Hi
I am in the process of setting up my Windows Home Server 2011, and would appreciate some advice on the process and setup for storing pictures and videos.
The situation I have, which I imagine is a common one, is that in our household we generate photo and film content from multiple devices (smartphones, cameras, camcorders). Each of these devices synchronize new content onto one of several computers. I then want to move all these synchronized files to a central storage area on the WHS.
I have a few questions and foresee a few challenges:
- Synchronization between devices and computers presumably rely on checking which files are on the device but not on the computer. However, if I then move files from a computer to the server, the devices will have to synchronize their whole content onto the computer every time I connect them. And the computer hard drives will not be large enough to hold all the files (and in any case, this is sort of the point of having a server with a very large storage capacity). What approach do people typically take to get around this issue?
- Related to the first point, typically we will want to rename files before moving them to the server, to get some more sensible file names. Again, renaming will presumably interfere with synchronization from the devices?
- What is the best software for actually managing the collection of image/video files? For example, does Picasa work on the server, or are other applications more suitable?
Any help or suggestions much appreciated!