COMPUTER STUFF

[Luke Hatley]

OK i am running win 2000 office, it works for me.

the computer that i have is 4 years old , not nothing to speak of.

i only have 6 gb of disk space and i am getting messages that my disk space

is full.

Now would an external hard drive, that would be used to store my photos

solve the problem of disk space ?

[leatheroo]

a usb external hard drive is the way to go, load your photos on to it, or burn them to disc to free up some space

[Luke Hatley]

a usb external hard drive is the way to go, load your photos on to it, or burn them to disc to free up some space

Roo, you said to burn them to a disk....this Computer , has not the capaibility

of that , is there an external device for that ? OR

is the best way to go the external hard drive ?

[rdb]

It could be that simple Luke...it could also be difficult.

First. How big is the current Hard Drive. If it's like a 10 or 20 gig drive, you will have some problems. Modern Windows uses a lot of disk space for programs and system files, and every time you add an application it puts more files there, even if you install the App to another drive. As a rule, I generally give 10-20 gigs over to the Operating system. And then either partition the rest of the drive, or a second drive to use for apps, files, and documents.

Big drives are cheap now, you may want to consider just buying a new drive, and reinstalling your operating system to it, using the partition scheme I mentioned.

If you want to just add a drive....

Internal Disks are cheaper usually. Look inside the PC and see if the flat cable connected to your present hard drive has an additional plastic hookup piece to it. If it does you can add a second drive to your machine.(or add a flat ribbon cable that does have two HD hookups).

USB/External drives are an easier install, generally a few milliseconds slower, though. The advantage is the mobility of the drive...you can move it between PCs.

As an emergency method for immediate needs...first empty out your temp directory, in all users, then caches, etc. Delete any old apps you don't use. Do a search for big files, that will give you a sense of where your bloat is. Consider deleting MS Office, and install Open Office. It's a lot less bloated, works fine for most needs. You'll save some space, and be cool too. Of course moving to Linux will...nevermind...lol.

Good luck. Ask more questions or just jump in...I'm sure there's enough expertise here to get you through this.

[Regis]

Luke,

You're probably better off buying a read/writte CD drive. They are cheap enough and move your photo's to CD's. If you are getting that message, you need to do "something" right away or you'll loose a lot. Deltes some files and be sure to empty trash can (and then restart computer).

Regis

[Johanna]

I would get an external and "copy" not move the important files. After you're sure everything is preserved on the ex hd, delete the files on the computer from the original location. This needs to be done ASAP or you are risking their loss, based on the errors you are receiving. Exteranl cd writers are okay, but they don't work as well as internal ones. You can buy a writer unit to swap with the cd reader the computer already has. I wouldn't try to burn from the ex hd unless I had to (slow!) but the key is to act now before it's all gone.

Johanna

[RockyWolf]

I am using a iomega screenplay 500gb external drive it works very well and is used to back up my laptop via-Norton360 just in case the big computer grim reaper comes along then I use the rest of the space for movies and eBooks.. I also back up some very important documents via CD and send emails to myself using attachments and googlemail / gmail the only thing I would suggest on a 4 year old computer is if it has not usb2 on the mother board dont think about getting any external drives up-grading your motherboard and adding a larger hard drive would be the best way to go giving you a more up to date computer with a load more room and plenty of scope for adding more drives inside or other up-grades...

Dave Wolf

Edited March 6, 2008 by RockyWolf

[bruce johnson]

Ok, in the same vein. I did get an external HD last weekend, and did my backup to that. My issue is that I am only using the laptop now. It means everytime I have added a new printer or camera, did the ipod deal, etc. I get more programs installed. Some of these programs are necessary, but others are yet another version of the world's simplest photoediting/converting to text/editing/making childbirth a pleasure bundled software. I am sure I can safely dump some of these but how do I know which one(s)? I am using 3 cameras and two printers.

In the past I have copied a batch of pictures off to disks in the original sizes, and saved relevant ones in resized on this computer. This means my photog wife has 3 large binders of disks/thumbnail prints. I am thinking the HD will save some space by just transfering the large files over there?

Third question. What about having 2 external HDs? One for all the picture files, and one for backups and important file savings? If I get another HD of exactly the same model, will I have to redo software for it too, or would the curent ext HD software recognise it?

Yeah, Yeah. It is an HP laptop, Windows XP.

