Backup!

Mp4

Mp4

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Edit My Images
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Greetings all,

I'm totally messy with my backup's and have way too many photos!


So by January I want to get a better workflow with my photos and storage.


My main plan now is to use Bridge and copy the RAW direct to one of my drives and use this to manage my files.

And then to add to LR instead of copying as DNG's

As I have a huge 26k photos on one LR Catalogue the last 24 hours have been dividing them in to folders and sub folders & deleting the ones i feel are as of no use.

I will then export each folder (Category) in to its own catalogue.

And then add files using the new method in to LR.


Does this sound as it should work? lol



C: 700GB - Main windows drive with all programs etc installed
I: 2TB / 354GB left - A whole backup of Lrightroom + Images & loads of random photos/ RAW files
O: 3TB / 613GB left - Backup of some clients work but not all.

A new E: 363TB - a work in progress.
 
I wonder why you are using Bridge rather than Lightroom. It appears that you are doubling up, as you will need to import into Lightroom anyway to work on the images. Using multiple catalogues I think will make searching a lot more difficult. I'd suggest keeping them in one catalogue, as this keeps matters a lot tider

With regards backups may I suggest a simpler method of working. What you will need is two external drives. One will be your main storage for your images , the second is the backup. All the images are stored on the main drive. All you then need is a backup programme that will make sequential backups of that main drive. There are a number of these on the market, I use Integeo's Backup manager Pro. There are several others on the market. Once I have imported a new set of images, sorted and labelled I simply select backup and it backs one drive up to another, but only those files that have changed. Takes a couple of minutes at the most. You can either select to backup manually or schedule it .

Using external drives mean that when one set gets full, you simply add another set. You don't have to mess around moving files to different drives. I've got 120,000 + images on the system and can usually find the ones I want fairly rapidly.
 
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Chappers said:
I wonder why you are using Bridge rather than Lightroom. It appears that you are doubling up, as you will need to import into Lightroom anyway to work on the images. Using multiple catalogues I think will make searching a lot more difficult. I'd suggest keeping them in one catalogue, as this keeps matters a lot tider

With regards backups may I suggest a simpler method of working. What you will need is two external drives. One will be your main storage for your images , the second is the backup. All the images are stored on the main drive. All you then need is a backup programme that will make sequential backups of that main drive. There are a number of these on the market, I use Integeo's Backup manager Pro. There are several others on the market. Once I have imported a new set of images, sorted and labelled I simply select backup and it backs one drive up to another, but only those files that have changed. Takes a couple of minutes at the most. You can either select to backup manually or schedule it .

Using external drives mean that when one set gets full, you simply add another set. You don't have to mess around moving files to different drives. I've got 120,000 + images on the system and can usually find the ones I want fairly rapidly.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't feel comfortable with only one backup, reckon two backups are the absolute minimum.
 
Mp4 said:
A new E: 363TB - a work in progress.
Click to expand...

Mp4 said:
Just a normal Ext HDD
Click to expand...

Diving Pete said:
so your ext hdd is 363TB ?
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Mp4 said:
my new one yes :)
Click to expand...

Are you sure your drive is 363 Terabytes? there's no decimal point in there somewhere.
That'd be Enterprise level of storage (with a cost to match) and certainly not available on a normal ext drive.

Regards backps, I don't use Lightroom so cannot comment on how best to use that but for the backup of your data you seem to have a bit of a hap hazard kind of method.
The simplest way is to have your data in one place, a NAS is perfect for large amounts of storage, then back that data up to either a second NAS or external drive from the NAS (a lot will depend on the amount of data to be backed up). This can easily be automated leaving you to get on with the more interesting stuff, editing the images!
For more robust backup, a third copy would be best kept off site (in case of fire or theft) unless you are using some Cloud storage.
 
Ozei said:
363 Gigabytes perhaps?
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I was more thinking 3.63 TB after some formatting (although that would be a large overhead), we'll await confirmation from the OP, not crucial but I'm just interested to know now :)
 
I didn't understand most of that but it felt complicated which backing up shouldn't be. It looks like you are saving to an external drive though which won't help you out much when heaven forbid, you have a fire or someone steals all your computer equipment.
 
