[seventhdr]

Until my desktop PC decided to pack a sad and stop working I was doing my post-processing using Photoshop Elements 3 with a single catalogue and data stored on a second internal hard drive.

I'm looking at other options now. I could replace the dead hardware with another desktop, reinstall the second internal hard drive, reinstall software and be back to post processing.

Or ...

I could go with a laptop instead. (Make, Model and OS is not important to this discussion.) Given that laptops lack expandability in the hard disc department (I could always fit bigger internal HDDs into a desktop), what do laptop users do when your data resides of external hard drives?

And what software is best for handling these external hard drives?

If I'm away from home (read that as without the external HDDs) and import some photos and tag/process some photos, what can I use to import these worked on photos to my main external hard drives when I get back?

The version of Photoshop Elements that I use will not allow importing of catalogues. Do newer version allow the, or do I need to upgrade to lightroom?

Any help of insights would be appreciated.

Regards

Chris Stone

[wlachan]

You can fit a 1TB hard drive in notebook now, and some can handle 2, or you can replace the DVD drive with another. That should be plenty on the go (with shorter battery life as penalty). I use SyncBack to keep my 3 sets of drives identical, but I am nor sure about Photoshop catalog. If you need to edit large amount of raw, LR is the way to go. My only concern is that most notebook monitors cannot be well calibrated so any serious PP is impossible.

[ducdao]

You can fit a 1TB hard drive in notebook now, and some can handle 2, or you can replace the DVD drive with another. That should be plenty on the go (with shorter battery life as penalty). I use SyncBack to keep my 3 sets of drives identical, but I am nor sure about Photoshop catalog. If you need to edit large amount of raw, LR is the way to go. My only concern is that most notebook monitors cannot be well calibrated so any serious PP is impossible.

+1

I have two 500HDD in my MacBook Pro 15''. I removed the CD rom and replaced it with a 3rd party caddy which holds my second HDD in place. You could have SSD + HDD combo as well.

I mainly use LR3 to process my RAW files. I only shoot RAW so there are a lot to process. I then use CS5 for advanced processing when needed.

[mysticcowboy]

I use a laptop and run Lightroom with external drives, one for my library and one backup. I believe that the recent version of Elements will work with external drives, too. With the new USB 3 transfer speed, that's a reasonable option.

[cats_five]

The biggest problem with most laptops etc. for photo editing is the quality of the screen - they are nearly all TN panels which have a limited colour gamut and various other problems. When you are at home an external monitor with an IPS panel will solve that issue, but not when you are away if you want to do any editing. If you only want to use the laptop to store files from the camera and have a very quick look then I imagine this isn't a problem.

You should also have your previous photos stored on more than one device, and DVDs you write yourself are not very good backups / archives.

Synctoy will probably handle the copying aspects with easy, but make sure you set it up correctly so all it does is contribute new files from the laptop (left) side to the storage. When you delete files on the laptop you don't want it deleting files on the external HDD!

BTW I am paranoid about keeping copies of my photos - I have one set on the HDD in the PC, and a second set on a NAS which has two mirrored disks. Copying was slow until I used a gigabit switch to connect the two, that made a huge difference.