Any advice on some basic computer stuff?

[PaintBoss]

Hi, I know we have lots of different people here with different abilities and know how. I’ve been working off my iphone or a small iPad Air over the last six or seven years. I was just too ill to sit at a computer. I had bought a Mac mini in 2017 -it was the last 2016 version. But I hardly used it as I ended up bedridden for so long. I also moved and its been packed away. Anyways I have about 40,000 pictures on an external hard drive that I want to get to. And some I definitely want to access and send around either it to my email or to the iCloud , which was not set up when I was on the Mac mini, but I have on my phone and iPad Air. Both the iPad Air and the Mac mini are now obsolete for updates I believe. But they work fine. I don’t have the budget to get another computer right now. But I would like to access my pictures through my Mac mini. Access pictures and use online and basically not have them parked off-line all the time.
I know I need to set up the Mac mini for my Internet and immediately I will have to let it run as many updates as it can. But I believe it will be considered obsolete for future updates. Just wondering what people would do in my position. I still have the external hard drive. I’m considering trying to put all my pictures on my iCloud, but that would mean a lot more storage ($$$) monthly. But at least I could get to them more easily. I am a little bit worried about the holes in my security for the time that I am on the Internet with the Mac mini even once it’s updated as far as it can get. Obviously I’m not very tech savvy. I heard I could use thumb drives to store the photo library. I’m not sure how many photos they can hold. Of course I’m terrified of losing that if it works. I have photos of my artwork there that I can’t get to until I get into my computer/ ext hard drive.
Any thoughts or cautions or suggestions before I plug it in and try to get it running? I have looked at some YouTube videos and they seem to think I can do some basic stuff on it. Thanks

 

[Hermes2020]

Christine, I am quite computer literate and would love to help you, but my knowledge and experience are limited to the PC and Windows world. I have never entered the Apple ecology, since I hate their closed system philosophy. For that reason, I have never owned an iPhone or iPad either; I use Android on a Samsung phone and Samsung Pad. It should be easy for you to find someone who is willing to help you with your Mac system.

How big is your external hard drive? Is it a USB drive? Thumb drives would not be a good solution for 40 000 pictures. It would be better to stay with external hard drives, but bear in mind that they do fail. Like all hard drives, they have a failure rate of 100%. All hard drives will fail at some unknown time in the future, so your first priority should be to purchase another backup one as soon as possible and ask someone to mirror your existing one onto it. I am sure you have a neighbour or relative who would be happy to do it for you. I am paranoid, so for critical data I always have two parallel backup drives in my setup.

I will do my best to advise if you have any more questions and concerns.

 

[Bartc]

Hi, I know we have lots of different people here with different abilities and know how. I’ve been working off my iphone or a small iPad Air over the last six or seven years. I was just too ill to sit at a computer. I had bought a Mac mini in 2017 -it was the last 2016 version. But I hardly used it as I ended up bedridden for so long. I also moved and its been packed away. Anyways I have about 40,000 pictures on an external hard drive that I want to get to. And some I definitely want to access and send around either it to my email or to the iCloud , which was not set up when I was on the Mac mini, but I have on my phone and iPad Air. Both the iPad Air and the Mac mini are now obsolete for updates I believe. But they work fine. I don’t have the budget to get another computer right now. But I would like to access my pictures through my Mac mini. Access pictures and use online and basically not have them parked off-line all the time.
I know I need to set up the Mac mini for my Internet and immediately I will have to let it run as many updates as it can. But I believe it will be considered obsolete for future updates. Just wondering what people would do in my position. I still have the external hard drive. I’m considering trying to put all my pictures on my iCloud, but that would mean a lot more storage ($$$) monthly. But at least I could get to them more easily. I am a little bit worried about the holes in my security for the time that I am on the Internet with the Mac mini even once it’s updated as far as it can get. Obviously I’m not very tech savvy. I heard I could use thumb drives to store the photo library. I’m not sure how many photos they can hold. Of course I’m terrified of losing that if it works. I have photos of my artwork there that I can’t get to until I get into my computer/ ext hard drive.
Any thoughts or cautions or suggestions before I plug it in and try to get it running? I have looked at some YouTube videos and they seem to think I can do some basic stuff on it. Thanks

Jeez, 40K pix? That's way too much, Christine!

