Macbook photo storage

[matt]

Hi, Ive just got a macbook, bought the software installed it and noticed that im rapidly using up space on my hard drive.

I bought an external hard drive to store all my stuff on but my pictures im unsure about how to store them.
Should I store them on my mac, then create backup copies to my external HD and to CD? Then delete from my mac when im near to running out of space?

Or store and access everything from my external HD and just back up to CD?

Would accessing from my USB external HD be slow and is there a greater risk of data loss or file corruption?

Hope that makes sense, all abit confusing to me!
Thanks in advance,Matt

 

[anmoldagreat]

as a fellow photographer i do several things
keep a RAW copy of every one of my photos on my mac, on my external, and on dvds
then all postprocessed tiffs stay on the mac

all of my music and videos are only on the external
so i dont have to worry about my mac filling up too quick

 

[built b16a]

i have a 20D, and even though i don't shoot in RAW, i notice my memory cards fill up pretty quick.

i only back my files up on a external HD.. and its 2.0 USB.. ive to this date (knock on wood) never had a problem.

i keep edited pics on my macbook, but only for a few months. or untill i can have them photo lab printed, or distribute edits to respective owners.

after that, i only keep originals.

i don't store videos, and have a minimal collection of music.. and i have a 80GB macbook.. even though the macbook's OS seams to require more HD space than XP... i still have over half my mac HD avail.

i know photoshop C2 took a BUNCH of space.

 

[matt]

thanks guys, well i think that if import RAW images via lightroom onto my Macbook and then make a backup copy on my external HD and then onto DVD every few weeks I should be safe, fingers crossed.

What do you use to backup? I want a program that you can schedule backups and it will add content that has been changed?

 

[built b16a]

supposedly with the new mac OS.. 10.5 lepord, if you connect a external HD once a week it will automatically back up ALL your files, and store them.. they will also be avail to be restored with a feature called "time zone" or something to that effect.

watch the tour on apple.com, its kinda cool..

 

[jrko]

If all your photos are in one place you could set up an automator script to back up to a hard drive once a week or something.

I have a couple of ethernet drives and backup to them over a wired connection but once i get my macbook with 4gb i'll be doing it wirelessly.