Lightroom Catalog & Storage management, multiple disks and backups

AJQS

AJQS

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Alan
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I've just had one of my external hard drives fail whilst importing to lightroom, and the resultant hassle has triggered a desire to streamline and improve my cataloguing, storage and backup processes.

At the moment photos are stored across lots of portable hard drives and important stuff is backed up on yet more external drives. I'm starting to get fed up though of Lightroom losing track of which folders are on which drives so am looking to spend some time and money to sort it out more efficiently, but could use some advice as I'm not really sure what the best strategy would be.

I'm thinking 2x 5TB external drives: One main, one backup for 'proper' photos, transferring all the existing stuff to the main drive, merging all the catalogues and tidying up. Then for lesser stuff, the more everyday stuff I was thinking of having an extra internal drive, and could use the existing drives to back up OS, documents etc.

Any thoughts, any different strategies I should consider?
 
I use Microsoft Synctoy backup software, it backs up anything you want and you can access the backup just as you would the original. Recovering is just a reversal of the backup, you just backup the other way. It looks for changes (if set to 'Echo') and will update your backup with additions, new folders or deletions of the original when you run it again. I have three external USB drives and one internal backup for a down-and-dirty quick backup. My 'working' folder is called Media and underneath that are my documents, photographs, videos, everything really, and I just tell Synctoy to backup the Media folder and everything is saved.

You have to search for Synctoy and may have to download it from the Microsoft site but it is there and it does work well with windows 10.
 
This is my personal approach to which some won't like as it's deemed a little risky..
My personal approach would be to have one live hard drive containing everything In my case this is a 2TB SSD. I then back this up weekly to a server system over thunderbolt so transferring 1TB + takes about an hour. This copy is then duplicated another time to a NAS server.

On top of this I work within a 1TB limit and I have Lightroom Cloud sync everything. I do this by creating a single collection of all my images. This means that LR will take a copy to the cloud (Although there is a lot of confusion over this but I have it to upload the originals).

The reason for this setup is that I take my SSD around with me and at work I can load the Lightroom classic catalog and can carry on working there. So yes that does mean that currently I have my catalog file and assets on the same drive but given its a high end SSD it works really well.


Typically though you'd keep that catalog file separate on the fastest drive you have. Like I said I'm in the middle of a mass catalog organise so I'm working on this system that I'll no doubt change once I've moved to a laptop and no longer need to carry the catalog file around with me.
 
To me, the best option would be 2 RAID mirrored drives with all files and catalogues. Backup to alternating external drives. As an alternative then working files on a single SSD plus main internal storage an back both up externally.
 
I use the following strategy

In PC

SSD holds Programs and Lightroom Catalogue - catalogue synced via Synology Cloud Station to NAS - and also synced to my OneDrive (Cloud Storage)
HDD holds Images and Backup Lightroom Catalogue - all files and folders synced via Synology Cloud Station to NAS

Synology NAS

Multiple Drives configured as Synology SHR (to allow larger HDD replacement in the future), all photo folders (and LR backups) mirrored across 2 drives
NAS linked to overnight cloudstorage - uploads changes overnight.

USB Drive

In addition, I have a fireproof USB Drive (3Tb IOsafe) which is also waterproof, so the firemans hose can put out the fire :) . I use this once a month to backup key files onto.


So as soon as import an SD memory card, the images are put on my local HDD and duplicated in two places on my NAS. Importing into LR means that the all important catalogue is also synced to multiple places, as is the catalog backup.

I use the same philosphy for all my 'work' files (its my own business so obviously is important to me), with the only difference is that my work files are in my OneDrive from the outset (and these also sit in a further HDD in my main PC).

Using external USB drives as main backup is a recipe for disaster, as inevitably files will not always get backed up. Much better to bite the bullet and invest in a NAS with an automated file/folder replication system.

Whatever you do, make sure your LR catalogue Backup is on a different drive to your main 'working' LR catalog - by default the backup is on the same drive!!!
 
I keep catalogues and photos on an internal SSD - this is replicated to my OneDrive cloud storage. Not a backup solution - more for sharing across PCs and against the ”house burning down” scenario
I also use Synctoy running as a scheduled job every 10 minutes to add updated files to an internal backup drive. I then have a manual Synctoy job to backup the internal backup to an external disk - I run this based on how often I’m updating stuff.
Not 100% foolproof for every eventuality but gives me enough copies and protection for the things I do with my PCs.
 
Thanks guys, appreciate the input. I think I'm going to go with the original Plan A of 2x 5TB externals, on cost alone. I can have 2 NVME M.2 drives and one SATA (but that is limited to 2TB because of physical size) internal. Two large capacity M2s would be prohibitively expensive and cloud storage has a similar cost implication. Plus the OS and software are already on one of those M2s already.
 
I love the way we all bandy the term 'TB' around these days when only forty years ago you were lucky to get a 100MB drive and that weighed 50kg and was the size of a refrigerator. If we weren't all about to die of global warming or COVID or some such, I wonder where we would have been in another forty years. Personal quantum computers perhaps?
 
ShinySideUp said:
I love the way we all bandy the term 'TB' around these days when only forty years ago you were lucky to get a 100MB drive and that weighed 50kg and was the size of a refrigerator. If we weren't all about to die of global warming or COVID or some such, I wonder where we would have been in another forty years. Personal quantum computers perhaps?
Click to expand...
Those where the days, 8inch floppy disks that would wear out after a few months, Paper Tape, Punch Card s(don't drop them), Mag tape reels, Core memory, turn the computer off at end of week, then back in on Monday turn it back on and it would start where it left off with out having to reload the OS.
Computer Managers who had to sit at the console when there was major problems and ask what commands where needed to sort it out.

Pete
 
I had to boot DEC PDP8's manually by entering the address then keying in operations in octal using switches on the front. Now I just turn the PC on, it looks at me, decides I am the right person then introduces me to the whole world -- good, bad and frankly bloody awful.

Kept in the right conditions though, punched tape will last forever without having to move to a new method of storage every decade and the machines to read it can be easily manufactured. Perhaps it's the best way to archive material; although a room full of punched tape for one image may not be cost effective ;)
 
Ah the days of doing hexadecimal arithmetic in my head. Now I need to use my fingers just to, er, count my fingers....... :)
 
ShinySideUp said:
I love the way we all bandy the term 'TB' around these days when only forty years ago you were lucky to get a 100MB drive and that weighed 50kg and was the size of a refrigerator. If we weren't all about to die of global warming or COVID or some such, I wonder where we would have been in another forty years. Personal quantum computers perhaps?
Click to expand...
In 1955 IBM had a 5MB drive which weighed over 2000 pounds!!

proftomcrick.com

In 1956, 5MB was big enough for anyone

In September 1956, IBM launched the 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), the first commercial computer that used a moving-head hard disk drive (as opposed to sequential acces…
proftomcrick.com proftomcrick.com

So don't complain about today's titchy little HDDs - LOL
 
Ah yes Krisstiffer you have reminded me of the Hexi dumps I had to decifer and then the white coats needed to go into the computer room. How have times changed!!!
 
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