I have a similar problem with analog slides taken over decades as a pro and creative photographer. My issue is the reverse: getting them onto any digital format. Using commercial services is ridiculous, but I have an enormous 10K slides; I cannot imagine how you compiled 40K!!!

For either or both of us the real solution involves culling the collection. Harder for me to do than for you in your digital collection. Then and only then connecting them to whatever display or transmission you want to do. Ultimately every system you can name is going to either fail or become obsolete, the latter happening very quickly indeed. Cloud storage has faults too, but it may be your best bet ONLY after you have whittled down your collection.

Since I'm also in the PC world - hate the closed Apple systems - too, I cannot offer any direct assistance.

 

[PaintBoss]

Well, I have to dig it out to tell you my external hard drive. It was a big one. My computer buddy back in the day was impressed that I picked it out. It was bigger than his! Lol that was years ago now. unfortunately he’s taken several bad strokes and thus can no longer help me.
Thank you both for your thoughts and your desire to help.
Oh heck yeah that’s way too many pictures! Lol well most I have taken, but I’ve also copied many to edit visually. You would’ve thought that I was constantly taking photos to get that many, but I wasn’t. A lot of those went on there before I had a cell phone. Many were from a digital camera. I just love reference photos. I love visual stuff. But it’s way too much. I’ll never use it all. It’s easier for me to cull things down now that I’m older and since I’ve been ill. I am more practical and realistic what i will use now. It may be more than 40,000 photos. I have to get it set up and turn it on and see what I’ve got. It’s been an awful long time since I’ve had that computer on.
Actually, I don’t have any people now to ask for help. I don’t live close to anyone I used to live near. My computer wiz’s that were related have died. Another does not like dealing with anyone’s stuff.

 

[Jade]

Hi Christine, one thought I had was could you take it to an apple helpdesk to see if they could help you to do it...? I'm off to bed now but will do some research tomorrow too. Sorry to hear about your health. X

 

[PaintBoss]

Thanks so much, Jade. I’m literally having my husband pull the stuff out of the box for me and I’m gonna try and get it at least set up tonight and get the details about the kind of external hard drive I have. I also have a lot of reference photos I think I would like to share because I know now I’m never gonna get to it. It’s not always even just a wonderful photo. It’s also aspects of photo from out in the world that I think would be nice to use in artwork. Inspiration. And not always just for realism, but also for abstract or expressionism.

 

[PaintBoss]

Jeez, 40K pix? That's way too much, Christine!

I have a similar problem with analog slides taken over decades as a pro and creative photographer. My issue is the reverse: getting them onto any digital format. Using commercial services is ridiculous, but I have an enormous 10K slides; I cannot imagine how you compiled 40K!!!

For either or both of us the real solution involves culling the collection. Harder for me to do than for you in your digital collection. Then and only then connecting them to whatever display or transmission you want to do. Ultimately every system you can name is going to either fail or become obsolete, the latter happening very quickly indeed. Cloud storage has faults too, but it may be your best bet ONLY after you have whittled down your collection.

Since I'm also in the PC world - hate the closed Apple systems - too, I cannot offer any direct assistance.

My hubby had a great laugh that now when someone else has told me I have too many photos, I’m actually listening! Lol I laughed too. I said I’m just ready now. And more realistic.
I’m not sure how long this purge is gonna take probably quite a while. I had Lightroom stuff. I have photos from many sources. I used to love the Kodak online editing photo albums because they kept things in really good order even if you edited. I find Lightroom was great for editing, but a little more confusing when it comes to where things are and dates.

