As I’m storing more photos my computer’s disk space is filling up quickly. A while ago I purchased an external hard drive (Western Digital My Passport Essential) to store mostly my photos I’m not working with. I was thinking I could take some load off my computer until I can buy a new computer with more disk space.
The external hard drive I purchased has a feature that confuses me: “automatic, continuous backup”. It scans the computer regularly to see if any changes have been made to files and updates them accordingly.
Question: If I backup my photos on the external hard drive, then delete them from my computer, will it then delete them from the external hard drive as well? What if don't install the software?
If you don't enable/install the automatic continuous backup, you should be fine.
I don't keep mine plugged in, just plug it in when I need to transfer or back up something. I never enabled that feature if it came on mine and I haven't had any problems. Mine is a bit smaller though so YMMV.
@shadesofgrey Thanks. I'll likely try that. I'm just not sure how to add files without the software. Maybe I need to read the manual again very carefully :)
Excuse me, Hope. If you want to use the external hard drive ONLY to keep your photos on then there is a really simple answer to your problem. Plug it in to your computer and wipe the external HD by initializing it to the format that works best with your computer's operating system. There will no longer be the backup software installed so there will no longer be a problem. Furthermore if you import your photos in the future directly to that drive you won't have to hassle with the moving later. Just remember to plug the HD in before importing and working on your photos. This is very handy especially if you're working with RAW files which take up loads of space. Many people would backup THAT external HD to another external HD just to keep your files safe. Hope this helps.
@38mm Could be on a Windows machine... I'm a Mac girl :) and that doesn't happen on a Mac. The Windows procedure would be to uninstall and reformat then?
I doubt whether anything has been installed on your computer. You would have at least been asked if you wanted it there.
Find the drive via your computer, it will show up as a letter and format it to be on the safe side. Then you can simply copy and paste/send to any files (not just photographs) to it as you please.
If you're planing to use it instead of your computer rather than as well as your computer, you're not creating a back up, merely a replacement.
As Paul says above, Picasa web albums will afford you some storage as will Microsoft Skydrive. Neither give you very much though and free alternatives offer even less.
I'm not sure whether you can upload RAW files to them either.
Another, often overlooked source of free storage is an email account. Currently Google allow more space to store your emails than they do with Picasa.
And you can store RAWs there. Just put them into a zipped folder.
@jester No, I haven't installed the software yet. I think I understand better, thanks to what you and others have suggested. Thank you! I do plan on getting another external hard drive or finding a place online to backup these files, but I needed to figure this out first.
@38mm Thanks. I missed the meaning of page 19 until you pointed that out. I didn't read the teeny tiny little writing in the graphic :)
If you're on Windows, Microsoft has a free utility called SyncToy that is perfect for this. You run SyncToy and choose a source (your PC/laptop) and destination (external HD) folder, and then it will copy everything from A to B. Each time you run, it will check if there's anything new on the PC/laptop folder, and if so, copy it to the external HD. If you delete from the source, you can choose whether you want SyncToy to delete that file from the external HD or just leave it.
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I don't keep mine plugged in, just plug it in when I need to transfer or back up something. I never enabled that feature if it came on mine and I haven't had any problems. Mine is a bit smaller though so YMMV.
1. Create a new folder on the external drive
2. Manually copy (not move) the photos from laptop into that folder
3. Uninstall the software
But if you are then deleting them from the laptop you are not keeping a backup, as the files on the external drive are the only copies.
I use 2 external drives which mirror each other and a piece of software called Bvckup
http://www.bvckup.com/
Its is free whilst in Beta
Amy, I do plan to back up the external HD, but I had to figure how to get it there first :)
@godders Thank you. I understand your concern. I will back up the external hard drive. I just had to figure out how to get the files there first :)
Find the drive via your computer, it will show up as a letter and format it to be on the safe side. Then you can simply copy and paste/send to any files (not just photographs) to it as you please.
If you're planing to use it instead of your computer rather than as well as your computer, you're not creating a back up, merely a replacement.
As Paul says above, Picasa web albums will afford you some storage as will Microsoft Skydrive. Neither give you very much though and free alternatives offer even less.
I'm not sure whether you can upload RAW files to them either.
Another, often overlooked source of free storage is an email account. Currently Google allow more space to store your emails than they do with Picasa.
And you can store RAWs there. Just put them into a zipped folder.
@38mm Thanks. I missed the meaning of page 19 until you pointed that out. I didn't read the teeny tiny little writing in the graphic :)