# Running out of room - External drive needed.



## cwcaesar (Jan 24, 2013)

I have a Macbook Air with the 128GB SSD hard drive.  I am quickly running out of room and I and I learned a tip last night that helps performance, but eats up hard drive space.  I learned the Lightroom works better if you allow it to access more of your hard drive as its working area.  It defaults to 1GB, but I heard that it really prefers 20GB.  I just don't have that kind if free space on my hard drive unless I get the pictures onto a separate drive.  

So, I am looking for suggestions as to what I need in a external hard drive.  I love the SSD (solid state - no spinning disc) in my Macbook, but I don't know if it would be any advantage to get an external SSD drive, or if I should get a traditional drive for my external.  How much space should I get?  What brand should I look for?  Do they make hard drives that are compatible with USB 3.0?  

If anyone has a website link that could point me in the right direction for educating myself, I would appreciate it.  Thanks!


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## jwbryson1 (Jan 24, 2013)

:er:


Tiger Direct Dot Com


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## cgipson1 (Jan 24, 2013)

External SSD is much faster obviouslly.. but more expensive, and less space

Does your macbook have USB 3.0? (assuming so since you asked about it). Firewire? E-Sata?

What is your budget?

I like www dot newegg dot com myself....

You can get a drive and a external enclosure.. and put them together.. usually cheaper than the prefabbed units.. and often faster.

Or you can get a prefabbed unit.

just a few to look at... feel free to ask questions...

Newegg.com - usb 3 external drive


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## ceejtank (Jan 24, 2013)

128 gigabites? really? I have 5.5 terabytes. granted not ssd.  but ssd isn't really needed for anything.  Not sure why you would go SSD over the hard drives.  Then again if you're going MAC you probably don't know much about PCs.  But photos take up a lot of space.  I would highly recommend getting an external hard drive, I've gotten a bunch off of newegg.com to backup my 5.5 terabytes.  I have 4 redundency backups for a grand total of 22 terabytes of space.  You should not only get a new hardrive to store stuff on that doesnt need daily access, but get a few as backups incase yours breaks.


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## curtyoungblood (Jan 24, 2013)

I've used several external drives over the years.  I had a seagate that always acted real funny with me and wouldn't mount right on macs. I currently use Western Digital Mybooks.  They've always worked well and have been consistent for me.  Get one as big as you can afford and yes they are USB 3.0 compatible. My personal preference is to have the cheaper space of traditional harddrives over the benefits of a SSD.


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## Mully (Jan 24, 2013)

I use a Seagate Backup Plus 3T and it was plug and play on a Mac.  I use SSD as my startup drive and only keep programs on it and it screams.


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## cwcaesar (Jan 24, 2013)

I actually know more about PC than Mac, as I only made the switch about 6 months ago.  I still prefer the mac over the PC since I made the switch, but my wife still uses a PC.  I think I will look at the traditional hard drives that are USB 3.0 compatible.  I just didn't know if there was a big advantage in the SSD over the traditional for external drive.  And I will probably end up with 2 of whatever I get so that I will have some redundancy.  

Thanks for the help!


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## ceejtank (Jan 24, 2013)

cwcaesar said:


> I actually know more about PC than Mac, as I only made the switch about 6 months ago. I still prefer the mac over the PC since I made the switch, but my wife still uses a PC. I think I will look at the traditional hard drives that are USB 3.0 compatible. I just didn't know if there was a big advantage in the SSD over the traditional for external drive. And I will probably end up with 2 of whatever I get so that I will have some redundancy.
> 
> Thanks for the help!



SSD is good, but until they come out with some affordable reasonable sizes it's just a gimmick.


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## jwbryson1 (Jan 24, 2013)

I have a few of these and love them...

g technology| B&H Photo Video


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## cgipson1 (Jan 24, 2013)

ceejtank said:


> cwcaesar said:
> 
> 
> > I actually know more about PC than Mac, as I only made the switch about 6 months ago. I still prefer the mac over the PC since I made the switch, but my wife still uses a PC. I think I will look at the traditional hard drives that are USB 3.0 compatible. I just didn't know if there was a big advantage in the SSD over the traditional for external drive. And I will probably end up with 2 of whatever I get so that I will have some redundancy.
> ...



Not if you want performance..  as a boot drive, they rock! As a Data drive, they rock!


