external hard drive (hd, sounds, transfer, installed)

[rugerjitsu]

we need an external hard drive to hold all the pictures and videos my wife takes of our family...i'm not sure how much storage is neccessary, could someone help me out with that?

i know there must be around a thousand pictures at least, and a good bit of small video clips taken from our hard disk camcorder.

i'm thinking 500Gb, but i'm not sure...could i use less?

[TurcoLoco]

So what is the total size of all the files and videos you have right now?
Also how often and how much additional data do you accumulate?
Consider these two factors in your decision on the size of the external drive.

Also, plan ahead and buy something that you will not need to run out of space quickly. The price difference between available drive sizes aren't that much so spending a bit more on a bigger drive could be wiser.

500GB sounds good but then again take the answers to my first two questions into consideration.

[scarmig]

If you have all of the pictures under one directory, you can right-click on that directory, selected Properties, and it will tell you the total size of the directory and all of it's contents.

Having said that, I would get the biggest one in your budget. 500GB is probably good, but don't forget you still need to back up all that media.

You *are* backing up those pictures and videos to another drive or DVDs, right? Because if you put them all on a single drive and that drive dies, they are gone.

[scarmig]

My family pictures alone over the past seven years total up over 50 gB. I don't do home video, but if I did I could probably multiply that by at least five. Even if you don't think it will fill up it doesn't cost much more to have the extra space.

I remember back when a friend of mine was the first kid on the block to have a hard drive. We were all amazed and agog at his massive, inconceivable thirty-two megabytes and couldn't fathom how he would ever fill it up.

[ShadowCaver]

You have two main options:
1 - build external HD yourself [relatively easy, and cheaper, and you know what ya got]
and/or
2 - purchase the units [has a total warranty, for what that's worth,,, and is premade]

Note - I highly recommend that you have two external HD's... one attached to your computer, the other one locked away in a safe, a family/friend's house elsewhere, that you once every week, or month, or few months [depending on how often you actually d/l material], that you backup the 'main' external HD. As mentioned in previous post, you can also burn onto DVD's, CD's, etc. too. Me, I prefer the multiple external HD's. And yes, I would get a minimum of 500GB. Last thing IMHO you'd want is multiple smaller units,,, and then trying to recall and then actually use each one to get the material from 'em. Other advice I'd offer is (a) get/build a unit that has multiple connections [USB, FW400 and/or FW800, eSata, etc.], and (b) read multiple review sites to get best bang/quality for the buck [one brand I like is LaCie]. Lastly, recall that its not if a HD will fail, but when.

[skel1977]

Anyways I ordered a cavalry external hard drive last night off newegg for 80 bucks. Newegg has some pretty good deals on drives right now.

[JobZombie]

I have a 1 TB WD Caviar Black installed in an Antec MX-1 eSATA/USB hard drive enclosure hooked up eSATA. 3 Gbps throughput is very fast and the device can be powered on/off as needed. USB transfer, IMO, is way to slow for moving tons of information. If you get the WD Caviar Black “Bare Drive” on sale at Newegg (it was on sale when I got it last month and again this month) you get just the drive in an anti static bag, nothing else, no cables, instructions, software. That was all that I needed since I already have the power and eSATA cables plus the sale price was nice too.

[rugerjitsu]

thanks for all the info...we do burn to dvd/cd's, but we have yet to get an external hard drive. i'll do some more research, and check out new egg to see about prices...

[Charles]

I do what one poster mentioned above, I keep one or two HDD in a safe deposit box and update those at least once a year. I also backup my primary drive (which hold all our photos, videos and irreplaceble data) onto other computers (my wife's, my kids') on our home network. DVDs just dont' come close to cutting it anymore (imagine writing that ten years ago).

Now, if you want to go the firewire or USB hard drive, that's good. Those drives are so cheap. Go to Pricewatch - Price Comparison Shopping sorted by the lowest price - Computer Hardware and Electronics, Fathers Day Sales, Memorial Day Sales, Graduation Gift Ideas and a lot more and see real time updates of computer parts. Right now an external 500 gig hd is about $58. But, one terabyte is only $81.