Backing up lightroom help

[ps2user]

I'm using lightroom 1.3.1 and keep all my photos ,catalog etc in a folder called ##lightroom on my external drive. Having recently upgraded my laptop's hdd to 320gig i thought i keep a copy the ##lightroom folder onto my laptop's hard disk so I can carry my photos with me without my caddy and also use my caddy as a backup if something went wrong.

I decided to user a software called synctoy from microsoft and it copied everything across ok, but when i start Lightroom with the catalog on my laptop's hard drive i get all sorts of corrupt database errors and then i quits. So i thought i'll do a straight copy within windows explorer and i still get the same problem. But when i run lightroom from my caddy - everything is ok Anyone have any ideas what i could be doing wrong and sorry for boring eveyone

Forgot to mention that my ##lightroom folder is about 120gigs so it takes a long time to copy

 

[Craikeybaby]

Rather than copying the database through windows let Lightroom do a back up to either your HD or removable drive (I can't think where it is in the options, but I get prompted to back mine up every week or so). I used this method last year when moving from PC to Mac and it worked, although I do remember getting a few error messages, but I got it working without too much trouble.

 

[Chappers]

its probably that lightroom dos'nt know which drive to use. If you have several sets of the same images the data base gets very confused. I m not sure exactly what you are trying to do but it seems as though you want to have 2 copies of the same images on different drives.

If so go to the file option and do a copy catalogue with images. This will copy not only the catalog but the full size images as well. When you start LR hold down the control key and it will ask you what catalog you want to use. Select the apropriate one and all should be OK

If you are still having problems starting the orriginsl version of LR you have an option to to consolidate the database. I think its in preferences. If that fails use the good catalog to make a new library as above.

You might also want to ckeck out some of the tutorials on the web re backing up

 

[ps2user]

I'm trying to have 2 identical copies of my files on 2 different harddisks. So I can use Synctoy to synchronise the changes when i change something in lightroom.

I try the file option and do a copy cataloge with images and see what happens.

 

[Fangman]

Lightroom is great to use and it prompts to backup each week, but as far as i can see there is no way it offers the user a choice to back up at other times - old age has taught me to follow a belt and braces approach and I would like to backup to another drive.

Any suggeations?