External Hard Drive?

[digitS']

Do any of you use an external hard drive?

DW loves to use her camera. Much of the time, she clicks the video button.

This PC that I'm on now is clogged with her pictures, or nearly so! I don't know what memory it has but it replaced and is the same model as one that experienced bloat, as defined by the computer shop guy. That one had other problems but much of those files were just moved to this PC and I tried to delete stuff. About 3 years have passed ...

I don't feel comfortable deleting her pictures. The tablets we use daily don't have much memory. I have a HP all in one that can't have much memory. Shoot, it doesn't even have a tower!

I'd just like to transfer all of her "stuff" to an external hard drive and she can plug into it whenever she wants to see some of it! She has the dang camera memory full again she informs me and left it on my dresser last week. Then, she talked about getting a new camera!!!

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not computer savvy enough to tell you what the most efficient way to do that is and I don't use an external hard drive these days but many years ago we did. Pretty sure it just plugged into a USB port and showed up as "D" drive instead of the normal "C". As complicated as they like to make things these days it may no longer be that simple but it sure sounds like a good solution for you. Just get a big one that is compatible with your PC. I don't even know what compatible means in this regard but it may be as simple as plugging in a thumb drive. But then thinking about it, isn't a thumb drive an external hard drive?

 

[journey11]

I went to Walmart and bought an external terrabyte drive. It was around $80. Same problem, I needed some place to back up photos. When we had a desktop, we kept it connected all the time and it would automatically update itself to match what was on my computer. This is handy if you have any fears of your hard drive possibly dying, which I did with my old computer. Now that I use a laptop, I have to remember to plug it in from time to time and back up manually. I've had it for 2 years now and have only used like 1/4th of the volume. With 2 growing kids, I take a lot of photo and video too!

Thumb drives...USB flash drives...the little things the size of a key fob that you plug into your devices are good for extra storage too and handy to take to Walmart to make prints. Just have to remember where you put them... Their value is in their portability. They are very cheap too, like $10 for one that holds 16GB. That would hold like 20,000 photos, or 20 hours of video.

 

[so lucky]

Steve, I don't know if you were referring to your phone or a digital camera when you talked about the memory being full (you left it on your dresser....) but my DH's phone said it was full, so he took it to Best Buy, where they told him the pics weren't being stored on the sim card, where they should be, but on the phone itself. So they transferred the pics immediately, and now his phone has plenty of room.

 

[digitS']

The camera's memory was full and DW left it for me as a hint/hint. A new camera would probably just have more memory and be a bigger job. I do see that some have wireless and wonder if they can cast to teevee. That's all she wants but storage isn't fixed.

...very cheap too, like $10 for one that holds 16GB. That would hold like 20,000 photos, or 20 hours of video

Really! And, I was concerned that the videos might be a problem.

The only time I've done anything with flash drives was carrying one up and down stairs when I was transferring files on my own computers. Then, a friend has been over a couple of times and brought one to show us his pictures. Printing pictures, I have done online to Walgreens.

@Ridgerunner , I don't know the limits of flash drives. Obviously. A dozen years ago, I was in charge of a newsletter. The information shared and the technology used to print it was from a different time .

olde digitS'

 

[dickiebird]

I have a second hard drive installed in my computer, just for stuff like photos, ect.
If it were me I'd just get a couple of flash drives and use them for pics.
The other thing is her camera probable has the pics on a removable media card that you could buy another card and stick it in the camera and go!!!

THANX RICH

 

[w_r_ranch]

I have a couple of them. As mentioned earlier, just plug them into a USB port & transfer away.

A 1TB drive is cheap nowadays (about $55)

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I have my laptop backed up every day, by iDrive. Its like 70 bucks a year and all my computer stuff is there.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Your DW sounds like my DD. DB got her an external HD, NexStar 3 and I have one, but he told her to put her pictures on disks because even the external drive can go out and you will lose everything. I really need to do that like now. I regret not taking more pictures of DH. The kids are not going to have a lot of pictures of me either. I even noticed that there are not hardly any picture of me with my parents as an adult. I will have a picture of my mother holding a cat or DD or DS, but not with me. I always had the camera. There are very few pictures of me and DH together, always one of us taking pictures. I have now found how easy to send pictures to Walgreen from home, so I am getting the best pictures printed to frame or just have.

 

[ducks4you]

I have used a 2TB external hard drive to keep things off my computer that I don't want to lose. I have had my work computer (at the Law Office) upgraded bc it got full twice, but I use my laptop at home for my business and it HAS to work every time. Tell her to buy a cheap laptop and transfer her photos to that. You don't need to save her extra belongings in your house once she moves out and you that includes here photos. She'll do it as long as you let you do it.