Help With External Drive

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I have the following problem: my internal drive is getting 90% full and is significantly slowing everything (iMac, late 2012, 1TB). I have a 2TB Time Machine drive for a general backup. My primary disk hog is photography - Canon 5Ds 50 Mpx files in particular. My Pictures folder is 700 GB.

So I bought a second external 2TB drive, with the intention of transferring Pictures and LR catalogs to that drive. This should speed up the rest of the programs on the internal drive, correct?

Right now, I have a backup of Pictures via Time Machine. My question is, once Pictures are on a separate drive, how is Time Machine going to back it up? Or, more broadly, how do I have a backup of Pictures and LR catalogs, once they are on a separate drive?

[digitaldog]

TM backs up the drives in total you 'assign' in the preference's. You could in theory have two "Picture' folders on two drives and have each backed up via TM; not sure if that's a very good idea.
Frankly, unless you want the options TM provides for intermittent updates and iterations of file change, I don't think it's a good fit to backup folders of images. I'd use a dedicated utility to do so, on a schedule to backup that drive in total or just the folder of photo's. ChronoSync is what I use. And like TM, if so desired, you could have it backup a history of changes to a single photo but that just adds more data and reduces how long it will take to have to do this all over again when the drive fills. IOW, I backup photo's at the state they are at, not previous editing states which is what TM will do. I don't see the point.

[rdonson]

TM drove me crazy always looking to do a backup when I was in the middle of something.  There are alternatives available.  I chose Carbon Copy Cloner and I've been very happy with it.  Others here could chime in with their favorite software. 

[Joe Towner]

Hey Slobodan,

What version of MacOS are you running?  Most likely the default is currently running - it'll exclude any external disks, but you can change it (aka include it in the Time Machine Backups) by going to Time Machine Preferences, then under 'Options' remove the drive from the 'Excluded' locations.

You'll most likely want to keep your catalogs in the internal drive, and referencing the photos on the external drive.

-Joe

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Thanks, Andrew, Ron, and Joe,

I am on Mojave, Joe. I am currently copying Pictures to the second external drive. Once it is done, I will follow your tip and remove it from the excluded locations in the TM in the preferences.

What is the benefit of keeping the LR catalog on the internal drive?

Ron, I never noticed any interruptions by TM. It runs in the background and I barely notice it.

[digitaldog]

What is the benefit of keeping the LR catalog on the internal drive?

Possibly none whatsoever.

[Joe Towner]

What is the benefit of keeping the LR catalog on the internal drive?

Performance - the internal drive is going to be faster than an external platter hard drive.  If you haven't yet done it, the upgrade to a SSD is fairly easy for the 2012, and it'll make a huge improvement overall.

[Hans Kruse]

What is the benefit of keeping the LR catalog on the internal drive?

The benefit is that you can connect the drive to any other Mac that has the same version of Lightroom running and open the catalog and edit your pictures. When the Catalog and the pictures are on the same drive, opening the catalog on another computer will let the catalog point to where the pictures are. That could be quite a nice benefit depending on your needs.

[digitaldog]

The benefit is that you can connect the drive to any other Mac that has the same version of Lightroom running and open the catalog and edit your pictures. When the Catalog and the pictures are on the same drive, opening the catalog on another computer will let the catalog point to where the pictures are. That could be quite a nice benefit depending on your needs.

The same is true if you have the images and catalog on an external drive. Dedicating a drive just for images and the catalog (and presets*) means it's super easy to clone (backup) all that data to any number of drives; only new changes and that drive can be used on any machine running LR that's current in terms of the catalog. That external drive may be faster than the internal. It may be much larger too.
* use Store presets with Catalog option.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

So far, so good. Well, almost. I copied Pictures folder (700 GB) to the second external drive, and have the Time Machine back it up, in addition to the internal computer.

However, that new, second external drive is occasionally showing 0 items, 1.3 TB free (obviously, there are 700 GB used, so it shouldn't show 0 items). The first time it happened, I ejected it and reconnected it, and it properly showed the full directory of the Pictures folder.

Does anyone know why is this happening?

[digitaldog]

So far, so good. Well, almost. I copied Pictures folder (700 GB) to the second external drive, and have the Time Machine back it up, in addition to the internal computer.

However, that new, second external drive is occasionally showing 0 items, 1.3 TB free (obviously, there are 700 GB used, so it shouldn't show 0 items). The first time it happened, I ejected it and reconnected it, and it properly showed the full directory of the Pictures folder.

Does anyone know why is this happening?

Run Disk Utility on it, or better, an app like Disk Warrior. Something is funky.

[Joe Towner]

APFS may be converting it in the background. The differences in how it shows contents and space pisses me off. 

[plugsnpixels]

So far, so good. Well, almost. I copied Pictures folder (700 GB) to the second external drive, and have the Time Machine back it up, in addition to the internal computer.

However, that new, second external drive is occasionally showing 0 items, 1.3 TB free (obviously, there are 700 GB used, so it shouldn't show 0 items). The first time it happened, I ejected it and reconnected it, and it properly showed the full directory of the Pictures folder.

Does anyone know why is this happening?

I personally never use Time Machine (for some reason, though I've seen it in action). Why? It's a database for your stuff and I don't like inaccessible databases (like iPhoto was, etc.). Steve Jobs had something against the Finder, as I recall. I personally want to be able to get my hands on my stuff without using an interface app, and I don't want the computer syncing things on its own (especially with the iPhone, which seems to cause people grief).

So I use SuperDuper to occasionally clone my internal drive to an external (the copy is bootable, which is a plus). You can choose to only copy/delete items that have changed on the target, saving time.

On a more regular basis I clone my working data/projects to various external drives using the free SyncTwoFolders (cross-platform). It too only copies what changed.

As for the "zero files" issue (until the drive is read), that is an Apple bug/annoyance. I read someone ranting about that elsewhere online. The OS should not report *any* number until it is ready to. "Zero" is simply not accurate. No need to eject and reconnect; just wait.