Topic: LR catalogue back up to duplicate drive (Read 2375 times)

sanfairyanne · « **on:** October 24, 2020, 02:46:59 pm »

Please forgive me, I'm sure this question has been answered before but I was struggling to make sense when using the Search function.

I know that it's possible to ask LR to back up images to multiple drives upon import. I wondered if it's also possible to save the edits to duplicate catalogues?

If so what is the process; assuming you were starting from scratch would you for example upload images to your main drive, then build a catalogue around those images, then simply duplicate both images and catalogue onto a duplicate drive? I would assume this would be a sensible approach.
Is this correct and if so do you just tell LR to do this in preferences?

Many thanks in advance.

digitaldog · « **Reply #1 on:** October 24, 2020, 03:47:05 pm »

When you backup upon import, that's basically so (If converting to DNG), the proprietary raws are also backed up to that secondary drive. Nothing else; anything 'backed up' is just those raws; no edits, sidecar's etc.
Easier, far more effective: backup everything you can't afford to ever lose using a good backup utility. The catalog, the raws, the presets, the camera profiles; everything. Knowing what OS you are using, one can recommend a backup utility, many can do this whenever any file changes automatically and do so automatically when you're fast asleep. On Mac, I use Chronosync to do this and backup to a cloud too (Backblaze).

sanfairyanne · « **Reply #2 on:** October 24, 2020, 05:57:57 pm »

Ah ok I think I understand, so essentially I could ask LR to back up my RAW files to a dozen drives but it will only ever save the catalogue to one drive. So if I want to back up my catalogue, presets etc I should do this with a backup utility. I'm on Windows 10, so if you can recommend a good backup utility I would appreciate it.

Thanks for the help, I'm socially isolating from Covid, so it's good to be able to use my time to do this.

digitaldog · « **Reply #3 on:** October 24, 2020, 06:00:30 pm »

The LR backup ONLY backs up your catalog. A dedicated backup utility will back up anything you ask it to, to any drive you ask it to.
Can't help on Windows but I'm sure other's can.

Alan Klein · « **Reply #4 on:** October 24, 2020, 06:53:37 pm »

A related question. I run LR6 licensed on Windows 10 64 bit. The computer has a single hard drive is split into two sections: a C drive and D drive. The LR program, catalogs, etc are on the C. But I keep all my photos on the D drive. Both the C and D drives are automatically backed up continuously to a WD Passport 4TB drive connected to the computer's USB jack. Is that OK?

What I'm concerned about is if my computer fails, and all I have left is the WD external drive, will I just be able to copy everything from it into the new computer and run windows with all the photos as before? Or will there be some problem with addresses or other things that I should change my methods now to prevent problems later?

sanfairyanne · « **Reply #5 on:** October 25, 2020, 05:43:28 am »

Hi Alan, I'm not the best to answer your question but from what 'Digital Dog' suggests in his answers to my post you will have all your photos backed up on your 4tb drive BUT not your catalogue, that will be on your D drive. Personally for me securing my photos is a bigger priority than keeping my catalogue, having said this it would be good to back up the photos AND catalogue to a dedicated backup utility (as Digital Dog says).

mcbroomf · « **Reply #6 on:** October 25, 2020, 05:49:33 am »

Quote from: Alan Klein on October 24, 2020, 06:53:37 pm

A related question. I run LR6 licensed on Windows 10 64 bit. The computer has a single hard drive is split into two sections: a C drive and D drive. The LR program, catalogs, etc are on the C. But I keep all my photos on the D drive. Both the C and D drives are automatically backed up continuously to a WD Passport 4TB drive connected to the computer's USB jack. Is that OK?

What I'm concerned about is if my computer fails, and all I have left is the WD external drive, will I just be able to copy everything from it into the new computer and run windows with all the photos as before? Or will there be some problem with addresses or other things that I should change my methods now to prevent problems later?

You will be fine. Periodically my photos exceeded the size of the drive I was using so I'd buy a new larger drive and back up all the images to the new drive then switch drives and the catalog was happy, as long as the new drive has the same letter (in your case D). In Windows you can assign drive letters as you wish, so you can change D to be a new seperate drive rather than a partition.

Mike

Alan Klein · « **Reply #7 on:** October 25, 2020, 08:18:49 am »

Quote from: sanfairyanne on October 25, 2020, 05:43:28 am

Hi Alan, I'm not the best to answer your question but from what 'Digital Dog' suggests in his answers to my post you will have all your photos backed up on your 4tb drive BUT not your catalogue, that will be on your D drive. Personally for me securing my photos is a bigger priority than keeping my catalogue, having said this it would be good to back up the photos AND catalogue to a dedicated backup utility (as Digital Dog says).

I back up all of my D drive. Wouldn't the LR catague be on the C drive? HOw would I search for it or determine where it is?

Alan Klein · « **Reply #8 on:** October 25, 2020, 08:30:24 am »

Quote from: mcbroomf on October 25, 2020, 05:49:33 am

You will be fine. Periodically my photos exceeded the size of the drive I was using so I'd buy a new larger drive and back up all the images to the new drive then switch drives and the catalog was happy, as long as the new drive has the same letter (in your case D). In Windows you can assign drive letters as you wish, so you can change D to be a new seperate drive rather than a partition.

Mike

These are the files that are backed up in the WD 4TB Passport. A check mark means the whole folder or drive is copied. The black box within a box mean only some folders and files are. As you can see, the entire D drive is backed up where I keep my pictures. Is the LR catalog being backed up? Where would I find it to check?

Alan Klein · « **Reply #9 on:** October 25, 2020, 08:31:37 am »

The first photo in the last post is ALan folder opened. THis photo shows all folder backed up.