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## Derrel (Jan 24, 2013)

I've been using Western Digital "Mybook" 2-terabyte drives for several years now. My most-recent one however is the new USB 3.0 incarnation, which is a higher-capacity, *3-terabyte* size. Fairly small, seems reliable so far. Somebody might be more up on this, but I "think" there might be some kind of an issue with the 3-terabyte sized drives and Macintosh automated system back-up software apps like Time Machine...maybe something to do with block allocation size?? I dunno...I do not do automated back-ups. I payed like $129 for this 3-TB at BestBuy, which at that time, was a great price per gigabyte of storage space.


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## jwbryson1 (Jan 24, 2013)

Derrel said:


> I payed like $129 for this 3-TB at BestBuy.



_*SACRILEGE!*_  :mrgreen:


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## cwcaesar (Jan 24, 2013)

I LOVE my SSD and how fast it is on my Macbook, I just figured that as an external drive, there were other chokepoints in the data flow chain that would limit the benefits.  Plus the cost per GB is still fairly high.  First, I am actually looking for just some more storage for to use in my workflow.  I will eventually add another drive solely for backup.  For this 'working drive' is there any reason to get the SSD?  Will I be able to see the benefits in an external drive?


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## curtyoungblood (Jan 24, 2013)

> First, I am actually looking for just some more storage for to use in my workflow. I will eventually add another drive solely for backup. For this 'working drive' is there any reason to get the SSD? Will I be able to see the benefits in an external drive?



Are you planning on actually working from this drive? as in putting new photos on their and editing and what not from it?  If so, I'd recommend a different workflow.  I'd move all the stuff you're finished with onto an external drive and use the internal SSD as your "working" drive. That will probably improve performance quite a bit.


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## cwcaesar (Jan 24, 2013)

curtyoungblood said:


> > First, I am actually looking for just some more storage for to use in my workflow. I will eventually add another drive solely for backup. For this 'working drive' is there any reason to get the SSD? Will I be able to see the benefits in an external drive?
> 
> 
> 
> Are you planning on actually working from this drive? as in putting new photos on their and editing and what not from it? If so, I'd recommend a different workflow. I'd move all the stuff you're finished with onto an external drive and use the internal SSD as your "working" drive. That will probably improve performance quite a bit.



Okay, let me clarify a little bit.  I am thinking of my internal as Short Term Storage, for importing to and editing, then I am wanting a second drive that I can get to fairly quickly and access files to re-edit, re-print, etc. (probably use this for photos only).  Then I want another external drive - solely for backing up the entire computer & external drive.  Pretty much how you explained it I guess.  I just didn't say it so well.

So, for this first external drive that I will be accessing quite frequently, should I consider a SSD?  Or will I not see the SSD benefits in an external drive.


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## pgriz (Jan 24, 2013)

Derrel said:


> I've been using Western Digital "Mybook" 2-terabyte drives for several years now. My most-recent one however is the new USB 3.0 incarnation, which is a higher-capacity, *3-terabyte* size. Fairly small, seems reliable so far. Somebody might be more up on this, but I "think" there might be some kind of an issue with the 3-terabyte sized drives and Macintosh automated system back-up software apps like Time Machine...maybe something to do with block allocation size?? I dunno...I do not do automated back-ups. I payed like $129 for this 3-TB at BestBuy, which at that time, was a great price per gigabyte of storage space.



Uh oh.  Derrel's gonna be a BestBuy IT pro.  




J/K, Derrel.  I use the same drives for my external photo storage needs.  Along with 2 TB drives, 1 TB drives from earlier years.  Except one of the 3TB drives is flaky, with fairly frequent file errors that appear to be hardware-related.  Guess I'm going to have to test out the WD warranty support.


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Jan 24, 2013)

Been there, done that, 


6 TB times.


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Jan 24, 2013)

Derrel said:


> I've been using Western Digital "Mybook" 2-terabyte drives for several years now. My most-recent one however is the new USB 3.0 incarnation, which is a higher-capacity, *3-terabyte* size. Fairly small, seems reliable so far. Somebody might be more up on this, but I "think" there might be some kind of an issue with the 3-terabyte sized drives and Macintosh automated system back-up software apps like Time Machine...maybe something to do with block allocation size?? I dunno...I do not do automated back-ups. I payed like $129 for this 3-TB at BestBuy, which at that time, was a great price per gigabyte of storage space.



Yes, your suspicions are correct. 

The 3TB sizes will also not allow windows users to "Image" Their PC because of these block sizes.


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## o hey tyler (Jan 24, 2013)

Rotanimod said:
			
		

> Yes, your suspicions are correct.
> 
> The 3TB sizes will also not allow windows users to "Image" Their PC because of these block sizes.