[rdb]

By the time you buy a CD Rom, cd discs, and a hard drive, it sounds like you should run down to the big box store and just buy a new PC...probably better than what you have for around 4-500 dollars, along with a much bigger drive. The CD and Harddrive will probably run you about 150-200 dollars. If you bring your hard drive down to the store, they'll copy your stuff over. Don't forget to tell them you don't want VISTA. Tell them you want XP.

[TomSwede]

I have experienced burnt cd that has gone unreadable in less than a year so I wouldn't trust any important stuff on one. DVD's been reported to be worse in the aspect of loosing data over long term, but I have no experience with those.

Being alot into photography and completely digital theese days, diskspace is always a problem or should I say money is the issue in real term speaking. I always have double up of what I use for the internal drive for photography and hopefully some 2-300 gigs extra on external disks.

On my system today I have internally:

One: scrapdisk of 200gigs containing stuff that could be sacrificed if I needed so no backups for that one.

Two: Windows disk of 250 gigs mostly OS and and proggies, some stuff in my documents but never any important files on the windisk (that's the one who crashes most often) so nothing I couldn't live without there so no backup for that one either.

Three: Photo disk,contains all originals (raw files and TIF, jpeg copies) alot of artsy photoshop images I've done and want to keep and stuff that I dont want to loose. Starting to get full. 300gigs.

Four: External 300 gigs. Duplicate of the photodisk but all TIF and jpeg copies are sorted out to have some margin.

Gotta get a new photodisk wich means get externals to match that one, yeah moneyissues I said, OR sacrifice scrapdisk and match with a smaller external only OR rip out photodisk make it external and replace with a 500gigger, 500eds seems pricey now OR take not so many photos and pound some dead cow, get balance in the book and work it out later, yeah that'll be it.

The options are endless on the diskproblems one can have. Networkdisks in seperate chassies with fans that can hols several disks and run them in RAID configs is also a nice possibility.

A couple of days before the -08 crash I had a wincrash that I couldn't repair. Reinstall needed. I hate to loose previous win install cuz I have alot of special proggies installed and don't want to sit for hours trying to figure out what they were.

External disk was swapped with the previous win disk, installed windows wich means my photobackup were lost, started up the external now containing previous win install and did alot of drag and drop and had my system back in no time, hey boots alot faster now too.

Then created a new backup of the photodisk.

I have no specific advice for you right now but hope the the shared info is of some help.

This is a hot issue at photoforums.

Tom

[rdb]

Bruce. You don't need a third drive. You can partition the 2nd drive into smaller sections...one for docs, and pics, one for backups, etc. that way if one partition is corrupted for any reason, you still have the others.

If you copy all your stuff from the primary drive over to the second drive, you won't have to erase any of your camera applications, or system type files. Once you copy all your valuables over to the new drive, you can delete the originals, freeing up space on your first drive...for all the applications you use, and any new ones you install.

[RockyWolf]

Without getting into the Vista vs Xp thing put both on the new new hard dive as newer computers are being built to run on Vista we are sorry to say and support of Xp will be fading away as this is the Microsoft way of making you conform with a singular goal of you parting with your cash and to quote Mr Bill gatesYou will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile up-grade now..

[rdb]

Vista is crap, and XP is going to be supported by Microsoft for at least 5 years.....

[Johanna]

When I get new hardware I hook it all up and try to run it without the enclosed software cd. XP is pretty good at finding generic drivers to run things. Of course, this doesn't always work, and sometimes I need a driver or two. The next step is to Google the new hardware and locate the drivers from the manufacturer's site. Case in point- I have an ancient HP 3 in 1 with a cd of nearly 700MB of software to run it. I don't want my printer seizing control of my image files, so I didn't use the cd. Everything on the printer worked but the scanner. I found a 4MB download on HP site that makes the scanner work. Hurray!

Vista is a whole different scenario, and you'll likely need the supplied cd.

But Bruce, I have never installed any of the external Hard drive software on any XP system. As long as Windows recognizes the drive, you're in business. You can have as many externals as you want. TIP: store your externals away from the main computer (don't leave it plugged in all the time!) If something happens to the computer (lightning, gremlins etc) the exteranl is safe. A different physical location or fireproof box is ideal storage.

Johanna

[RockyWolf]

Vista is crap, and XP is going to be supported by Microsoft for at least 5 years.....

Could not agree more chap.. thats why I use a Mac for all my artwork and sometimes linux on my PC and put up with the Microsoft o/s when needed... As I said without getting into the Vesta vs Xp crap have a open mind and use what is needed to get the job done use and do.. but software and o/s are down to what you Like best and what is needed by the computer to get the best out of the hardware that is in there but anyway going right off topic regarding what the post was about...