External HDD almost full, How to proceed?

[limeblu]

Hello all, hope everyone is well. So I am running lightroom with my images and master catalogue all on an external hard drive. It is now almost full and I was wondering how to go about one of two things and which is the better option.
A) somehow connect another External HDD to the existing setup and continue on my way, maybe creating a new catalogue to start and separate the 2 drives.
~OR~
B)Stop using the current drive and store it away until the need to use any of the stored images arises and until that point just swap in a new external HDD create a new catalogue and start fresh.

Thanks to whoever answers this and I saw similar threads on this but nothing I could find was the identical issue. also, I am using a PC running windows 8 with lightroom 5.7 64bit and a WD mybook 3tb.

 

[jaomul]

Well if you add another drive you can just keep going with that. You're existing drive can be stored away until you need it. You can however select all your files on existing hard drive and create smart preview of each one, so you can edit even with hard drive disconnected, you can plug in hard drive and export said edits later.

 

[bratkinson]

Alternatively, you can always do like I did when my 1TB external drive was almost full.

I purchased an external 3TB drive for about the same cost as the original 1TB 2-3 years prior and then did a 'clone' operation from the 1TB to 3TB drive using appropriate software. That way, I didn't have to worry about partition issues or anything else. That way, all drive letters, folder names and file names remain the same.

I sold the 1TB to a friend.

 

[unpopular]

How to proceed: Get a new hard drive.

aren't you glad I'm around?

 

[Buckster]

Add another hard drive. If it won't fit in your computer for some reason, add it externally.

I have an array of 10 external drives stuffed into multiple drive enclosure bays, all connected via esata cables through 2 esata port multipliers, which are then connected via 2 esata cables to my main computer's system unit. The port multipliers I use are these:

Amazon.com 5 ESATA1 Esata External Port Multiplier Electronics

I have another 5 drives in my main system unit, and 2 more up on the shelf that I use for instant (via swap of hard drives) clean reinstalls of operating system and the main software I use. So, 15 drives are running on my system at present, and 2 more are up on the shelf.

My hard drives range in size from older 750 GB hard drives that are still working, up to 4 TB hard drives that have replaced older drives that have died. I have redundant backups of each drive, twins, so to speak. So, drive #3 and drive #4 are clones of each other, and so on. Whenever one drive dies (and they all eventually die), I replace it and use it's clone to make its new twin. When that happens, I buy a bigger hard drive as the replacement to help my array's total capacity to grow over time.

I'm running about 30 TB at the moment, with about 60% used, plus the two backup drives on the shelf. In addition, I use 2 cloud backup services at $5 each per month for even more backup assurance.

How much capacity and assurance through backups that you won't lose important files you want or need depends only on your budget, and it doesn't have to be all at once. You can build it up over time, one drive at a time.

 

[table1349]

Step 1. Figure out size of current drive.
Step 2. Figure out size you want for new drive.
Step 3. Buy new drive.
Step 4. Buy a SECOND NEW DRIVE the size of the other two drives combined and use it to BACK UP the first two drives. As time goes buy just Shampoo, Rinse and Repeat. Otherwise see Step 5.

Step 5. Start a new forum post asking what I should do now because my drive failed and I lost all my pictures.

p.s. Yes unpopular we are glad you are around.