OOp's Hard Drive overload!

[Dug]

I have been busy and working out a new processing system so I have been putting images onto my new 250 gig hard drive. It has plenty of space.

I just noticed I have 190 gig of images on my storage drive and about 70 gig on my work drive

Time to sort out some shots and burn some DVDs I think.

Do other people get a bit carried away with this photography stuff or is it just me?

[ozczecho]

Gee I am only an amateur compared to those stats

I have only 45G worth of images.... I have an external 80G HD for backups and am now struggling to fit stuff on it. When will it end? BTW, I just noticed I am about to shoot my 10,000th image on my trusty D70 - amazing

[owen]

Thanks for reminding me. I process my images then move my best ones into a "Owen's best photos 2006" folder, and I was a bit lagging behind.

Currently that folder is at 3.2GB so I'm doing alright. I still back up all the rest but I make sure I get this folder multiple times throughout the year.

[Steffen]

I only keep the images that are barely presentable or better. That way I'll never run out of disk space on my 5GB harddisk

Cheers
Steffen.

[Oneputt]

Like you I have a 256gb external hard disk but I am about to cull everything and start burning to DVD. With the size of the D2x Raw files it doesn't take many images to start adding up.

[birddog114]

The Hard disk is cheap.
The DVD media is also cheap.
So have all and back them up often.
Unless you have the D2x and shooting 1300 to 2000 photos in one or two days then you're in messy.

[LostDingo]

The Hard disk is cheap.
The DVD media is also cheap.
So have all and back them up often.
Unless you have the D2x and shooting 1300 to 2000 photos in one or two days then you're in messy.

[tasadam]

Unless you have the D2x and shooting 1300 to 2000 photos in one or two days then you're in messy.

Yep, I'm messsy
I used to have 3 drives in my system -
C: 40Gb system drive
D: 60Gb
E: 60Gb.
Plus a USB 40Gb
Plus a 160Gb "MP3" drive.
Plus a laptop.
Plus an XS Drive Pro

I used to be good, backing up to 2 DVD's, and labelling them. Then I got LAZY!
Photos were put on all drives.

I consolidated and copied everything from all drives to a bigger drive - got a 250 Gb drive and now that's about 3/4 full.
I copied because I didn't want to move - that way they are "safe" on the other drives until I finish sorting and burn.
Too much stuff to lose on this 250 so I got another 250Gb and made a clone. Now I can work out what I have saved on the other smaller drives and delete from there.

Now I've got photos that have been put in folders called "Copy to 250" all over the place. I should never have copied to 250, I should have moved them, or copied and once done, delete from source drive.
I have a major sorting job that I am in the middle of, working out what I have got more than one copy of.
And working out what I haven't copied to my 250 yet.

Once I get it all on the 250 and sorted, and have a clone of that drive, I can then start deleting - which will be a good thing - D200 is coming. Then I will be in REAL trouble
Our D70 (er, I mean My wife's D70 ) is over the 35000 shutter count. In 18 months!

Now I have a 320Gb for my MP3's, and it's overflowing too.
At least hard disks are cheap - one example (including freight)
[url]http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/index.php?redir=http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_image_products.php?input[category_id]=4[/url]
Shop around though - I've a mate with a business down here and got the Seagate 320 for $185, he made $7 out of me.

OK I've fessed up, anyone brave enough to admit they're worse than me at their sorting?

[BBJ]

I have just on 300gig, after a shoot i will come home process the raw files and then after doing all this i burn all faw and jpg files to dvd named what ever the event was, then file it in the pile with others that way when i get an order i just have to go and get the dvd with all images on it.
Then i leave the files on 1 of the drives for a few weeks as saves me looking for the dvd as normally orders come in after the meet as i have all my pics from the event up by the that night.

I too will need another drive soon as near full as i do have like a 100gig of music and movies on 1 drive.
Can never have enough space, beuty about it all as it is all backed and just a hassle to put it all back. Seperate drives and partitions so if a format is called for i have a c drive with just usull proggies on it.

[Greg B]

Even good old Landmark Computers have HDDs cheap as chips. Drop one into a $50 USB/Firewire case, and away you go.

[Sheila Smart]

I run two drives totalling 200 gigs plus an external 250 gig (which is my back up drive). I also burn to DVD too so in effect, I have two copies of everything. When I need more space, I will buy another external ...and another..and another....

Still its better than a box of slides on top of the cupboard

Cheers
Sheila

[DionM]

I have 250GB as my main pure photos drive which is nearing capacity.

I have another 250GB drive to back up too stored a removable SATA caddy.

I have another 300GB I use as live storage on my server.

I don't trust DVD media. The media fails too easy. Hard drives are cheap. I also don't trust external USB caddies as their cheap power supplies can damage a HDD too easily.

When my 250GB drive is full I will install a second 250GB drive, and have one drive for originals, one drive for edits. I will then backup both to my server but only the originals to the removable drive.

[Ivanerrol]

DVD/CD storage see
http://www.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?t=18524

[stubbsy]

I'm pretty much like Sheila - 2 x 300Gb and burn to DVD periodically plus a Maxtor HD backup 200Gb I think. I keep all but my Sony quality images (blutty etc), but with the D2x I'm fast running out of space. In future I think I'll delete all but those I think are good images as opposed to the keeping the "just in case" shots as well.

[rmp]

I don't think it's possible to get too carried away with backups.

I've got copies of my images on a seperate HDD hidden in the house, and also a full backup on DVD at a friend's house.

That way I'm covered for hard disk failure, someone stealing the computer and the house burning down.

But if a meteor wipes out my house and that of my friend then I'm stuffed.

[Colcam]

Ah YES!. Storage is becoming a complete issue for any computer user now, not just photographers. Of course we have always had a storage issue with negs and prints in the past when cataloging was the issue.
My personal approach at the moment is a fast system with 2 x 200gb HD in RAID array, 1 x 150gb for working images only (almost full) a fast 40gb for the exclusive use of the Photoshop scratch file (heavily recommended for PS efficiency. At least put the scratch file on a different LARGE partition if you cannot get it onto a different physical drive.) and backed up to a 250gb external which is about to be duplicated for a second backup. Then all is archived to CD & DVD and catalogued with a good little programme called Visual CD http://boozet.xepher.net/

Another good alternative might be to get multiple IDENTICAL HDDs in a removable drawer (quite cheap) and swap them for each day/editing session. The identical part should avoid Windows XP getting it's nickers in a knot about activation.

This is a big issue and very important, so don't any of you new folk out there ignore it.

Gotta go & backup!
Col