memory, about 2g free), again, it doesn't matter if it's 50% full or 80% full or whatever.

Fragmentation can cause slightly slower operation, but that's different that free space available. Hard drives are there to store data; if you don't use the whole thing, it's going to waste.

it was from hp preinstalled "toubleshooting" software reliability and performance monitor.( tried to copy and paste the results but it won't paste) the really weird thing is when i went to that drive( it's the recovery partition, "d" drive, i also have one mostly full c drive and a mostly empty e drive) it warns not to delete or alter the files there( on d) so ?????it is much more full than it was previously though and i haven't added anything to it...intentionally . i'm backing up first then i'll see what is on there that wasn't before. i mean eventually it's going to be full so i don't see how i can never remove anything off it