External Hard Drive

[Valmave]

The hard drive on my windows PC is almost full largely with photos and videos. I am thinking about transferring these to an external hard drive. If I do that and then delete those files from the PC will I actually regain capacity on the PC hard drive ?

[bhg481]

Yes you will, but anyone who only keeps data on one drive is asking for trouble. You need at least one backup.

[Old_Geezer]

Seconded.

[SlackAlice]

Thirded.

[ivor4781]

think they actually mean but haven't said, do a back up on cds' or dvds' too

[bhg481]

I didn't say CDs or DVDs because they are too unreliable, too slow and too small capacity for serious backups.
A second hard disc is the only way to go - I have about 5 copies of all my important files, all on separate media.

[ivor4781]

dvds unreliabe,,only if you buy pound shop cheapos,

[bhg481]

I NEVER buy cheap CDs/DVDs and I've had failures.

[ivor4781]

well ya one in a million mr friend ive got cds over 14 years old no problem with them if you goolge life span of dvds / cds you will see at least they ok for 15 years min, must be your comp at fault

[bhg481]

Well, if you must use CDs/DVDs at least take methyl's advice and make at least 3 copies.
In any case, how long is it going to take to transfer say 250GB from hard disc to optical disc? You can't automate it, so you have to keep watching and putting in a new disc.
How do you update your backups? Do you make a new copy every week, or do you use RW discs? I have directories where many files are created once and never change, other files may be changed daily. Backing up to hard disc I can do it effortlessly before I shut down my computer; the same on optical disc is not practical.

[ivor4781]

i'm not that short of time bhg, maybe your a busy man, good luck to ya,

[bhg481]

Actually Ivor, I'm seriously interested in how long it takes you etc. Could you please answer the questions I asked in the last paragraph of my last post. It just seems to be it would be very complicated to replace the odd updated file here and there and have a record of where everything is, particularly if you have a lot of photos etc.
I've just backed up all my data, adding all new and replacing all altered files, to three separate hard discs in about 3/4 hour.

[ivor4781]

if you have lots to back up then do it your way, any photos etc that are new on my comp and are of some importance i back up on my Toshiba external hd, i just copy and past to my photos folder already on it.then once a month or so i just copy the lot to a dvd,they are cheap enough now,and that does it for me, as i said earlier the life of a dvd a least is 15 years,

[bhg481]

OK, if you can fit all your photos on a DVD I can cope with that; I have 300GB of photos (70,000).
I have a routine every Sunday morning where I back up everything, one copy going into a fireproof safe. Having spent 50 years working in computers perhaps I'm a bit paranoid.

[ivor4781]

sorry i mean i copy the new ones on the toshiba hd to a dvd which i can add other files too later
4.7 gb per dvd you can store hundreds on one dvd if there not massive files (photos) most of my photos are resized to around 400kbs,

[ivor4781]

ok 70.000 ? you must be a serious photographer so we are talking about two different situations here.myself i'm just a guy who takes the odd snap if i see and interesting scene / composition for a good pic,