# Where do you work:  Local Hard drive or External



## Rudipides (Aug 9, 2014)

Im trying to organize my workflow better and I'm trying to decide if I want to

a.) keep my files and folders on the local hard drive and perform all work locally.

or

b.) Immediately create folders and put all my files on an external drive and perform my processing externally.


NOTE: regardless of the option the files are backed up to yet another backup local so I would always have 2 copies.

Also, I use two computers (laptop and desktop) that I use at therefore I think the external may work best for me.



So, what do you guys do?


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2014)

I use Lightroom for my processing.
I put all work on my external USB 3TB drive.
Unless I'm not at home then I work on the local HD.  Then when I get home I simply MOVE them to the USB drive.

The system seems to work significantly faster when the RAW files are on the external USB drive.


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## The_Traveler (Aug 9, 2014)

I keep all my programs on an SSD and all my data files on a fast internal HD and backup compulsively to two USB 3 externals.


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## Nakz (Aug 9, 2014)

On my laptop I just run windows on my SSD, and put all the other files on my 1TB hard drive, but I think I'm going I get an external one to save space.


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## Trever1t (Aug 9, 2014)

I have my work local, processed local and backed up on a Drobo 5 bay with double redundancy and then that is backed up onto 2 separate external drives. Jeesh, not sure what to do when I am at capacity!


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## sm4him (Aug 9, 2014)

I put everything straight from my sd card onto an external drive then backup to a second external drive.  The first external is my "main" drive for photos and I work on editing straight from that. When I've finished editing a particular folder (or at the end of a day), I also make a backup copy of all the edited files onto the second external drive.

It works for me, because there are a total of four computers I might be using on any given day and want to either access or edit photos on, so keeping photos on one of the internal drives just wouldn't work well for me.


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## KmH (Aug 9, 2014)

I work local and store/backup external.


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## ann (Aug 10, 2014)

similar to Keith


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## Warhorse (Aug 10, 2014)

KmH said:


> I work local and store/backup external.





ann said:


> similar to Keith


I also work local, store local, and then back up to external.


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## JClishe (Aug 10, 2014)

I work on local disks, then move finished work to a Windows Home Server in my basement which also uses local storage and runs 2 nightly backups: the first backup goes to external storage and the 2nd backup goes to Windows Azure cloud storage.


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## ristretto (Aug 10, 2014)

Rudipides said:


> So, what do you guys do?



Generally work from the desktop/C drive.


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## AceCo55 (Aug 11, 2014)

Desktop: C drive has programs / E drive has working files (1TB) / F drive (SSD) is used as scratch disk / External drives used as backups


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## snowbear (Aug 11, 2014)

I have a crapload of these in shoe boxes.


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## chuasam (Aug 11, 2014)

Current projects local SSD
Completed projects, external and backed up


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## dl4449 (Aug 11, 2014)

Same as Trever


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## e.rose (Aug 11, 2014)

My workflow:

STEP ONE: Create a new Lightroom catalogue in "Photos" folder of Hard drive, named after the client and the session type.

STEP TWO: Import images into said catalogue and place image folder inside catalogue folder on local hard drive

STEP THREE: Do the work. Edit the things.

STEP FOUR: Finish the work. Finish editing the things.

STEP FIVE: Move image folder into proper folder hierarcy on external drive.

STEP SIX: Move the Lightroom catalogue into proper folder hierarchy on external drive.

STEP SEVEN: Open Lightroom catalogue and tell it where images were moved to.

STEP EIGHT: Rinse and repeat with new shoots.

PRO TIP: All the while, my external drive is plugged into my computer, so I have time machine backups off all the things I'm doing on my local drive, in case of crash.

I have a SSD in my MBP... there's no way in hell I'm NOT taking advantage of working locally on that, vs. my slower external drives, haha.


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