"Startup disk is almost full"....best method for file storage and clearing the HD

This is more about the dreaded -"Startup disk is almost full!"......between importing images from my 5D Mark II and scanning MF and LF films.........How do you guys typically reclaim that lost space......ie....Do you just burn the files from your hard drive to a CD/DVD and then just delete what's on the computer or ???.......a rather scary thought and sure I can rescan film but a digital file would just vanish......I'm using a Mac Pro running OS X 10.5.8.........
Looking for the best (safest and most efficient) method that you guys use.......

As I often work with video files on my Mac Pro I use external drives to archive footage. Your startup disk needs to be dedicated to the OS and those programs that must be installed on the startup disk. Another option for a Mac Pro of course is installing extra drives in your system, but take need for portability under consideration.

You can add 3TB of storage to your MacPro for under $300, if you have not done so already. Internal is better than external because it's cheaper and the OS will monitor the drives through SMART status. You may actually get a warning before a drive starts to fail.

You should still have back up though. Consider DVD's or BlueRay's for each job.

For the more prolific photographers or professional studios, you should consider setting up a managed RAID with back-up. We just set up a 14TB RAID and server for about $10k. Now my 7 Macs can all work off of the 14TB RAID faster than using external drives. We also set up a Dual Gigabyte network so the files move incredibly fast.

More hard drives.

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Originally Posted by Ken Allen

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You should still have back up though. Consider DVD's or BlueRay's for each job.

........ We just set up a 14TB RAID and server for about $10k. Now my 7 Macs can all work off of the 14TB RAID faster than using external drives.........

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Ken,

I just looked at your web site, the Look Magazine project must be an amazing project to work on and see all those great images!

The 14TB network sounds like a beauty.




Joesph,
20 or 30 gig per day is not an uncommon volume for me to run across my machine.
The system I use works well for me, most of my friends think I am crazy to work this way, but to date, it works for me. You did not mention what type of work or work flow you have, so maybe this does not apply at all.

Jobs are broken down into three groups, personal, work that I will most likely never need to touch again and work with recurring demand.

I never use programs like Aperture to edit or import, it clogs up the hard drive too quickly. Photo Mechanic (Camerabits.com) is a cheap, no bells and whistles, but great tool to edit large volumes quickly and add iptc without adding one K of data to those massive data base folders Aperture and iPhoto create. It only does a fraction of the things some other programs do, but it does all we really need to do, quickly and simply.

When I get in the house, I dump all my work on to a backup drive that is not on any network. With one safe copy of the project off line, I now edit the job down and add my iptc data to the trimmed down folder, no point in waiting for a full import and iptc add to images that are not going to make the final edit. I only delete a job from the off line firewire drive once the job is completed, delivered, and backup as a final edit version.

If it is an assignment I am likely to never have the need to touch again, I burn a DVD and file it. The down side of this is I now have a 3'x2'x6' metal storage cabinet full of DVDs. But I can find a job in minutes if need be. These jobs never see a backup drive again. And it cost me 50 cents to a dollar per assignment to back up on a DVD.

A job that has potential to be touch again and again go one to a series of 1TB mirrored backup drives. I keep one set for work and one set for family and personal images. I keep one drive separate for a very high maintenance customer.

Drives are cheap and I have picked most of these drives up on sale, so set up cost was low, I let the backup software run at the end of the day before shut down to avoid slowdowns.

If you use aperture or something like that that slowly builds a huge data base on your hard drive, have the originals stored on the mirrored backup drives and save only a low rez on the main machine to use as reference. Apt will go it from the firewire drives quickly when you want the full high rez.

Again, I am sorry for the long post if that type of assignment/work flow does not apply to your needs.