Windows 10: What is the best way to organize photos using one drive with and external hard drive backup

I have thousands of pictures from around the world in different file formats. I currently have pictures on several external hard drives and computers and I want to get them all organized. my current plan is to transfer all pictures from all computers and external hard drives onto one big external drivethen sort and eliminate duplicates and get them organized on the external then synch that to Onedrive. I just want to make sure that I don't lose any photos.I need advice on good photo software that can organize and edit different file formats and eliminate duplicates. I also want to make sure on

:)

 

Hard Drive / External Drive + Backups Configuration?

Hey all,

So I'm thinking of changing around my hard drive configuration on my main comp.

At the moment I've got:
1 Internal 500GB (OS, programs, file storage)
2 External 500GB (not really doing much)
1 External 320GB (for my Lightroom photo library)

What I'd like to do, is ditch the 320gb photo drive (its a 2.5").
I'd use one external 500GB for Video files, the other 500GB for Photo files.
Then I'd want two more to backup those files, and have them backed up on our NAS Server.

I'd also have an external 1-2TB drive for OS hard drive backups and such, but thats not part of what I'm going to ask.

So my question for you guys is this:
Should my 500GB Video and 500GB Photo drives be internal? Or External?
If I put them inside the computer, will I get faster speeds?
If they're external, is eSATA/USB 2.0 going to be sufficient for Video editing? (Using full HD video files, editing in Adobe Premiere Pro)

Either way I will have two backup drives (one for video, one for photo) and they'll both be backed up on the server.

So, to have 4 External drives or to have 2 internal and 2 external? That is the question.
What are the benefits of having them internal? What about having them external?

For me, being able to bring my Photo or Video drive with me isn't really a big deal, I probably will never do it. If I would need to though, I could just take one of the external backups.

Also, second question. What kind of backup software do you recommend that would basically make a complete clone of my HD's?

Does any of this make sense?
Any help is appreciated. *Big Grin
~Smee

 

Free hard drive backup/restore program?

I am looking for a free (freeware) program that will back up and restore a hard drive. I'm looking to clone a few external hard drives. If the program will backup the used space instead of the whole drive this will be awesome! Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Hard Drive / External Drive + Backups Configuration?

Ooh, gotcha. Now how is it in speed? What happens when a drive dies (in RAID 0 with 3 drives)?

Now thats a fine idea.
Not sure if it would work with my photos, since I edit with Adobe Lightroom, all the photo's need to be stored in one place (they're well organized too).
But for the video files, thats a great idea! *Big Grin

Yea I think thats my number one fear of RAID, is the "what if something dies" issue... Sure its faster to have RAID, but maybe more of a pain sometimes?
Besides, drives are getting faster and faster these days...