Computer Storage: Internal or External HD??

[mjmtri]

I was just curious... as I rack up THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of photographs - do you guys store your pics on your computer hard drive or do you put them all on an external HD to ease capacity on the computer?
Thanks
Michael

[DisrupTer911]

For safest backups you'd want both internal, external, and off site.

[Woolburr]

I use a combination of both. I have 4 - 1tb internal drives in each of my two main computers and all photos reside on each computer. I have several WD 500gb passport drives that are used to back up my photos...the external drives live in a fire-proof box inside a 2 hour fire-rated safe. Back-ups are done weekly. Lots of people also use off-site back up such as Carbonite or Mozy.

[crn3371]

Mine resides on my internal drive with backups on two externals, one of which is stored off site.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Yes.

ie: Multiple copies including both.

[AngeloStavrow]

Same here.

Internal drive
External drive, backed up from the internal drive
Offsite drive, also backed up from the internal drive

I currently use JungleDisk w/ Amazon S3 for offsite backup, but I'm thinking of switch to Carbonite Pro instead.


-A

[Nicksan3]

I store mine on my HD, with copies on two (2) external HD, stored in separate locations.

[Scout7id]

I currently use JungleDisk w/ Amazon S3 for offsite backup, but I'm thinking of switch to Carbonite Pro instead.


-A

Angelo,

unless the Carbonite Pro accounts get priority bandwidth, I'd steer clear of Carbonite. It is VERY SLOW. I have a regular Carbonite account and it takes days to upload just a few MBs of data. I am currently using it as a backup for database files (work) and my photography and I've been waiting all weekend for about 707MB of files to complete uploading from last week at work. And that's leaving my laptop at work and plugged in. Right now I've got 87.43 MB to finish. And after this finishes (hopefully today!) I'm going to dump about 18GB on it from soccer shooting this weekend. It may finish that in a couple of weeks!

Maybe that's a problem across the board with ALL online backup, but that has definitely been my experience with Carbonite. Do your research...

[AngeloStavrow]

Angelo,

unless the Carbonite Pro accounts get priority bandwidth, I'd steer clear of Carbonite. It is VERY SLOW. I have a regular Carbonite account and it takes days to upload just a few MBs of data. I am currently using it as a backup for database files (work) and my photography and I've been waiting all weekend for about 707MB of files to complete uploading from last week at work. And that's leaving my laptop at work and plugged in. Right now I've got 87.43 MB to finish. And after this finishes (hopefully today!) I'm going to dump about 18GB on it from soccer shooting this weekend. It may finish that in a couple of weeks!

Maybe that's a problem across the board with ALL online backup, but that has definitely been my experience with Carbonite. Do your research...

Thanks very much for your input!

Maybe I'll just stick with JD then -- it's reasonably fast with my connection, and pretty inexpensive.


-A

[Tdragone]

I too use 1 internal and 2 externals.. one backup updated monthly in safe deposit box and another swapped out at work weekly kept in our vault.

[scott0999]

well you can have more than one internal HD. so it doesnt necessarily have to be external

what I do is copy them to the computers internal HD. then if my HD is running low on space I burn a DVD, or copy to a USB flash drive

remember compression exists too lol

[Lazy012]

I store on my main internal, external and website

[Jon]

well you can have more than one internal HD. so it doesnt necessarily have to be external

what I do is copy them to the computers internal HD. then if my HD is running low on space I burn a DVD, or copy to a USB flash drive

remember compression exists too lol
Well, if you only rely on internal storage, if anything happens to your computer (theft, fire, . . .) you've lost everything. Compression will only do so much to reduce file size, especially since both RAW and JPEG files are generally pretty well compressed themselves. And if you shoot RAW with the newer, higher resolution cameras, a double layer DVD's only about 200 shots. An external drive can be stored safely away from your computer (and your home) and holds much more than a stack of DVDs, in a more readily accessible format. I have copies of my files everywhere, it seems.

