Roccco

Okay, I am about 24 days from departure to Tanzania. I have a great laptop (Compaq Presario) with 80GB's of memory...only problem is I have no idea how much of that space is still available.

Between the 20 Gigs that I likely shot in Zambia and South Africa last September and the 40? Gigs that I have shot doing boxing ringside photography, I doubt that I have much space left on my computer.

What would be the easiest way for me to download these images. I will take the time to erase perhaps half of the images, but even then, I will have more images than I would like.

Would I be able to take my computer in to a computer shop and have this service performed for a reasonable price? I cannot imagine sitting there for days downloading all of my images onto disk.

Lastly, how do I check my computer to find out how many Gigs are currently used?

Thanks.

Kavey

Given the very high volume of images you're talking about you might be better of buying a large external hard drive. Once you've installed any drivers etc. you can plug it in and it will appear as an extra hard drive and you can select all your photos, drag them over to the new drive and leave it transferring them without being present.

Once you're confident you can delete how ever many you want from the main hard drive.

Africa

Hi Rocco

To check your hard drive space...

1. Open "My Computer"
2. You should now see icons for your hard drive(s), labelled "C" or "D".
3. Right click the icon and then click "Properties".
4. You should now see information regarding "used space" and "free space".

I am assuming your laptop is operating using Windows XP and that you have a DVD-writer. If this is the case, then you can save 4.7GB of data on a blank dvd (they are very cheap now).

Or as Kavey suggested, get a external USB hard drive and move all your data to it. With Windows XP, you can just plug the hard drive in and it will be recognised as another hard drive without installing any software.

pnd1

Hi Rocco,

The key to image storage is not space alone, it is redundancy. A hard drive failure on your laptop can wipe out your images. You need to set up a redundant method of storing images. I use four methods to store my own. My laptop is equipped with a DVD burner. The store almost five gigs of pictures. I burn them every few days as I travel. For you that would be about four or five DVDs per trip. It's quick, cheap and safe. But even DVDs can get scratched or corrupted. So I also carry a very light portable hard-drive with me -- it weighs very little, and is no bigger than paperback book. They come in various sizes. I have a 40 gig mobile hard-drive, designed by Porsche and manufactured by LaCie.
It only cost $100. I never shoot keep more than ten or fifteen gigs on a single trip, so that size is perfect. Here is a link to this LaCie portable hardrive:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

The purpose of this mobile hard drive is to back up both the laptop and the DVDs while in the field. My images are in three places, a redundancy which gives me great peace of mind when I travel. Hard drives can be subjected to jolts and knocks when traveling, and it is comforting to have my pictures stored on two hard drives instead of one, plus burned on to DVDs.

When I get home, I load my DVDs into my desktop computer and drag all of my images on to a Firewire Maxtor external hardrive which is attached to it. That's what Kavey is suggesting here -- an external hard drive. Mine costs $230 and holds 300 Gigs of images. So far, I have all of the digital images I have chosen to keep from all of my trips stored on both that Maxtor hard drive, as well as on DVDs. Amazingly, I still have 200 Gigs of storage available. In a few years, the Maxtor will be filled, and by then I will be able to buy a huge external hard drive to replace it for probably the same cost. (The Maxtor is not for travel. It is too heavy.)

Here is a link to the Maxtor external hard drive for your desktop computer:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

Once my images are transfered to my Maxtor external hard drive on my desktop computer,I can then erase them from the hard drive of the laptop, as well as from the mobile hard drive.

All in all, we are not talking a great expense or complexity here. Just simply back up precautions, with redundant storage the key word. If you have any questions, let me know.

Best,
Phil

Kavey

Phil
I understood Rocco's question to be about freeing space on his hard drive before going on the trip itself rather than how best to save the images he creates on the trip.
I too go for multiple copies both at home and abroad.
At home all images are on my main hard drive, a secondary hard drive and the most important ones are also on DVD or CD.
Whilst travelling we'll copy everything on to two separate portable storage devices or one of those and a laptop too.
You never can have too many backups!

sundowner

Kavey and Phil are right. To clear up the space on your laptop, transfer all of them from your laptop to an external harddrive. Since your time is running out, I would just transfer all of them now and cull out the non-keepers later. The one I use is 200 gig and is almost full. I want to get another external harddrive and store the same pictures on both so if one dies I still have them. So if you want to be double safe, buy 2 external harddrives and copy your pictures to both. Then store one of them at your office for safety.

