How do you manage the HD space requirments for RAW

[codeblue2k]

So recently I started taking my pictures in RAW. Its great! But man alive does it eat up HD space. I bought a external HD just for my RAW files and after 6 Events and 2000 pictures its almost full! I just got back from my wedding and honeymoon and took over 2300 pictures in two weeks. Thats an entire hard drive to itself! So how do you all store and manage you RAW photos?

[Samanax]

What size is your external hard drive?

I have 5 external hard drives of various sizes for my RAW and JPEG files. I use four of them are for RAW and one for JPEGs. I have a 1TB, a 300GB, a 250GB and a 200GB which hold the RAW files from my three Canon DSLRs. The JPEGs are on a older 40GB HDD.

I have two 500GB HDDs in my computer with one 500GB HDD dedicated to my current RAW files and edited JPEGs. The other HDD has been partitioned into three logical drives and holds the OS (1st partition), other personal files (2nd partition) and older RAW files (3rd partition).

I don't buy pre-built external hard drives, I buy external hard drive housings and put my own hard drives in them. A little more cost effective.

Yes, RAW files do take up a lot of space so it's a good idea to get the biggest external hard drive you can afford. 1TB HDDs are fairly inexpensive now...1TB HDDs go for about $90 now. 2TB HDDs are going for about $180.

[dcclark]

By my calculation, with an average raw file size of 11 MB (this is the case for my 10 MP Nikon D40x), 2200 images would take up 24,200 MB which is approximately 24 GB. That's a small external drive! Externals are VERY cheap nowadays... 250 GB will cost you less than $100 US. It's well worth it.

[AgBeard]

Originally Posted by codeblue2k

So recently I started taking my pictures in RAW. Its great! But man alive does it eat up HD space. I bought a external HD just for my RAW files and after 6 Events and 2000 pictures its almost full! I just got back from my wedding and honeymoon and took over 2300 pictures in two weeks. Thats an entire hard drive to itself! So how do you all store and manage you RAW photos?

What size extn. HD have you got - is it ALL formatted
What is the avg. size of you RAW files.

[jdepould]

I have four 500GB drives sitting on my desk, plus random 250GB portable drives.

[amymnc]

Just barely
I have a 1TB ehd and once I'm done editing the photos all get moved there. I hate doing it, but this Dell is 6.5 yrs old and I have deleted all programs except the basics and a small amount of itunes, and I still am left with about 6% free space. It stinks.
Then I back them up to my older 320gig ehd.
Hopefully Santa Claus will bring me a new PC.