Running out of HDD space, what are my options?

[twb]

Try a simpletech external hard drive. Can't beat the combo of quality and price. You could also look into online storage (e.g. mozy.com).

 

[iflynething]

Funny you mention SimpleTech, twb, I have only bought one and it crapped out on me. Windows didn't want to recognize it anymore. All USB drivers uninstalled and re-installed and no luck. I'm out $120 on a 320GB drive. I'll probably stick with Western Digital

~Michael~

 

[vuxon]

Actually, there's a thrid option.

I'm sure not all of your photos are best of the best, right? And those that are absolutely excellent, you keep in RAW format stored at 5 different web sites, each on a different continent, right? (because one never knows where the meteor may hit)

The rest can be a bit squeezed with IrfanView. Or with this little proggie, if you keep your photos in subfolders (and who doesn't):

Photo Vacuum Packer - Home Page

 

[kareninphotography]

I would recommend a network enclosure and then buy a cheap internal hard drive (1TB or higher)...
I love the idea of network enclosures because you can access them from anywhere,

 

[iflynething]

I would recommend a network enclosure and then buy a cheap internal hard drive (1TB or higher)...
I love the idea of network enclosures because you can access them from anywhere,

I wanted to do that. Enclosures are super cheap and the internals are so much cheaper than externals, obviously.

The only thing is, I don't have a wireless network, so the network enclosure would do me no good

~Michael~

 

[Rennie]

Hey dude just get rid off your all these backup program & try magic backup.Few days ago i was also backing up all of my data to my external hard drive at the end of every day,so I started using the Acronis True Image Home software to do so. I made the first backup yesterday, which understandably took a long time. But now I'm running the first daily backup, as a test, and it says it'll take 4 hours to finish!.So due to all these difficulties i quit Acronis & now i am using Magic Backup online service & really it's great .Magic Backup is so easy to use, and so reliable. Unlike other backup products that perform "scheduled" backups during the middle of the night, Magic Backup is always on the lookout for new or changed files that need to be backed up. The minute you're done editing a document, (well, 10 minutes after actually), Magic Backup will silently prepare and transfer a secure copy of that file to your private location on our servers. You never have to worry about complicated configuration settings, marking files for backup, changing backup tapes, burning backup CDs .

 

[usayit]

spammer... sheesh

 

[Romphotog]

a 1T external HDD goes for $99 at B&H and J&R. I would suggest not using max res, but going lower by 2 stops. If your camera has max 12mp, go down to 8mp, and use normal or economy quality. I use 4mp economy just to shoot quick in burst mode. I get 750kb instead of 2.5mb using 6mp fine. My 4gb card didnt fill up on a 5 day Vegas trip.
Using max res: 2.5mb x 100 = 250mb. That's 400 pics/1gb. 400x4=1600 pics! That's 320 shots/day for 5 days!

 

[usayit]

a 1T external HDD goes for $99 at B&H and J&R. I would suggest not using max res, but going lower by 2 stops. If your camera has max 12mp, go down to 8mp, and use normal or economy quality. I use 4mp economy just to shoot quick in burst mode. I get 750kb instead of 2.5mb using 6mp fine. My 4gb card didnt fill up on a 5 day Vegas trip.
Using max res: 2.5mb x 100 = 250mb. That's 400 pics/1gb. 400x4=1600 pics! That's 320 shots/day for 5 days!

Sacrificing the quality or capability of your camera for the sake of saving space? I wouldn't recommend that at all... Doesn't make sense at any level.

 

[iflynething]

a 1T external HDD goes for $99 at B&H and J&R. I would suggest not using max res, but going lower by 2 stops. If your camera has max 12mp, go down to 8mp, and use normal or economy quality. I use 4mp economy just to shoot quick in burst mode. I get 750kb instead of 2.5mb using 6mp fine. My 4gb card didnt fill up on a 5 day Vegas trip.
Using max res: 2.5mb x 100 = 250mb. That's 400 pics/1gb. 400x4=1600 pics! That's 320 shots/day for 5 days!

