CAMERA ORIGINAL FILE KEEP OR DELETE?

You guys almost have me convinced to quit being such a cheap bastard and invest in an external HD.

Do it man, come to the dark side.

Experience is wisdom. I will keep my original files. Thanks.

When traveling I take 2 hard drives so that I have a mirror copy of everything I shoot. As soon as I get home, all raw material gets transferred to my Drobo. Once a month I mirror my Drobo with an OLD Drobo :) And to top it off I make an LTO4 data tape backup of each shoot for long term storage.

Paranoid and over the top? You bet!

Yes, off to the dark side go I must..lol. What's a reputable "cheap" external hard drive?

I've been using Western Digital - My Passport drives for the last couple of years both for personal and work. They are cheap, USB 2 or 3, available in various sizes and are easy to find. At work we use them to ship data to clients and I've never had a problem with them.

I would however never rely on a single physical hard drive. Always have a duplicate.

I use Western Digital also. Very bad experiences with Seagate.

I was very happy with a pair of bus-powered WD My Passport drives (2.5") for travels this summer. Also agree that the bigger Western Digital My Passport drives that take external 12volt power are good. Haven't had a failure yet (knocks on head oops I mean wood) and I now buy them in pairs.

Thanks a lot guys, I didn't realize how inexpensive those were. I'm going to get one of those Western Digital external HDs.

Hey Michael,
You'll need backup software! Makes things super easy and repeatable.

There are lots to choose from - I use SecondCopy.com (costs about $30)

I'm not affiliated with them in any way - just a happy customer.
Paul