external storage

[august]

hi all,

i am currently working on purchasing equiptment to set up my photo studio and am wondering about how i am going to save all of the images that i take. i am assuming that an external drive will be the best way to do this. my current budget is 300-500 for this purpose. is this enough?

can anyone give me some suggestions for what might work best for me given these parameters?

what do you use to store your work? any problems? what size would be a good standard to start with? any links to good hardware?

thanks in advance for any input that you might have.

- august

[richardpcrowe]

I have a 320 GIG external IOMEGA hard-drive but, I wish that I had bought at least a 500 GIG drive since I save my images in RAW and then save the post processed images in Photoshop and then sometimes in JPEG (for sending in the web).

If you have a FRYS Electronics near you, I suggest that you visit them.

If you don't have a FRYS, here is a link to their hard drive selection.

FRYS.com

This drive runs $199 plus shipping at FRYS

Seagate FreeAgent Pro Data Mover 750GB eSATA, FIREWIRE 400 & USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - ST307504FPA1E3-RK.

It seems to have some pretty good reviews.

Seagate FreeAgent Pro Data Mover 750GB eSATA, FIREWIRE 400 & USB 2.0 External HD @ Outpost.com - $198 FS

It appears that this unit is also available at COSTCO

Costco - Seagate 750GB FreeAgentâ„¢ Pro External Hard Drive

UPDATED ON 11/2/07 AT 5:50 pm PST

I just purchased a Seagate 500 GIG Freeagent External Hard Drive from FRYS Electronics in San Marcos, CA - this drive is not firewire compatible but the price was $119.00 on sale from $179.00 which was the listed price onthe box.

[gryphonslair99]

My Book World Edition II 1 TB Hard Drives ( WDG2NC10000 )

Great for the working pro.

[JDArt]

750 gig and 1 terabyte hard drives are actually becoming affordable. I recommend you start big because you're always going to need more space.

Also don't forget to double whatever you get for the purposes of backup. So if your photos take up 500 gigs, you need another 500 gig drive to back those up with.

[Tom Swaman]

I use a 500gb and a 750 gb from Western Digital. I have had zero troubles though I am aware that others have had issues with WD EHDs. I also, despite the feelings of others, do download choice folders and some files to CD-Rs and to DVD-Rs. I typically use gold discs if I want to keep the discs as opposed to simply mailing images to someone. I keep my system very simple so that even my pea brain can work with it......., sometimes, of course.

Tom

[brian.austin]

The answer to this question really depends on workflow more than anything else. Blowing the budget on a single, high-capacity drive and then tying yourself down to slow backups via DVD's or losing the entire drive due to a failure cuts into possible production time.

Which do you want to do: spend time in the studio, generating income, or spend time on the computer, playing IT tech? Note that the latter doesn't put any money in your pocket.

Some people save the original exposures in one folder, the edits in another, and the print output in yet another. That's three copies of roughly the same image. From a workflow perspective, this could make a lot of sense...but you just cut your storage by 2/3.

Before determining budget, determine your workflow and work backwards. Treat this like a business and not like an art. The art will come later. The income needs to start now.