I can image my PC all I want. It's not like I don't have a camera.


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## Derrel (Jan 24, 2013)

I would not waste extra money on an SSD external drive...just get a Thunderbolt external drive...

Thunderbolt External Drive, Expansions, Interface Solutions & Cables from OWC


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## dl4449 (Jan 24, 2013)

I am using a 3TB thunderbolt drive for my working drive. It is plenty fast enough to work on. Then I backup to a Drobo FS


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## bratkinson (Jan 25, 2013)

External SSD doesn't make sense. Even as a USB3, I suspect the limiting factor is the USB3, not the speed of the drive itself. Save a bunch of $ and go with 'regular' hard-drive based external drives. 

On my main computer (Windows 7), I use the 128gb SSD for Windows, current documents, and photo shoots 'in process' (typically about 2 weeks). Because the SSD is lightning fast, I put all my 'work files' from Windows, Photoshop, and Lightroom on the SSD as well. When I'm done with all my processing, print making, DVD making, etc for a shoot, the whole thing goes over to an internal 1TB hard drive - external in your situation. The hard drive is strictly 'bulk storage' for photos and a bunch of other miscellany not accessed on a near-daily basis. I have a clone hard drive as primary, on-site backup, and another external drive for offsite backup. I should be safe from fire/theft/tornado/flood/viruses/self-induced problems/old-fogey memory lapses/you name it.


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## Derrel (Jan 25, 2013)

I fear you underestimate the power of the "old fogey memory lapses"...they can be pretty da..................


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## ceejtank (Jan 25, 2013)

cgipson1 said:


> ceejtank said:
> 
> 
> > cwcaesar said:
> ...



But as a drive thats wallet friendly and size friendly.. they suck


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## JDFlood (Jan 25, 2013)

I would buy a 228gb SSD drive, you can get a STartec disk duplicator for $59 that will do a bit for bit copy. Switch hard drives, expand partian. And not you have twice the space. The startech then can be a USB drive, you can use your old drive ( I wouldn't, I'd keep as backup), or get a 1 or 2 terabyte bare drive for data... The startech will accept two... So this solution could give you 4TB of additional disk space in addition to doubling you SSD space. You can do incrementally. JD


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## coastalconn (Jan 25, 2013)

I actually just got a new computer so I can tell you real world transfer times.  My old system was USB 2.0 and I have an external seagate 1TB At USB 2 speeds it took a touch over 7 minutes to transfer 5 gb of images.  On the new system it takes about 2 minutes to go to the external drive and about 1:15 seconds to go to the internal drive.  So I have an internal 2 TB, external 1 TB and a back up 1 TB wi-fi setup.  My D300 files are only about 19 mb I think, but LR4 has almost no lag time even coming from the USB 3.  This is all from a Lexar 400x (60mb/s) CF card which is actually probably the limiting part of the set-up.  The processor is an i5-3330.  I toyed with the idea of a SSD, but this system is way faster than I am   I think an external USB 3.0 drive is a pretty inexpensive way to go.


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## Moke (Jan 31, 2013)

I have just picked up a WD 2T My Passport works on usb2 or 3 I  picked this as it does not require to be plugged into a power source this was fairly important for when we are travelling I only need to make sure the laptop is charged before we head off road or free camping. I have no idea about the speed in comparison to other drives but I have not had any lag when opening files. I did load up a huge amount of music and photos immediately I got the drive home.


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## JohnF1956 (Feb 9, 2013)

I have my photos on an internal 2TB Seagate 24/7 drive, with automatic backups to an external 2 TB USB3 drive, also from Seagate. Nothing else is on that drive besides photos. My workflow is shooting Olympus raw and then converting the raw files to dng. Originals are then copied to a third USB drive for archival purposes. This third drive is actually three drives, each 1TB 2.5" USB 3 drive. One is attached, one is elsewhere at home, and the third is in a drawer at work. These are rotated every week. I have around 800 GB of raw files, so I'm good for a while. 

I also do some jpgs, usually for time lapse and large-scale panorama work (gigapans), and these are on the 2TB drives. I have a pair of matched 640GB drives for time lapse and gigapan work with these backed to an external 500 GB drive.

Yes, I'm paranoid.


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## JDFlood (Feb 10, 2013)

I have 8 tb internal, and three 3tb external. I keep one of the external at work, so if anything happens at home. I am sure I have another backup somewhere to. I have been in IT too long. I trust nothing. JD.


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