The backup situation problem

So here's the situation. I got a new computer with a 500GB hard drive back in May 2008. I expected it to last two years. Well, it's been 21 months and I'm down to the last 24 GB of space. I'm out of room. I have to get a new primary hard drive.

Here's how I've been doing it. I sync Computer A with external backup hard drive B (500 GB), one-way transfer, easy. Now Computer A is down to 24 GB. Hard Drive B is down to 100 GB.

If I get a new external hard drive C, then what? How big should it be? Let's say I get another 500 GB hard drive (C). What happens when I fill up the last 100GB of hard drive B, and now I have about 400 GB of free space on C? Do I then get a hard drive D to back that up?

Another thing to consider now is whether the drive should have an external power supply or be one of those plug-and-play drives. Since I use LR2, I'm kind of reluctant to have to plug in a drive to get files online, and prefer to have them always online, if possible.

This has the possibility of getting really confusing. Can someone offer their story about how they manage multiple drives?

I cant help you with management suggestions but with 1 terrabyte drives down to around $100, and 2 terrabyte drives as low as $150 I wouldn't mess with anything smaller.

Are you talking about a notebook?

In any case I'd get the biggest drive possible, 2TB. They can be had for less than $150 for an internal that you can add to your own enclosure or just get one of these http://www.amazon.com …ics&qid=1269030​990&sr=8-3 .

Do you backup off site. I'd definitely get several backup drives. I have all my pictures on four different drives at any given time. Two at home and the other two I rotate between my office.

I had a similar issue. Here is what I did.

I added a 2nd 1Tb drive to my PC, I then moved all photos off of my C drive onto the new drive (G. All new photos get added here. I then backup drive G to an external Drobo which then gets synced with another Drobo offsite.

I'd offer the same advice already given. I just added a 1TB drive to my computer (as the D: drive - changed DVD to become E and moved all of my files there. It freed up almost all of the space on my C: drive. At times, I was down to a few MBs and had to delete all kinds of stuff. Thankfully it was files I no longer needed.

Moving my Lightroom catalog was easy too. I just moved it to the D: drive and then started Lightroom. It said it couldn't find the catalog and brought up a box for me to search for it. I just pointed it to its new location on D: and viola. Done. You might have to get a larger backup eventually.