[hollis_f]

remember compression exists too lol

Also remember that compression does very little to data that is already compressed. Data like jpeg and CR2 files ;)

[scott0999]

forgot to mention I resize along with the compression. that adds up to a good bit. I dont see the point in excessive resolution as long as it fills my little 19"

I was just posting what works for me. peoples needs can vary

[NGC2141]

I store on my laptop what has just been shot, but backup to external drive as soon as possible. If I can do both in the same sitting then I will. I am also thinking of picking up a Drobo because I hear such great things about them but it would only be used in the studio. When traveling I would rely on my Macbook Pro internal drive along with my external HD.

I don't ever exceed my external's capacity while on the road so it is just fine. I want the Drobo so once I get home I can back up my Macbook to it. My external is used mainly for RAW data, while all my finals get uploaded to SmugMug for review by customers.

The Drobo will come in handy for use with TimeMachine and will not only backup all my photos, but also my Macbook as a whole. Better safe then sorry.

[RPCrowe]

I have four 500 GB external Hard Drives: Two Seagate's which are pretty well permanently attached to my desktop computer and a pair of Western Digital "My Passport" 500 GB hard drives which I travel with.

I back up my images onto the two My Passport drives when I am traveling. My wife carries one and I carry the other when we are traveling by plane. I don't usually do any post processing when traveling but, will shoot RAW + JPEG small to email back to the family during our upcoming trip to China.

I am purchasing a 1 TB HD soon for a third backup at home. I will store that drive at a different location than the two Seagate drives.

[Jdmhood]

This is what i do with my data. I just started photography not too long ago so i don't have as much to worry about.. But i'll follow the same backup routine for my musics, movie rips, family photos from my p&s, documents etc.

First off.. when importing photos from my camera to lightroom. I have it saved to my main pc and make a duplicate "stock" copy to my home server. Any edited version i'll backup myself manually onto my server into a different folder.

My home server is running 2x 1TB drives in Raid 1 which mirrors the drive (two duplicate copies).

I have a 2TB internal hard drive (faster transfer speed) that i store in my safety deposit box that i bring home every once in a while and make backups of my backups from the server (lol).

Alternatively you can just buy another 1TB drive and rip one of the drives out the the machine and have it rebuild the raid array.

Of course, this is more then what most people are willing to do. But if you have the hardware, it's the best way to do it IMO. :)

Just my 2 cents.

Edit: I rarely use my portable external hard drive due to the tranfer limitation of the USB 2.0 bus. I'm sure things will change shortly as USB 3.0 is making it's way into mainstream markets though. I only use it when i know for certain that i won't be able to get any internet access since i can usually access my files online.

[nordlysBW]

Both internal and external on several hardisks and 3 other computers.

Synchronisation with Free File Sync almost every day with two external 1TB WD drives, the rest at random. Still working on the possibility of keeping one more backup away from home which I could access often enough to do updates within a reasonable span of time.

When on the move, one backup on a Nexto Extreme drive.

[CADuke]

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_AqFR-Mrc7I8/S5cuXDoLXOI/AAAAAAAADM0/HgnJeA79MGY/harddisks.JPG

I have 4x 1TB Seagates at RAID 5 where I store them on my computer.

I backup daily to my 250GB Iomega NAS store center device which is located in the basement.
Weekly full system backups to 1.5TB Seagate FreeAgent XT. Which just sits beside the computer...not very helpful if there is a fire or what not.

I then also have for travel:
80GB SATA Hitachi in a Vantec NexStar 3 usb/esata enclosure
80GB IDE Hitachi in a Enermax Vanguard usb enclosure

I would like to get a Sans Digital or similar 8 drive raid tower as I have 6x 160 GB Hitachi SATA drives not being used at the moment to put in a firesafe or off-site. Also would like to do off-site backup service.

All of this is just to protect my family photos.

[mjmtri]

Thanks to everyone - great info!!