Make sure you have duplicate storage in the field (as already suggested). Did you get the Epson P2000?

cooncat

Sorry to piggyback, but how many CF cards should we be taking? I've got 4, 1 gig cards and a Epson P2000. Do I need more cards? Thanks for letting me latch on, Rocco!

sandi

One more piggyback. What's the difference between CD or DVD disks? I only have to offload/backup my hard drive software and docs. Don't care much about the photos as Kodak has them and I have photo albums with all that are worth keeping.

Got the external drive, just not sure about the disks needed.

Oh, Rocco - if I ever want to know how much space remains on my 'puter (laptop), I just Fragement the disk, which should be done at least monthly. It immediately tells you how much space is available. And the Fragmenting cleans up all those files scattered wherever into nice neat places.

Kavey

Sandi, quick and partial answer, DVDs have more space on them than CDs. Subtly different formats but the relevant thing is capacity.

Kavey

Cooncat, I usually just take a couple of cards, one that I use most of the time and one as back up incase the first one fails... or incase I want to continue shooting without stopping to empty one onto my portable storage device.

More can't be a bad thing, I'm sure!

sundowner

Cooncat, you have plenty of cards. If you use RAW format, appx 100-120 pictures fit on a card. I've read a higher ISO will use more space on the card.

pnd1

Sandi,

As Kavey says, a DVD holds more images. It has nearly 5GB capacity, while a CD is only 700MB. Image files are getting larger as sensors grow in resolution. Some prefer to shoot raw files as well. So DVD has become the way to go, assuming you have a DVD burner on your laptop.

Phil

pnd1

Sharon,

You have plenty of CF cards. Only use them for temporary storage. Move your keepers on to your Epson as soon as you can. If there is going to be a failure, your memory cards are your most vulnerable equipment. They can become corrupted. I have had two cards fail on me. So its wise not to use them for storing images behind a day or two.

Phil

sandi

Kavey and Phil

Thanks for the clarification. No my laptop doesnt have a burner, so I got a external drive. In reading the instructions (I do read b4 doing anything) and noticed reference to both CD and DVD, so wanted to check first. I bought the DVDs with the external driv and b4 exchanging these needed the word from the experts. Much appreciated.

Rocco -

That should have been DE-Fragment the disk. In otherwords "unfragment" files and stuff that are split all over your hard drive.

cooncat

Thanks. I knew about the potential for corruption which is why I bought several one-gig cards instead of one or two 2 gigs.

Roccco

33.8 Gigs free!

That should get me by.

Now, I have a question. My computer is SUPPOSED to have 80 Gigs, but it says only 74.5 Gigs for the total size.

Well, in any event, even if I shoot 1.5 Gigs per day, I will be well covered. Just picked up a couple more batteries tonight and will try to pick up a couple more Gigs of CF cards tomorrow. Doing so will get me to a point where I may only have to charge batteries twice and download images once. Downloading images is a bit of a drag, but then again, not as bad as it would be to lose the images.

Now, will all Fodorites please join me in a rain dance? I was a bit worried about not arriving in the Serengeti until March 03rd, but now I am glad I did wait. Just hoping I will not regret waiting until mid March.

kimburu

You need to be a little careful Rocco; if you use up too much of your space you will really affect the performance of your computer - ask someone how much space they would recommend you leave free with that model. Mine is an oldie and only 40GB, and performance starts suffering really badly when there is less that 4.5GB left.

kimburu

Oh I forgot about all your cards- you're going to be fine aren't you?

sandi

Belive the difference between 80Gigs and the 74.5 shows is the software that comes with your 'puter. Mine shows a similar (though smaller) difference, but then I have only 20Gigs and have only about half of it used.

BostonGal

Rocco, do you want an iPod? We used to lug our laptop on all our trips solely for freeing up our camera's memory sticks.
But now, all we do is take our iPods and transfer the pictures there, and then when we get home, it's as easy as clicking and dragging onto our PC's media drive.
But, if you're taking your laptop regardless of using it to store pics, or if you are not up for an iPod, please ignore my message.
=)