Need advice on more storage space

[baryon]

I have a late 2008 15 inch MacBook Pro with a 320 GB hard drive inside, and a 500 GB Western Digital MyBook external USB drive.

The external is partitioned so that there's a 200 GB partition for storage, and 300 GB for Time Machine.

It all worked fine but now I'm running very low on space, as I'm a photography student and I have loads of gigantic Photoshop files and tens of thousands of high resolution photos, many of which are RAW. That is to say, I cannot delete any of that, it's more important than anything.

Now the way I do things is I keep almost everything on the internal drive, and let Time Machine back it up, so that I have a backup of everything I don't want to loose. The 200 GB partition on the external is for storing videos and stuff that I don't care much about.

Now the thing is I could buy a 2 TB external drive, but I would still have to move much of my stuff from the internal to the new external, and I would therefore not have 2 copies of that data. I don't want 2 externals backing up each other either, as I travel a lot and they won't fit in my suitcase (not to mention I can't afford that), and my MacBook Pro doesn't even have enough USB ports for that (the 2 ports are already constantly in use).

I don't have much money so I can either buy something like a 2 TB external and that's it, or maybe a 1 TB internal and a 1 TB external.

I've thought about replacing the optical drive with a hard drive, but then I would need to buy an external optical drive which I can't afford both in money and in physical space. I barely ever use my optical drive but I do need it 2-3 times a year.

My question is: what do other people do to have enough space while still being able to back everything up at least once? What do you recommend?

 

[KwanMan]

I have a late 2008 15 inch MacBook Pro with a 320 GB hard drive inside, and a 500 GB Western Digital MyBook external USB drive.

The external is partitioned so that there's a 200 GB partition for storage, and 300 GB for Time Machine.

It all worked fine but now I'm running very low on space, as I'm a photography student and I have loads of gigantic Photoshop files and tens of thousands of high resolution photos, many of which are RAW. That is to say, I cannot delete any of that, it's more important than anything.

Now the way I do things is I keep almost everything on the internal drive, and let Time Machine back it up, so that I have a backup of everything I don't want to loose. The 200 GB partition on the external is for storing videos and stuff that I don't care much about.

Now the thing is I could buy a 2 TB external drive, but I would still have to move much of my stuff from the internal to the new external, and I would therefore not have 2 copies of that data. I don't want 2 externals backing up each other either, as I travel a lot and they won't fit in my suitcase (not to mention I can't afford that), and my MacBook Pro doesn't even have enough USB ports for that (the 2 ports are already constantly in use).

I don't have much money so I can either buy something like a 2 TB external and that's it, or maybe a 1 TB internal and a 1 TB external.

I've thought about replacing the optical drive with a hard drive, but then I would need to buy an external optical drive which I can't afford both in money and in physical space. I barely ever use my optical drive but I do need it 2-3 times a year.

My question is: what do other people do to have enough space while still being able to back everything up at least once? What do you recommend?

What do you need the optical drive for?

 

[DustinT]

Here's a couple of facts you have to consider. First, there is always going to be a limit to how much storage you can shove into any laptop. In this case it is one, maybe two hard drives worth. Needless to say, the amount of storage you can have outside your laptop is usually limited by the amount of money you are willing to spend on it.

With that established, I'd take a careful look if you actually need access to all those files from your MacBook. If you can off load some of them you'll be in better shape since your current storage will suffice. If you do require all your images with you at all times than at some point you'll have to upgrade your internal storage. In fact, you may find yourself having to upgrade it more than once as the number of files grows. Most photographers I know only keep their current projects with them and perhaps a couple of demo reels.

Secondly, regarding the external storage, you should really invest in something a little more robust than just a single external hard drive. To be honest, thats not much of a backup if the files are as critical as you say they are. I'd be looking at multiple backups personally with at least one copy kept offsite in a very safe place.

I hope this helps some.

 

[baryon]

Here's a couple of facts you have to consider. First, there is always going to be a limit to how much storage you can shove into any laptop. In this case it is one, maybe two hard drives worth. Needless to say, the amount of storage you can have outside your laptop is usually limited by the amount of money you are willing to spend on it.

With that established, I'd take a careful look if you actually need access to all those files from your MacBook. If you can off load some of them you'll be in better shape since your current storage will suffice. If you do require all your images with you at all times than at some point you'll have to upgrade your internal storage. In fact, you may find yourself having to upgrade it more than once as the number of files grows. Most photographers I know only keep their current projects with them and perhaps a couple of demo reels.

Secondly, regarding the external storage, you should really invest in something a little more robust than just a single external hard drive. To be honest, thats not much of a backup if the files are as critical as you say they are. I'd be looking at multiple backups personally with at least one copy kept offsite in a very safe place.

I hope this helps some.

Yeah that does make sense, and it would probably be cheaper too than to get a bigger internal... Thanks!

What do you need the optical drive for?

From time to time I need to send my portfolios on CDs and I also need to hand in my work every semester on DVDs for my university. I won't give them USB drives because they'll lose them, and there's no other way.

 

[JamDonut]

From time to time I need to send my portfolios on CDs and I also need to hand in my work every semester on DVDs for my university. I won't give them USB drives because they'll lose them, and there's no other way.

you could pick up an external dvd drive? if you arent willing to fork out on a apple superdrive, you can pick one up on eBay for £25(about $35) easiy enough, as you say you will not be using it a lot, sounds like it might be worth considering?

 

[baryon]

you could pick up an external dvd drive? if you arent willing to fork out on a apple superdrive, you can pick one up on eBay for £25(about $35) easiy enough, as you say you will not be using it a lot, sounds like it might be worth considering?

Good idea, never thought I could get one that cheap! Thanks!