Computer/storage question

[tom beard]

I have a Acer Aspire 1360 laptop with limited memory, which is running slow and needs to go in for a clean up. I'm shooting a Nikon D-90 and using the supplied Transfer NX and View NX programs. I'm shooting everything in Jpeg for now as I don't have post, but plan to get Nikon's Capture NX editing program. Since money is very tight, I think the best plan might be to get an external hard drive that will be used exclusively for photography that has enough memory to handle all of my storage and editing needs, and will be sufficient for me to grow into.

Should I get the external hard drive first, because I want to transfer all the stored files in View NX (now stored in the laptop) in Toto to preserve EXIF data etc? The laptop will have to be wiped clean and a new operating system installed. Will the new Hard Drive have enough memory, or will I need a separate memory card? Have you any suggestions as to what to look into?

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm a total computer dummy. Most of you are at an age where you grew up with one, but I didn't start until later in life, and learned by the seat of my pants and as you can tell, there are HUGE holes in my knowledge. Thanks in advance for your help.

Tom Beard

 

[Derrel]

I would look into buying a rather large external hard drive, to safeguard the pics on.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

I would look into buying a rather large external hard drive, to safeguard the pics on.

+1

 

[tom beard]

Thanks Derrel & BR, Could you give me a memory number and/or a device that would work well? Tom B

 

[Derrel]

Thanks Derrel & BR, Could you give me a memory number and/or a device that would work well? Tom B

Not sure if your Acer notebook has a Firewire connection port, but if it does, I kind of like the SPEED and bandwidth that Firewire can maintain when transferring large amounts of data, in the real world. SO, if you have a Firewire connection, I'd think a 1 terrabyte Firewire external drive would be good. Failing that, I supposed USB 2.0 would be okay as well.

Many drives today have Firewire 800 and 400 dual interfaces, PLUS USB 2.0 interfaces...so best of all worlds...

I am partial to Otherworld Computing as a vendor of choice. They have a nice web site, and knowledgeable sales staff. Their site can help you get familiar with some of the price ranges and such. There are many other fine vendors as well.

OWC Mercury Elite-AL FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 Performance Storage Solutions up to 4.0TB

 

[12sndsgood]

id also suggest an external hard drive. ive seen hard drives fail so i use it as a backup. so i have the files on my computer and my external hardrive. 1.8 terabytes and filling fast. takes way more space but i'd hate to lose my pictures. I go so far as to unplug my external hard drive and store it at work when i went on vacation just in case the house somehow caught on fire while we were away lol.

 

[KenC]

The Western Digital hard drives are well rated and readily available. Don't worry about capacity to start with. I bought a 500 GB drive, which is one of the cheaper ones these days and it held several years worth of RAW files, TIFF files and PS files, all much bigger than the JPEGs you have to date, and I still have a couple of hundred GB of space. I also have CD/DVD backups which were my sole backups for years. You should burn a couple as an extra backup. You should be able to fit tons of JPEGs on a disc.

 

[Village Idiot]

I have a Acer Aspire 1360 laptop with limited memory, which is running slow and needs to go in for a clean up. I'm shooting a Nikon D-90 and using the supplied Transfer NX and View NX programs. I'm shooting everything in Jpeg for now as I don't have post, but plan to get Nikon's Capture NX editing program. Since money is very tight, I think the best plan might be to get an external hard drive that will be used exclusively for photography that has enough memory to handle all of my storage and editing needs, and will be sufficient for me to grow into.

Should I get the external hard drive first, because I want to transfer all the stored files in View NX (now stored in the laptop) in Toto to preserve EXIF data etc? The laptop will have to be wiped clean and a new operating system installed. Will the new Hard Drive have enough memory, or will I need a separate memory card? Have you any suggestions as to what to look into?

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm a total computer dummy. Most of you are at an age where you grew up with one, but I didn't start until later in life, and learned by the seat of my pants and as you can tell, there are HUGE holes in my knowledge. Thanks in advance for your help.

Tom Beard

Just remember that transferring files to an external hard drive does nothing to provide a backup unless you're keeping the file in multiple places. Don't be fooled that by having an external HDD (hard disk drive) that you're going to have a backup solution. If something happens and the drive dies and you don't have original copies, you could end up losing whatever is on that external drive.

A drive may last you 10 months or 10 years, it's just the nature of the beast. Buy a reputable brand and hope for the best.

 

[JClishe]

It's possible to buy external drive enclosures that contain multiple disks in a RAID array, so this helps to prevent data loss in the event of a drive failure. It's still not a backup though; if you delete or lose a file due to corruption, you have no way to recover it. But at least you're protected from a drive failure. (FYI, RAID simply means that your data is copied to multiple drives at the same time so if one drive fails, another takes over).

Also just to be clear, hard drive storage and memory are 2 different things. If you walk into a Best Buy and tell the sales rep that you need memory, he's going to show you memory modules, not hard drives. Big difference. Everything in this thread relates to storage, not memory. (not trying to be nit-picky, just attempting to create some clarification since the OP indicated that he's a novice.)

 

[Vinny]

Follow the advice that was given about an external drive. I was in a similar situation with my desktop and purchased a 320 Gb external hard drive to supplement the 40 Gb drive that my desktop had. I would also recommend burning DVDs for "backup" if money is really tight and you don't have a lot of photos; a 4 Gb DVD could hold approximately 700 or more photos.

Something to consider for your laptop is using a program such as ccleaner which is free to see if it helps before sending it into a computer shop. Also, defragmenting the hard drive can help. Too full a hard drive, many programs open or running in the background and a virus could make your computer run slowly. A little bit of memory can also be a problem.

 

[table1349]

The Western Digital hard drives are well rated and readily available. Don't worry about capacity to start with. I bought a 500 GB drive, which is one of the cheaper ones these days and it held several years worth of RAW files, TIFF files and PS files, all much bigger than the JPEGs you have to date, and I still have a couple of hundred GB of space. I also have CD/DVD backups which were my sole backups for years. You should burn a couple as an extra backup. You should be able to fit tons of JPEGs on a disc.

I would agree, and Western Digital makes some good drives, however DO NOT buy a Western Digital Green drive. They have a tremendous failure rate. Apparently carbon neutral and functioning properly do not go hand in hand.

 

[tom beard]

Thank you all so very much for the great information. Since I'm strictly an amature, for now I'm sticking with Jpeg, but who knows what the future holds until I get the gear and learn it. For now, I'm keeping everything I shoot, but as you know 95% is junk, so I'm saving it just in case I may need it later when I start using post. After that, I'll be able to delete most of it. You've given me a wealth of information to move forward with. Again THANK YOU ALL! Tom Beard