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Author Topic: Where the !@$#? Are My Photographs?  (Read 2095 times)

Phinius

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Where the !@$#? Are My Photographs?
« on: September 23, 2011, 02:01:28 pm »

Michael & Seth did an otherwise great video on this subject, but skimped a bit on how exactly one keeps external data storage devices coordinated. For example, I always keep copies of my images on a minimum of two hard drives. What is the best procedure to mirror, if I can use that term, the original HD with a new backup HD? Ideally, I'd like the two to appear identically in LR. Any thoughts or resources I might check?

Thanks,
Ron
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Steve House

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Re: Where the !@$#? Are My Photographs?
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2011, 09:00:27 am »

Am I reading you right?  When you look at your Lightroom catalog screen you want to see 2 thumbnails of each image ... one for the Lightroom working copy on External Drive 1 plus a second thumbnail for the backup copy on External Drive 2??? 

I usually shoot NEF.  When I offload my images from the camera card and bring them into Lightroom, I import them from the card into my working folders using Lightroom's 'Copy and Convert to DNG' option.  At the same time I have Lightroom also send copies of the original files unaltered to a backup folder on an external drive.  Lightroom folders are organized by date shot, backup folders by date imported.  I make a backup of the backup folders to a third drive periodically but that's a manual process totally outside of Lightroom.  After I've verified that both file sets, the DNGs in my working folders and the camera originals in the backup folders, are in good shape and the secondary backup is done, I return the card to the camera and prepare it for reuse by reformatting it.
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Phinius

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Re: Where the !@$#? Are My Photographs?
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2011, 05:57:19 pm »

Sorry if I was less than clear. I want exact copies of my finished filed on two HDs. Once modified, I can always return to the original as long as it remains in DNG format. If I modify the file in PS, and it exports a TIFF file, I keep both copies to insure that I still have a DNG copy. Also, I want to be able to use keywords, etc. to FIND the files I need, which will only happen if the B/U files have all the LR attributes.

Ron
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howardm

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Re: Where the !@$#? Are My Photographs?
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2011, 09:03:47 am »

recall that LR is database driven and the original files do not get munged.  So having backup software that duplicates the images and the .xmp files (if you choose to keep your edits externally via .xmp) or the .lrcat (keeps the changes internal to the database) will do what you want.

Phinius

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Re: Where the !@$#? Are My Photographs?
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2011, 10:12:07 am »

Yes, but the problem is that LR does not know that files have been copied unless I tell it. The point is not just to copy the files, but for LR to know where they are so I can search them. Currently I can do it, but it is time consuming. Seth had a slick way to do it w/ a Mac by keeping the pathway names exactly the same, but I don't think I can do this with a PC.

Thanks,
Ron
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Where the !@$#? Are My Photographs?
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2011, 10:35:01 am »

Yes, but the problem is that LR does not know that files have been copied unless I tell it. The point is not just to copy the files, but for LR to know where they are so I can search them. Currently I can do it, but it is time consuming. Seth had a slick way to do it w/ a Mac by keeping the pathway names exactly the same, but I don't think I can do this with a PC.

Thanks,
Ron
Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this is pretty simple to do.  If you have all of your LR files in a directory labeled 'My LR Pictures' all you have to do is back up that directory on whatever regular basis you select.  Since you are mirroring the directory it will contain all the files that you have changed.  All you would have to do within LR is to show it the new path to the directory if it is on a second drive.  I do this on my external HD back up and my cloud storage on Mozy so the exact same LR catalog and images is identical on all three places.  Mozy backs up twice a day and I do my external HD, once a week.
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