That's not going to happen. The ONLY time I reduce image quality is dance compeititons to make them easier to burn straight to CD without image resize. Never will this happen otherwise. RAW 12 mp no compreeion 14 bit.

a 1T external HDD goes for $99 at B&H and J&R. I would suggest not using max res, but going lower by 2 stops. If your camera has max 12mp, go down to 8mp, and use normal or economy quality. I use 4mp economy just to shoot quick in burst mode. I get 750kb instead of 2.5mb using 6mp fine. My 4gb card didnt fill up on a 5 day Vegas trip.
Using max res: 2.5mb x 100 = 250mb. That's 400 pics/1gb. 400x4=1600 pics! That's 320 shots/day for 5 days!

Sacrificing the quality or capability of your camera for the sake of saving space? I wouldn't recommend that at all... Doesn't make sense at any level.

+1



~Michael~

 

[matfoster]

IMO, Rennie's post isn't spam. spam is unsolicited, indiscriminate, bulk advertising. his response is none of those and pertinent to the thread (even if he works for MB...or is a bot, lol)

 

[iflynething]

IMO, Rennie's post isn't spam. spam is unsolicited, indiscriminate, bulk advertising. his response is none of those and pertinent to the thread (even if he works for MB...or is a bot, lol)

Oh no, of course not!

~Michael~

 

[Romphotog]

RAW 12 mp no compreeion 14 bit.

~Michael~

If you are using RAW you must be a pro, a paid photog who makes mucho $$$ from his shots. If you make posters, large prints, etc. you might feel reducing MPs sacrifices quality. However, that is not so as a 35mm ISO100 negative, or slide film, compared to digital is 96mp. And I am sure digital won't ever go up to 96mp.
How many digital cameras have full frame or APS size sensors?
Thus, using digital vs. film reduces quality as is anyway.
However, using an SLR (which have bigger sensors than P&S) set to 8mp or even 6mp is enough for most jobs. My bro's wedding was shot using an SLR 6mp jpg fine and the prints were just fine.

 

[iflynething]

RAW 12 mp no compreeion 14 bit.

~Michael~

If you are using RAW you must be a pro, a paid photog who makes mucho $$$ from his shots. If you make posters, large prints, etc. you might feel reducing MPs sacrifices quality. However, that is not so as a 35mm ISO100 negative, or slide film, compared to digital is 96mp. And I am sure digital won't ever go up to 96mp.
How many digital cameras have full frame or APS size sensors?
Thus, using digital vs. film reduces quality as is anyway.
However, using an SLR (which have bigger sensors than P&S) set to 8mp or even 6mp is enough for most jobs. My bro's wedding was shot using an SLR 6mp jpg fine and the prints were just fine.

No, I don't sacrifice lost data to save room. It's not about MP to me. It's about a RAW image that captures 14 bits of data. It's about a RAW file that has 68,719,476,736 colors in 12 bit or 4,398,046,511,104 in 14 bit vs the 16,777,216 of color per channel for a JPEG.

I shoot RAW for flexibility, not because I am a pro

~Michael~

~Michael~

 

[usayit]

If you are using RAW you must be a pro, a paid photog who makes mucho $$$ from his shots. If you make posters, large prints, etc. you might feel reducing MPs sacrifices quality. However, that is not so as a 35mm ISO100 negative, or slide film, compared to digital is 96mp. And I am sure digital won't ever go up to 96mp. Thus, using digital vs. film reduces quality as is anyway.

Huh? Don't quite understand this part. Purposely degrading a digital negative is ok because it isn't as good as a 35mm negative? I think you are there is a lack of understanding between the pros and cons of RAW versus reduced JPG files... there is a lot more going on than simply file size. Disk space is already cheap and getting cheaper each year.. You can always buy more space. It is certainly less valuable than the photos stored.

You only get to make that choice once.. Once the file has been reduced the data is gone and can never be recovered.