Alan Goldhammer · « **Reply #10 on:** October 25, 2020, 09:13:43 am »

Quote from: sanfairyanne on October 24, 2020, 05:57:57 pm

Ah ok I think I understand, so essentially I could ask LR to back up my RAW files to a dozen drives but it will only ever save the catalogue to one drive. So if I want to back up my catalogue, presets etc I should do this with a backup utility. I'm on Windows 10, so if you can recommend a good backup utility I would appreciate it.

There are a lot of backup solutions and I think Windows 10 has one built in that you can try. I use NovaBackup: https://www.novabackup.com/ which works quite well. It also allows you to configure a backup to Amazon Web Service which is very low cost Cloud storage. I pay about $3/month for this and have all my images and current catalogue there. Upload time can be slow the first time around if you have a lot of images.

If you are looking for a good free solution that works locally, Free File Sync is quite good: https://freefilesync.org/ I use this to back up my Firefox and email folders weekly. It's easy to use and there are good tutorials on the website.

Alan

Alan Goldhammer · « **Reply #11 on:** October 25, 2020, 09:19:56 am »

Quote from: Alan Klein on October 24, 2020, 06:53:37 pm

A related question. I run LR6 licensed on Windows 10 64 bit. The computer has a single hard drive is split into two sections: a C drive and D drive. The LR program, catalogs, etc are on the C. But I keep all my photos on the D drive. Both the C and D drives are automatically backed up continuously to a WD Passport 4TB drive connected to the computer's USB jack. Is that OK?

What I'm concerned about is if my computer fails, and all I have left is the WD external drive, will I just be able to copy everything from it into the new computer and run windows with all the photos as before? Or will there be some problem with addresses or other things that I should change my methods now to prevent problems later?

Make sure you know where your LR Catalog is located to make sure that you are backing it up. Other than the program itself, I have all my LR stuff under one main folder on a separate data drive. I just make sure that folder and all the contents are backed up. I've migrated from Windows 7 to 8.1 and now to 10 using this approach and never had any issues regarding LR recognizing the catalog, presets, and images. Personally, I think it is better to keep the Catalog associated with images on the data drive.

Alan Klein · « **Reply #12 on:** October 25, 2020, 09:34:11 am »

Quote from: Alan Goldhammer on October 25, 2020, 09:19:56 am

Make sure you know where your LR Catalog is located to make sure that you are backing it up. Other than the program itself, I have all my LR stuff under one main folder on a separate data drive. I just make sure that folder and all the contents are backed up. I've migrated from Windows 7 to 8.1 and now to 10 using this approach and never had any issues regarding LR recognizing the catalog, presets, and images. Personally, I think it is better to keep the Catalog associated with images on the data drive.

Thanks for the info. How do I find where the catalog is located?

Alan Goldhammer · « **Reply #13 on:** October 25, 2020, 09:57:55 am »

Quote from: Alan Klein on October 25, 2020, 09:34:11 am

Thanks for the info. How do I find where the catalog is located?

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html

Alan Klein · « **Reply #14 on:** October 25, 2020, 10:14:43 am »

Quote from: Alan Goldhammer on October 25, 2020, 09:57:55 am

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html

Thanks. OK I found it. It's on the C drive, see picture. Why would I want to move it (LR Catalog IRCAT) to the D drive?

YOu can see that I have catalogs that go back 6 years occupying 11 gb of memory on my C drive. Can I delete all the old ones to free up space? Why would I keep any of them?

mcbroomf · « **Reply #15 on:** October 25, 2020, 11:19:58 am »

You don't have to move it. You mention that you backup your whole C drive which includes Lightroom so you're OK.

Alan Klein · « **Reply #16 on:** October 25, 2020, 12:08:58 pm »

Can I get rid of old Catalog saves and just keep the latest? I've got dozen and dozens of the old ones.

rdonson · « **Reply #17 on:** October 25, 2020, 12:39:40 pm »

You don't need more that one catalog for LrC to run unless it get corrupted. I usually keep a few of the most recent catalogs. My choice is to store them on an external drive.

Alan Klein · « **Reply #18 on:** October 25, 2020, 12:44:02 pm »

Quote from: rdonson on October 25, 2020, 12:39:40 pm

You don't need more that one catalog for LrC to run unless it get corrupted. I usually keep a few of the most recent catalogs. My choice is to store them on an external drive.

Do I just delete the files using Windows? Or do I have to use Lightroom and if so how?

digitaldog · « **Reply #19 on:** October 25, 2020, 01:15:49 pm »

If you have a good backup plan, you don't need to use the LR backup catalog schema at all. Delete all the old backup's; they are only a backup of your catalog and a robust backup plan backs up that catalog and ALL OTHER data you can't afford to ever lose.
Back up all this data daily, data that has changed.
Back up all this data to multiple drives and locations!
Consider a backup of this data to a cloud (off site).
If you suffer data loss, you have multiple backup's to go back to.
On my side, I have Time Machine (which you can't use on Windows) but do not target LR dedicated disk.
On my side my LR images and all associated files are backed up to a back up drive, every day automatically and unattended.
On my side the same gets backed up to the cloud.
Every few weeks, I rotate a backup from a fireproof safe.
I also have a travel HD clone of the other LR data as well. That means at any time, the last data backed up is only 24 hours old as the oldest. In TWO locations. Two other drives have data that's older but backed up from those older dates.
Absolutely no need for me to futz with LR's backup that only backs up a catalog and zips and keeps em around.

Author Topic: LR catalogue back up to duplicate drive (Read 2375 times)