 

[PaintBoss]

I think I’m gonna have to pay for a local company to deal with my hard drive. I’m afraid to turn it on. I was reading that if it hasn’t been used in several years, it can actually cause errors and it’s easy also to run into problems trying to move stuff over and then it’s not easily retrievable. Also, apparently some items in the hard drive start to break down over years and this is quite a few years old now. It was in perfect running order. But I guess there’s parts that are magnetic and that spin and you’re supposed to check the health of it by some method before trying to get it to do anything so. Run some sort of program.I think I’m gonna let someone else who knows better get those photos and we will discuss where I can move those photos to. The options. And I will have to cull a lot of those photos after the fact, I guess.

 

[Hermes2020]

This may be of interest to you.

 

[PaintBoss]

Oh, thank you very much!

 

[Jade]

I think I’m gonna have to pay for a local company to deal with my hard drive. I’m afraid to turn it on. I was reading that if it hasn’t been used in several years, it can actually cause errors and it’s easy also to run into problems trying to move stuff over and then it’s not easily retrievable. Also, apparently some items in the hard drive start to break down over years and this is quite a few years old now. It was in perfect running order. But I guess there’s parts that are magnetic and that spin and you’re supposed to check the health of it by some method before trying to get it to do anything so. Run some sort of program.I think I’m gonna let someone else who knows better get those photos and we will discuss where I can move those photos to. The options. And I will have to cull a lot of those photos after the fact, I guess.

That sounds wise, Christine. Good luck!

 

[txomsy]

A couple of points.

First:
40k pictures, at 40M each (that is being generous) would require 40*20 GB, or approximately 800 GB. I am currently using 1TB usb sticks to hold my home folder (I have three, one where I work, and two I use as backups, more on this next). Each stick is about 100 EUR.

Second:
On storage and access: well, first access. If you get a USB-C hub you will be able to connect the hub to your iPhone and then connect the drive to the phone. I think the iMacs didn't have USB-C when you bought yours, so that would not be a solution for the iMac; as for storage, there are only two things certain in life, death and ... so eventually every drive fails.

A USB stick is usually short-lived (a couple of years of use, some 10 000 to 100 000 write cycles per position, one one position fails all the stick fails) and you should go for well known brands (Kingston, SanDisk, the like...) which use better technology and when they fail typically put the stick in read-only mode so you can recover the data. Stay away from cheap keys, specially Chinese ones.

So using a hard disk is much better. A 1TB disk will go for cheap (again, look for well known brands). I would rather get a bigger one since you are likely in need of at least half a TB. Hard disks last much, much longer, but are more sensitive to hits, falls, hard movements... I started with two 500GB HDs, then moved to two 1TB (of these only a one 1TB disk remains alive) and now have an additional 4TB one.

The morale: first you need to copy the disk lest it fail. For this you only need a computer, no Internet connection, you could use you iPhone (a hand-held computer actually) or your Mac without Internet connection. No security risks. No worries. On the Mac you likely have more than one USB port, so connecting another drive is a matter just of plugin it in. On an iPhone you only have one USB-C port, so a USB hub would be needed.

Of course, to upload them to iCloud you need the Internet, but considering the costs, I think I would prefer to save them on HD (the one you have plus a backup copy) or burn them to DVD, which may last much longer. An USB DVD writer/reader should not be expensive either.

In any case, computer people talk about 'bit rot': no matter where,eventually some bits get rotten, so it is better to have backups. And if you are worried about long term conservation I would give DVD a thought.

 

[PaintBoss]

Wow, thank you so much. Lots of good information there. Yeah years ago when I bought my hard drive my friend told me to go get one. I had the extra cash and I got a really good one- he said it was better than his! And he is into heavy computer stuff and videos. But it is quite old and it’s never given me problems. So thank you for the ideas. I’m going to be discussing them with the very best computer business in town. Just in case I get one shot on that hard drive to move those pictures over to another external hard drive. I agree that’s the best option and I’m going to need two options. Thank you so very much for all those thoughts and advice. it’s a good reminder that we have to plan to update our storage every so many years.
Fingers crossed.