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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Photo storage on external hard drive?
I am wanting to save my photos and I have a few questions.
Is it an external hard drive that is the typical go to? I do not want to save them online by the way.
Also, where do I go on my computer to see how many photos I have right now (size wise)?
I'm assuming that I need to get something that is a Tera Byte size, right?
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Re: Photo storage on external hard drive?
I'd say an external hard drive is the typical way to go. I'm in the process of burning backup DVDs of our most important photos (wedding, old family photos, etc) to be stored in our fireproof box and eventually a safety deposit box.
We just got the LaCie Network Space 2 drive. It connects to our router, and I can now access anything we put on that drive from our PC and my work Macbook. (If you are using PC and Mac computers at the same time, most hard drives require reformatting to FAT32. This particular drive comes formatted that way already, and we wanted to be able to share files so we bought the network one so it was easier.)
Are you on a PC or Mac? I know for a Mac, go to the finder window and right click on the folder name, then click Get Info. In that window, it should tell you the size of the folder in the General menu. It tells you the size in GB and the number of files. I think you can do something similar on a PC, but it's been so long since I've used one that I don't remember.
We bought 1 TB because it was way more than we need right now, but we don't want to have to replace the drive any time soon.
An external HD would be the way to go, IMO.
Geeks has a 2TB one manufactured by Western Digital (WD), which I've had good luck with.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=WDBAAH0020HCH-NESN-DT&cat=HDD
Can you explain what you mean by failure?
Example of failure that happened to a friend of mine: he accidentally tripped the power cord which tipped the HD and turning it into a brick.
2011 AthensGAHalf official time: 2:33:31
Ze Blog
I would say that yes, get an external hard drive (H swears by Newegg, which is where he bought the ReadyNAS and the drives we just upgraded to) but also back up onto CD in a fire safe. I do both (well, I have copies on both my computer and the back up as well as the fire safe) because I'm paranoid I will lose everything and since my son's life has been documented digitally (even videos), I would be devastated to have that happen. I lost an entire year of school work because of a flash drive failure. It just fried itself when I stuck it into a computer at the school lab, so you never know when something like that will happen.
My H has a network attached storage for us. Right now, we have 3.6TB of storage (which is overkill) on a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ (that's only three drives, we have a fourth in our storage box of computer supplies as a back up, as it can run on 3 drives but not on 2). I literally have NO idea how he did it (I haven't touched it at all), but it's set up. We can access it from any computer on our network (my computer, his laptop, visitors can access it I believe) and he said he would eventually like to be able to access it remotely via WiFi. Our next tech purchase is going to be a new battery backup. We bought one, but it was a complete lemon so we've been operating without one and shutting down our entire system when we have bad weather or leave for extended periods of time when we could lose power.
TTC Baby #2 - BFP on 12/14/11 @ 10DPO - CP confirmed 12/18/11
BFP #2 on 1/13/12
What made it even worse is that he was in the middle of backing up his computer.
So, yeah, go to newegg, look around, and find an external. 1TB should last you a while if you want to go for it. I'm a WesternDigital or Seagate brands girl.
2011 AthensGAHalf official time: 2:33:31
Ze Blog
All hard drives fail eventually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_failure
Also, cds will deteriorate over time. This is most notable for burnable disks. I'm not saying you shouldn't back stuff up, it's just a process that you'll have to keep doing forever.
External hard drives have a high failure rate in the first 12 months of use. Not all of them. But lots of them. All you gotta do is sit down and read the reviews at Amazon and in the first 5 minutes you'll read about a ton of EHD's that crashed in the first 12 months of use. Of the many manufacturers that make 'em, pay close attention to their warranty policy. Call their tech support up TWO OR THREE TIMES BEFORE you buy and that goes for all electronic gear. Put 'em through the paces to find out the basics like if they speak understandable English, if they pick up the phone as opposed to leaving a message where they say they'll call you back (but in reality never do), to see how long the hold time is, to see if their techs have remote access, etc. Because electronic devices are problematic, I don't shop like most people. Bells and whistles, color, and price are never as important to me as tech support is. I buy from stores that have the best return policy, and Newegg gets a solid F on their report card in that department. The best return policy I've found thus far for a store is 90 days and in cases where there is a premature failure I might be able to get that 90 day period extended quite a bit longer than 90 days (to like 1 - 1.5 years) and Newegg can't touch that. The only thing Newegg is good for is fast shipping ( trust me a week after you get said device that won't matter to you anymore) and decent pricing but since their return policy is weak I only buy nickel and dime items from them like memory cards, etc.
As for manufacturers last time I checked 6 months ago Seagate had one of the worst support / warranty policies where as Western Digital had one of the better ones though they won't tell you that up front you have to probe them and when I did they said you could extend the warranty for a measly 12 bucks but that was 6 months ago so be diligent in your research. I checked Hitachi out once and I was on hold for 45 minutes, needless to say I crossed them off my list. I can tell you stories about Toshiba but I don't get paid to write (their EHD dept. is in Northern California manned by only 2 people and are sub-contracted by Toshiba not employed by 'em) I currently own 3 EHD's, none have yet to fail but they're only 6 months old. The first EHD I bought back in 2007 crashed and turned into utter trash on month six and no I never flinged it around like a Frisbee nor did my cat knock it down it sat rock solid on my desk and then just died. Last of all, I'd stay far away from Jungle Disk. Like 99.9999999% of the online storage companies you can't call them on the phone when there's a major system failure that renders your data inaccessible because they don't offer the customer a call center and that's like not being able to call 911 when you discover that someone is trying to quietly break into your residence at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Remember all this info is about 6 months old so things may or may not be a tad different today and also ignore this post if you're affluent cause when their electronic gear breaks they throw it in the trash and simply go out and buy a new one which is not a bad idea when it comes to 'eggshells' which is what I call an external hard drive after reading about all the premature failures that occur including the one I had back in '07.
We have a 2T LaCie that I've been very happy with. I just backed up my iMac the other night and it was smooth as silk. Not a problem at all.
We also have a 250GB (old) external by a company I can't remember right now, and I had to wipe that disc completely before it would let me back up my MacBook. So...
I know you're saying you don't want to save stuff online and I get that. Most of the time, people say that because of privacy reasons, and trust me, I'm totally paranoid about things like that as well. That's why I use smugmug. I love them, their layouts are fun and easy to work with, and unless I actually send out an invite to an album with a password (I create all my albums as password protected and secure), no one else can see them. So if privacy is your reason, that's a good option to take, FWIW.
I have used Western Digital with good results. I read that they use them even in desert environments because they stand up to blowing sand. I have several, because my first ones were 60 and 80 gigs, and of course now that is nothing, especially with video.
I like the Passport ones, because they are small and slim and don't require an external power source. I also don't install the software that comes with it. You can just save to it or c&p to it. Amazon is a good place to find a good price. I have also gotten good deals at buy.com