hard drive space

[leon]

Hi Guys, i am finding that my Lappy, and desk top is quickly filling up with all those large imaging files.

What do others do, do you keep all your files or do you delete most, and just keep the combined files after processing, and some edited images of the combined files.

at the rate I'm going it will be a couple of weeks of good imaging and i will be full up, so to speak.

any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Leon

[Doug]

Leon, can you burn them to CD/DVD? if not, do you know someboby local with a CD/DVD burner?

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by leon

at the rate I'm going it will be a couple of weeks of good imaging and i will be full up, so to speak.

Any image files you don't need urgently on the lappy should be burned onto DVD as an archive to leave space for new ones.

Or get an external USB hard drive ( I use a 300GB) and store them on that instead.
I'll try and find a link for you.

Alternatively pray for rain.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

External drives are a must. 120, 300 and 500gig are all being used in one way or another.

[little col]

i just started burning mine to cd as the lappy is getting full

[Phil]

Hi Leon
I use my laptop then the photos i don't need i put then on a external drive as a backup. Then i have another drive to back up that external drive. Just to be on the safe side.
Phil

[leon]

Thanks Guys, I think the external drives may be the go, i'll have a look tomorrow when i'm in town.

Leon

[radu5er]

Although I don't yet have astronomy pics to deal with, I do have a lot of other data that I must manage and seeing as how I have 9 computers on my network here I have found a cost effective solution to my storage issues to be by using a homemade network attached storage device.

It may not be feasible for everyone depending on your computer situation but if you are running any kind of local area network, you can easily build such storage using an old computer you may have lying around and then add some large hard drives. One of the great things about these systems is that they are bios independent so old hardware restrictions on hard drive sizes aren't an issue. The files are readily available and they are easily shared between all computers on the network. Backups are also easy to implement with this type of system so those rare photos won't get lost in the event of a catastrophic system failure.

Basically all you need to invest in is the software package, which is quite inexpensive, and then the hard drives and you are in business. I'm using an old Pentuim 233 Mhz system running headless with several 320 Gb hard drives here. You can stick the box in a corner with just a power and network cable connected and it also keeps the old hardware out of the landfills.

As I said, it may not be the solution for everyone, but it works a treat for my situation.

[leon]

Ric, probably a little over kill for me personally but i can see the advantages of what you are saying, thank you.

Leon

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Leon,
I use an 80G Hard-drive in a 'Noontec U235' external HDD case that Laurie sent me. I don't even save to the lappy any more. I save directly to the Mobile HDD. After imaging, I just plug the Mobile HDD into the pooter in the house and do my Processing.

Lappy stays nice and empty.

Case - http://dma.net.au/index.php?action=d...oduct&pid=5352

I think you can buy the Noontec with HDD fitted, power supply, USB 2 lead etc, all ready to use for about $120.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

External drive is a good way to go, they're becoming very affordable, you can get 1 terabyte for ~ $500

[radu5er]

You can get a name brand 320 Gb 3.5 inch hard drive suitable for an external case for $100.00 here in town Leon...more storage than you will ever need.

Remember when we thought that 20 Mb would be 'more storage than you would ever need'?

Gosh...guess I'm showing my age again...

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by radu5er

You can get a name brand 320 Gb 3.5 inch hard drive suitable for an external case for $100.00 here in town Leon...more storage than you will ever need.

Remember when we thought that 20 Mb would be 'more storage than you would ever need'?

Gosh...guess I'm showing my age again...

Yes, 10MByte were the first PC hard drives I ever used!

[mill (Martin)]

I must be very very old then.
I used music tapes on my Commodore VIC 20

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by mill

I must be very very old then.
I used music tapes on my Commodore VIC 20

I can remember when there were NO computers!!!!

[sheeny (Al)]

I burn all my .avi files to DVD (as data files) when I've finished processing them. (just the other day I burned my 40th DVD of avi files captured with the ToUcam!)

All my finished and intermediate processed files go to my internal 300GB drive (which is then backed up onto my external 250GB drive via Second Copy) on my desktop.

In that way I keep the files on my lappy down to less than 1 DVD (4.7GB) at the start of any imaging session.

Al.

[radu5er]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

I can remember when there were NO computers!!!!

While I wasn't quite born in the pre abacus days I did use a slide rule in college. And the first computer I programmed on was a PDP10...using punch cards in Fortran 4 no less.

Geez...these kids today

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by leon

Thanks Guys, I think the external drives may be the go, i'll have a look tomorrow when i'm in town.

Leon

Leon I've been looking at these ones from WD.
Do a search, you may find them cheaper, I think they're a good option.

Originally Posted by mill

I must be very very old then.
I used music tapes on my Commodore VIC 20

LOL same with my original Dick Smith System 80 !

[leon]

Many thanks to all who responded to my request for additional hard drive space, with all the options given how can i go wrong,.

Leon

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I've got the same one only in 500Gig for archiving. Gota love the firwire option, especially going straight from the DMK

I also have the Nexstar/Vantec 300Gig which is my workhorse for ongoing imaging and processing and secondary backup for the laptop.