New to LR after Aperture.
I am dedicating a large drive to LR, I will be adding identical drives for backup. Which software for backing up the drives are preferred? I was using the Aperture vaults, very simple so not easy to get it wrong.
I'm hoping there is something easy and simple. Suggestions please, thanks.
Kevin,
Let me explain my total backup procedure so we are not just addressing part of the problem.
My system setup is as follows: One machine which is a MacBook Pro (MBP) with 1TB internal drive. On that drive are my documents, e-mails, applications. The Lightroom catalog and previews are stored here as well. The most recent photos from shoot are there as well. Older photos as well as documents etc. is stored on a single external LaCie Thunderbolt connected drive (3TB in total and mirrored (aka. Raid-1)). I regularly make Lightroom backups which is not really backup as such, but more a consistent copy of the catalog provided that testing integrity before backup is checked. I delete all but the latest backup from the backup folder. The backups are backed up on the TM backups.
I'm travelling a lot doing my photo workshops and the backup strategy is taking this into consideration. The backups are split between the MBP (and the external drive.
The MBP is backed up in my office on two external USB 3.0 drives (2 and 3 TB capacity) using Time Machine (TM). I daily (or sometimes every second day) attach the drives to my machine and run the TM backups. There are alternatives to TM. I have used TM since 2009 without a problem so continue to use it.
The external LaCie drive is backed up on two USB 3.0 drives (not the same as the TM drives). I use ChronoSync
http://www.econtechnologies.com to synchronize folders on the LaCie drive to each of the two other drives and I have templates (synchronizer documents) for doing this. There are other solutions available that does the same thing.
For disaster backup (a backup independent of all other backups and which take in consideration physical disasters like a fire and theft in my home) I use Backblaze
https://www.backblaze.com. Here my MBP and the external LaCie drive is backed up. There are other solutions available. When I return from a trip it takes about a day before all is backed up again. I have a 100Mbps symmetrical internet connection based on fiber into the building. Backblaze can use the entire bandwidth with 10 backup threads configured with no throttling.
For travel I bring two 2TB portable drives for TM backup. During my trip I will every day do the TM backup on the two drives. During my travel the online backup is disabled as typically the WiFi systems in hotels does not have capacity to backup the possibly more than 100GB that I shoot during a trip.
If during a trip I loose everything, I can go back to the TM backups in my office and get a new MBP and restore everything as it was when I left for the travel. If I loose the MBP only I can restore one of the two portable TM backups. The two backups should be kept separate so not both are lost in case of theft.
Why two of every backup? The reason is simple: I do not like having only one copy left of the primary copy is lost. If only one copy is left after failure this one could also fail before restore on a new drive or MBP.
Clearly it is possible to do something similar with different products and also using Windows, of course.