Issue relating to storing images on an external drive.

[Geoffw]

I have recently transferred to a new laptop for most of my computers needs. As a result I now have to be much more economic with space on my hard drive. At the same time I have decided to start again from scratch with tagging and organising my collection of images so moving it is not an issue. I use Elements 4.

Therefore I am considering placing my photo-collection on an external drive rather than crowding the laptop’s smaller drive with a growing collection of photos and videos.

What issues do I need to consider? …… and is there a big downside to keeping he images on an external drive, that I might not have thought off?

[GaryK]

Geoff

I can't say how the organizer handles EHDs as I use mine strictly for backup.

Aside from any organizer issues or non issues, the only caveats would be, the fact that it is portable.. thus dropable, loseable, stealable ..you get the drift, as well as you should still have a backup somewhere.

I think most (not all) around here use their EHDs as a backup device as opposed to their main photo storage device.

all just MHO.:)

One other thing .. you need to force your EHD as a drive letter. That way if you unplug and plug it in, the letter doesn't change if you have something else plugged in.

[efarnstrom]

Geoff

I can't say how the organizer handles EHDs as I use mine strictly for backup.

One other thing .. you need to force your EHD as a drive letter. That way if you unplug and plug it in, the letter doesn't change if you have something else plugged in.

I use an external drive as the main one for image storage and another one for back-ups. Pay attention to the note about letter designation. When I moved my EHD from one computer to another, it was now a new letter and my catalog didn't recognize the images. I wasn't smart enough to know how to go about changing letters, so I reimported the file to the catalog. It stripped all my creations and any version sets (gave me the original and the last version), and was very spotty about applying any tags. I'll never do that again!

[bwolford]

I now file pictures in directors/folders by subject and date. It's much easier to locate what I want. If you lose your catalog (yes it can be backed up) it's frustrating to recover it. Moving from one cataloging program to another is a pain. My method works universally for me regardless of the program I'm using.

Brice

[kimi_boo]

I have a laptop and all of my images are stored on my external drive. I also use the organizer. It has worked great for me. I got all of the free space I needed on my laptop and still have all my pics.

The only down side I have run across is... wanting to show someone at work an image and I forget my laptop doesn't have it. :eek:

[jlwilm]

Internal Drive or External Drive - the answer is back it up somehow or sooner or later you are going to be a very unhappy person.

You can back up to CD/DVD or another external hard drive.

If this sounds too expensive, what value do you place in your pictures?

If you need help, start with your computer retailer and ask questions about how to backup until it makes sense. There are lots of ways and lots of strategies.

[Wendy]

Hi ..

I have used external hard drives for my images for quite a while ... and one spin off is that if you change computers then all you have to do is unplug it from one and simply plug it into the new one ...

Best thing I ever bought :)

Wendy

[jojo99]

I keep all my images on an EHD, I've only got about 4,000 now but plan to import 6 years worth of photography, not something I'd like to do to my main computer.
I'd say the main issue is to back-up and keep (your back-up) up to date. Then if the worst happens and you've lost your EHD for whatever reason you can simply re-install your catalog to a new one and keep all your tags etc.
Jo-Jo

[efarnstrom]

Hi ..

I have used external hard drives for my images for quite a while ... and one spin off is that if you change computers then all you have to do is unplug it from one and simply plug it into the new one ...

Best thing I ever bought :)

Wendy

If you move from one computer to the other you had best be sure that the drive letters are the same! My new computer had all the slots for multimedia...SD drives for camera, etc., which had assigned new letters to the slots. My EHD now got a different letter than on my old computer...bad news.... Like I said, pay attention to GaryK:

One other thing .. you need to force your EHD as a drive letter. That way if you unplug and plug it in, the letter doesn't change if you have something else plugged in.

[Geoffw]

Well thanks every for the advice and suggestions. The consensus seems to be an EHD can be used as long as I make sure I fix the drive letter, and have another source to backup to. Fair enough – now to get started. 7000 images to go…………………………………………….

[emkayess65]

Hi, I have an EHD that I use for storage. I'm considering getting another for my pictures.
How do you force your drive letter? Could someone give instructions.
On an old thread I read about assigning like M or N to the drive.
Someone still had problems even that far away in the alphabet.
I can see the sense of doing it but I don't know how.
Thank you. TIA
MKS

[genevh]

Right click "My Computer" on your desktop, then click "Management". In the window that opens, click "Disk Management". Then right click the drive in question in the right hand pane that opens, then pick "Change Drive Letter and Paths" and insert the unused drive letter you want to assign to it.

[emkayess65]

Hi Gene,
thank you for the information.
I remember you were in the thread I referred to, but it was way above me. I do try, but sometimes it seems like every body knows this stuff - exept me. :confused:
I should be prepared now when I do get that second EHD.
Thanks again.
Marie S

[jojo99]

I'd like to force my drive too, firstly is it okay to change now that it's set up and I've been using it for a while and is the idea to pick a letter further down the alphabet that might not be used automatically by another device?
Just wondering :)
Jo-Jo

[genevh]

There was a big discussion on EHD's a while back that you can read here (http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21064)if you want to. But those that talked about assigning letters to their EHD tended to go to higher letters to be "safe" with it. But if the drive is going to stay connected at all times, you could assign it the next available drive letter. That's how mine is and it never changes. But all I use other than that is a USB thumb drive, a card reader, and hook up the camera from time to time and I don't care what they end up being. ;)

[jojo99]

Thanks for the link Gene, there's lots of info there.
I think I will leave well enough alone for the moment but if something goes wrong I hope I remember I can force the drive to be "F", which is what it is now and where PE will be looking to find stuff.
Thanks again!
Jo-Jo

[genevh]

If you've got the Organizer already looking to the EHD as the F drive, then changing it to another will be a bit tricky, especially if you have your images tagged or in collections.