dumb photo storage ?

[hegs65]

Okay, so I went out and bought a 500 GB My Book external HD to back up my pictures and to hopefully clear up some space on my computer as I am running low on disc space. I have several questions regarding this process.
First, is this what I need to fix the disc space problem or does that mean I need more memory? Second, if I copy my saved pictures to the external HD then would I delete them from my computer? I should also state that in addition to storing them on the computer, I also save my pictures to a disc and have prints made of my favorites. I think I would feel a little better about this whole process if the external HD had come with some kind of manual but it didn't. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks, Patty

 

[MICKEY88]

that is an excellent way to free up disk space, provide the problem is picture files and not from too many added programs...


once you are certain your files have been safely copied to the external drive, deleting them form the pc hard drive will certainly free up space,

copying to disc is also a great idea, for added safety some people make a second disk and keep it somewhere away from home in case of fire or other disaster...

 

[MICKEY88]

oops double post

 

[AndrewWG]

That sounds like you are on your way to more disc space for sure. I did a similar thing this past week. I had purchased a 200GB hard drive last year for $29 and had it in the closet for the day I would need it. The other day I was uploading pics from my CFcard and Lightroom told me that I needed 250MB storage to continue! I thought I had plenty of room but it appears that my shutter finger worked overtime the past few months and helped to fill the hard drive. I installed the 200GB hard drive as a slave drive in my computer and moved all of my photos over to it. Then I went and bought a Seagate 250GB external drive and hooked that up. The Seagate drive came with a program installed on it that allows the user to tell it when to make a backup of your files from whatever folder you want. I set it up to backup all of my photo files from my new drive to the external drive nightly (1am). If there aren't any new files, it doesn't back anything up. If there are new ones, it backs them up. So far it has worked great! I wish the drives were bigger, but it was what I had and could afford. I also use DVD's to back them up so I feel safer.

Now the hard part is deleting all of your photos from your existing drive. I had a real hard time clicking "delete" to 90GB of photos. Once you do it though, you get over it. It's a done deal. I would then tell your computer to do a defragment on the drive. I did it and now my computer is running much more smoothly.

ps. there may be a user manual installed on the external hard drive. The Seagate had no paperwork in the box but one piece that told me to check the drive for user manual and other files.

 

[hegs65]

Thanks so much for the info! I really appreciate it!

 

[jann1033]

my western digital external drive says to go here for support support.wdc.com. it has a link if you go to "wd windows tools" in the drive then open it in adobe...mine is just a quick set up but has the above link for trouble shooting

 

[Groucho]

Okay, so I went out and bought a 500 GB My Book external HD to back up my pictures and to hopefully clear up some space on my computer as I am running low on disc space. I have several questions regarding this process.
First, is this what I need to fix the disc space problem or does that mean I need more memory? Second, if I copy my saved pictures to the external HD then would I delete them from my computer? I should also state that in addition to storing them on the computer, I also save my pictures to a disc and have prints made of my favorites. I think I would feel a little better about this whole process if the external HD had come with some kind of manual but it didn't. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks, Patty

There's not much of a manual because an external hard drive is functionally basically the same as an internal hard drive. You can use it any way that you like, and one person's preferences will be very different than another's.

If you're running out of disk space, then you will certainly free up space by moving the photos to the external drive. (Hold down Shift when drag-n-dropping your files, that'll move instead of copy, saving you from having to go back and delete later.) Now, the exception is if you store you photos on something other than the C: drive - usually the C: drive is the one that really matters if you are running out of space as Windows uses it for swap files.

Memory is different, more memory will not affect your free hard drive space.

And you're definitely right to be making discs of your photos as well - you never want to keep the photos in just one place.

 

[ToyStory Fan]

I actually just found out that circuit city (I know, I know - I don't usually like to shop there either)...but they have an exclusive $100 (actually a 70 + 30) rebate on a 500GB Buffalo Technology NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive...that also happens to be DLNA compliant. So not only can you attach this to your network and use it as a standalone drive (currently I'm using a spare HDD bay on the kids computer for addit. storage - which means I need to turn that on whenever I want to download pics from the camera)...it can be accessed from any computer on your network. PLUS is it itunes 7 compliant and means you can use it as your music storage area as well. Best deal I saw on this anywhere was 255...with the rebate and 5% in store pickup discount you can score this baby for under $200.

I looked at the WD mybook things, but heard that the drivers and software were giving people grief with accessing photos/movies/music across the various computers within their home network - so went with this instead...no drivers necessary.