Extra storage, External hard drive ?

[SarahMB]

People have mentioned to have external hard drive for saving their photos. What type of external hard drive works for PC with window XP?

Is it worth the investment over burning to a CD?

SarahMB

[Wendy]

Sarah,

I suppose it really depends upon on how many images you have on your system ... as the more you have then the more time, effort and discs it takes to do good backups.

I already had a LaCie external hard drive to store my images on but backing them up was becoming somewhat of a problem. Because it was taking so long to do I wasn't doing it often enough and also I was ending up with lots of backup discs. So I decided to buy a second LaCie external hard drive simply to use for backups ... not only do I use it for backups of my images but it also contains backups of my mail system, wordprocessing, databases etc etc. Cost wise it was more expensive than using discs but it has been well worth it to me ... backing up is now such a simple job and it saves me so much time.

Another advantage of an external hard drive is that when you get a new computer you can just plug it into the new one and carry on using it.

I'm a Mac user so I can't comment on what type of drive works best with Windows XP ... but as far as I know all external drives work with both Mac and Windows systems.

Hope this is of some help

Wendy

[troush]

We use a Maxtor 120 GB to back-up the whole computer (and, well the laptop, too). It has full and incremental backups. Ours is just USB 2.0, but they also have firewire drives as well. Some people don't like the software that comes with it, but it works just fine for us.

-Trish

[tclose]

Has anyone had experience with managing an Elements catalog between a computer and one or more external disks? (I.e., having some photos local to the computer and some on the external disk).

I'm wondering how easy it is to archive a set of photos (move them from the computer's disk to the external). Does the catalog info (metadata, notes etc.) move with it? If the external disk isn't on line are there problems bring up Elements? Are there problems moving photos back to the local disk (i.e., a directory).

[baderms]

You can also purchase the case yourself, then buy any size hard drive to use. You don't have to use any specific software as the drive just shows up as another drive in explorer. If you want to use backup software, I use Syncback. You can get a free version from http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html

[Ward Grant]

Hello, Tclose, and welcome to the forum.

Using an external drive (EHD) for photos is quite common and should not present any problems. On your question of some photos on the computer and some on the external disk. This will not present a problem and Organizer will keep track where each photo is. If the EHD is off line, you'll get the Disconnected icon on those pictures but the program will work fine otherwise.

If you want to use the EHD as a backup medium, as many users do, then using Elements Backup/Restore commands will back up pictures and the Organizer, a MS Access database that holds your tags, slideshows, etc.

[tclose]

Ward,

Thanks for the reply. I'm having a bit of trouble, though. Trying to use the achive feature (to offload images on an external USB device) the Archive interface doesn't display the HD as a device - I only see the D: drive. Is there a setting in Elements that allows a USB device to be recognised?

[Ward Grant]

Hello T,
Strange your device is not shown. I assume you mean Screen Three of the backup command where you point to your device? Not sure which command you are calling the Archive command.
What is your D:\ drive if it is not the External Hard Drive?
Also, I believe remember reading the EHD has to be plugged in before opening Elements for it to be recognized? Is this the problem?

[tclose]

Yes Ward, I was refering to the third screen of the Burn process - sorry I was unclear.

I've started and stopped Elements with the EHD online and even rebooted with the EHD connected. Still no Joy.

Elements can see this disk to write to it ("Save As" etc.). It just doesn't give it as an option to the Burn or Backup processes.

As a work-around, I'm using the File->Move command (this also recognises the drive) to get files to the device but this isn't exactly what I want because its a bit more work to "move" images back when I want them on the local drive. But, I guess, for the moment it will do.

Thanks for your help.

[Ward Grant]

I wonder if I am getting lost in the terminology.
Could you clarify which steps you are doing?
Let say you have 10 pictures selected

Option A-Backup
Screen 1-Backup The Catalog radio button selected
Screen 2-Select either Full or Incremental
Screen 3-Destination EHD should be one of the selections

Option B-Burn
Screen 1-Copy/Move radio button selected
Screen 2-Option to Move Offline plus Options for Version Sets
Screen 3-EHD normally will not be shown here as the program expects disks.

If I read your posts correctly, you want to keep some photos on your EHD and some internal. I am assuming you want access to both (not as backup). You could also use a File>Save As to put them on the EHD and not have to Move them when you are through editing them. I am not sure why you would need to move them back to your C:\ drive. Elements will read from either drive.

If I have muddied, more than cleared the waters, please post back and we'll see if we can get you the correct answers.