PaulF said:
Are you sure your drive is 363 Terabytes? there's no decimal point in there somewhere.
That'd be Enterprise level of storage (with a cost to match) and certainly not available on a normal ext drive.
Click to expand...
As I said earlier, that's quite a lot of storage!
 
onomatopoeia said:
As I said earlier, that's quite a lot of storage!
Click to expand...

That will be a 4TB drive which reads as 3.63TB on a PC due to the fact that manufacturers used the decimal system of counting and PCs use the binary system.
 
3.63GB left :) On a 4TB drive

I will read this once I'm at home as on phone at the moment
 
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i dont understand the need for bridge either?
I also think that having multiple catalogues adds a level of complexity that you may not need. (But I know some pros use multiple catalogs, one per client to separate the work)

If it was me, I would have a single catalogue. On import I would move the raw files to a C drive folder (lets call that folder 'Current Work)', with an automatic backup to an external drive (you can set Lightroom to do this automatically on import).

I would have another external drive as my 'archive' folder, moving the files off the 'current work' folder on the c drive to the archive drive as you require. I would back this drive up to another external drive, swopping this disk with another one kept off site every week / month.

Dependant on your internet speed, I may also backup the 'current work' folder to a cloud backup solution. And maybe even your 'archive' folder could be backed up the the cloud

This way you always have an on-site and an off-site backup of everything, and you only have 2 storage locations to manage. Just make sure your backups are as automatic as possible
 
I would use Bridge to sort out my files before I then Add to a library in LR instead of copying/converting as DNG

my catalogue+photos takes over 13hours to backup to one ext HDD and have to leave the computer on to do this. And can't stand it as it takes too long!


I use SyncBackSE to duplicate my catalogue+images to other drives

So need a quicker method of backing up.

So planned on using separate Catalogues for each category
and then to copy the files direct to Ext HDD first (CR2)
And then end up with adding the CR2 to LR and saving the final JPEG for clients.
 
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Mp4 said:
my catalogue+photos takes over 13hours to backup to one ext HDD and have to leave the computer on to do this. And can't stand it as it takes too long!
Click to expand...
You are backing up wrong. You need something that only backs up changes (unless you are taking a clean disk copy every time). I sync 1.5TB overnight between the computers here and it takes a few minutes as I only copy changes.

Before you ask, I use hand-rolled command line based on rsync so I can't really share what I do, but there are loads of pieces of s/w that will do this for you (synctoy I believe for starters). Look for differential or incremental backup.
 
have a play with the trial and all seems well - trying non stop backup - windows time machine style! it syncs folders when I change on main External HDD to backup :)
 
arad85 said:
Got yours working yet?
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As I said before. As 1 click backup is working fine, I'm leaving the Dropbox style auto detect to local drive, til I have time. But I'm glad to see you are asking users questions at last. And amusing to see you suggesting synctoy. But let's not bore people with this.
 
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ianp5a said:
As I said before. As 1 click backup is working fine, I'm leaving the Dropbox style auto detect to local drive, til I have time.
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So that's a no then. Only been like ... what ... 3 months?

ianp5a said:
But I'm glad to see you are asking users questions at last. And amusing to see you suggesting synctoy.
Click to expand...
You want a Linux solution - rsync is the way to do it under Linux. Period.

As to asking questions - I can be either ask- or tell-assertive depending on the need ;)
 
The poor people on this thread are going to wonder what this is about.
arad85 said:
So that's a no then. Only been like ... what ... 3 months?
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Clearly you think I've been looking the whole time, but as my solution works as well as Synctoy, I've been getting on with using my computer.
arad85 said:
You want a Linux solution - rsync is the way to do it under Linux. Period.
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There's the confidence of someone who has investigated all the newest options.
 
ianp5a said:
but as my solution works as well as Synctoy
Click to expand...
Assuming synctoy does what is needed (and "backup" means a lot of different things to different people) it can be automated easily: http://www.bbt.co.il/Techdocs/General/ScheduleSyncToy.htm. The initial issue is to stop 13+ hour backups though.
ianp5a said:
There's the confidence of someone who has investigated all the newest options.
Click to expand...
No. That's the confidence of someone who knows how Linux works...
 
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