External Hard Drive Query

I currently have all of my Canon camera software, post processing software and photographs on my laptop. The problem I have is lack of disk space and was thinking of getting an external hard drive to accommodate everything pertaining to photography.

Is it a different hard drive for a laptop and would it be difficult to transfer the software and photographs to the new disk?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

If it's a standard USB connection, something like a Western Digital My Book external HD should be no problem on a Mac or a PC. Look at www.macconnection.com to check. It's listed for PC and Mac.

as Jay stated, it's USB plug and play type hdd... nothing to do except just plug it in and save data on it... mind you, it may be slower than getting files off from your fixed hdd... so just use it as a storage to free up some space on your laptop.

One thing to note there are also different types of usb connected hard drives, the portable versions that rely on the computer usb port for power (up to 640gb capacity) and those that require AC power (more GB capacity)

I'd leave the applications where they are. Sooner or later, you'll fill up your external hard drive with photos, and need a second one. Then you'd need to get the software installed on that as well.

I'd also suggest you leave the software on the laptops own internal drive. Compared to the room large multiple layered image files take up, the software is small stuff.

You'll run into problems if you install the software on an external drive. Install on the internal drive and just set the data locations to the external drive.

I use a pair of Western Digital 500 GB external hard drives when I am downloading from my CF cards to my notebook computer. I don't keep any images on the computer's hard drive which frees up a lot of space.

The Western Digital "My Passport" hard drive is about the size of a 3x5" index card and about 1/2 inch thick. It only weighs a couple of ounces and cost about $65 on-sale at Fry's Electronics.

http://www.google.com …&resnum=7&ved=0​CF8Q8wIwBg#

The hard drive attaches via a USB cord and simply appears on your computer as an additional hard drive. There is no installation needed. It is very simple to transfer images from your computer's hard drive by just dragging and dropping or copying and pasting.

There are also 1 TB Western Digital drives which are not physically bigger than the 500 GB model. Both of these WD hard drives are the types that rely on the computer USB port for power. For additional storage at home for my desktop, I use a couple of IOMEGA 1 TB models which use an external power source but, which are just as easy to use...

I think a good affordable ($180-200 US) option is two external drives like a pair of 750GB WD My Passports. Use one for your photo, document, video, etc. storage and the second in a different location to copy the drive. You will definitely want a back up of your important photos, docs, etc. preferably kept at a different location (work, etc.).

killwilly wrote in post #10765877
Any help would be very much appreciated.

What I/O ports does your laptop have?

Thanks to everyone for your helpful replies. Sorry Tony-S, I'm not quite sure what you mean by I/O ports. My laptop is an Acer Aspire 5930, which has a total of 220GB hard drive, divided 50/50 between A and D disks. Disk D is used for backup and that is when I get the message "Low Disk Space".

I currently backup every week on a Saturday, but have only been having this problem since I bought my camera and installed all of the associated software. I have even uninstalled both of my flight simulator programs, but alas, the message still appears.

Alan

Alan,

Sounds like you have a partitioned hard drive? If so the reality is you have 110GB and a copy.

An external hard drive for all your images would free up a lot of space. My internal hard drive is only 40GB, but because I don't store image or RAW files on it at all, it manages perfectly. My external hard drives must give the original a real inferiority complex!

Lowner wrote in post #10770945
Alan,

Sounds like you have a partitioned hard drive? If so the reality is you have 110GB and a copy.

An external hard drive for all your images would free up a lot of space. My internal hard drive is only 40GB, but because I don't store image or RAW files on it at all, it manages perfectly. My external hard drives must give the original a real inferiority complex!

Thanks Richard and everyone else. I have decided to get a Seagate 500gb expansion portable usb 2.0 hard drive, which is less than £50. Off to France next week for a few weeks, so will wait for my return before ordering.

I have two 8GB storage disks for my camera, I think that should be enough to keep me going in France. If I am lucky enough to have any keepers I can put those on my laptop and sort them when I get back home.

killwilly wrote in post #10770227
Tony-S, I'm not quite sure what you mean by I/O ports. My laptop is an Acer Aspire 5930

OK, I just looked up the specs on this and you should have an eSATA port. That's the way to go for fastest connectivity. Probably a 1.5 GB/s controller.

I've installed software programs on my internal hard drive and all other files on an external hard drive. As-stated by others, it's best to do this because your laptop will work faster with the internal hard drive. Plus you don't have to reload them when your external hard drive gets full.