Perhaps looking into other compression types to get your file GDB below 1 TB may also be a solution? I once had to load many thousand TIFF images (covering the entire state of Texas) into a raster catalog in an Oracle database and spent time learning about compression types, sampling methods, quality, and pyramid settings. I have found JPEG2000 (not jpg, they are quite different behind the scenes) at 80 to 85 compression quality, to be a great balance between disk space and perceived quality. Also, for aerial photos use bilinear sampling.
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