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Lightroom Backup Question
PixNW
Registered Users Posts: 141 Major grins
I do most of my photo work on my laptop. I have Lightroom 1.4 and CS3 on there. I import most photos into Lightroom as I have the catalogs set up the way I want them. Those that get additional editing in CS3 get saved back to Lightroom with the changes, and the original stays there as well. That has just been the way I've ended up doing my workflow as it works for me.
My question is about backing up. Currently, about once a week I will first hook up one external hard drive. I start with a folder 0001, and inside that folder create another folder called "photos". I have Lightroom backup the catalog into the 0001 (or whatever folder I'm on, I go sequentially). After that is done I select all in the "all photographs" folder and then hit export. I export all of the images, in original form (I set up a user preset to do this, all I have to change is the export location each time) to the "photos' folder inside the 0001 folder (or whatever number backup I'm on). When that is done I hook up a second external hard drive and do the same thing.
As time goes along and the hard drives start to fill up I will eliminate older folders from the external drives since more recent saves have all of the pics plus newer ones.
Is that an okay way to back up, and is there maybe a better way? From my understanding I need the catalog files if I want to be able to see the images that I've altered at all. Is that true?
Also, I am to the point that I have over 5k images on my laptop, culled down from many, many more as I'm pretty systematic about going through pics and eliminating after each import. I want to basically empty LR on my laptop and start over new, with some new folders and such. Is doing one last backup the way I'm doing it safe enough to then go ahead and delete everything in LR on my laptop? What is the best way to delete all of the images and folders and such in LR? Should I just delete it and reinstall it, or is there a better way?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer.
My question is about backing up. Currently, about once a week I will first hook up one external hard drive. I start with a folder 0001, and inside that folder create another folder called "photos". I have Lightroom backup the catalog into the 0001 (or whatever folder I'm on, I go sequentially). After that is done I select all in the "all photographs" folder and then hit export. I export all of the images, in original form (I set up a user preset to do this, all I have to change is the export location each time) to the "photos' folder inside the 0001 folder (or whatever number backup I'm on). When that is done I hook up a second external hard drive and do the same thing.
As time goes along and the hard drives start to fill up I will eliminate older folders from the external drives since more recent saves have all of the pics plus newer ones.
Is that an okay way to back up, and is there maybe a better way? From my understanding I need the catalog files if I want to be able to see the images that I've altered at all. Is that true?
Also, I am to the point that I have over 5k images on my laptop, culled down from many, many more as I'm pretty systematic about going through pics and eliminating after each import. I want to basically empty LR on my laptop and start over new, with some new folders and such. Is doing one last backup the way I'm doing it safe enough to then go ahead and delete everything in LR on my laptop? What is the best way to delete all of the images and folders and such in LR? Should I just delete it and reinstall it, or is there a better way?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer.
Canon 1D Mark IIN
Canon 350D
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L IS
580EX II
1.4x Extender
Gitzo 3531 w/ RRS BH-55 Ballhead
RRS L-Plate, quick release clamp and plates
Canon 350D
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L IS
580EX II
1.4x Extender
Gitzo 3531 w/ RRS BH-55 Ballhead
RRS L-Plate, quick release clamp and plates
0
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Second is my backup of my original image files. I do that at the moment of file import from my memory cards, by using two separate USB powered HDs, connected to my laptop. Lightroom is then set up to import to one HD, and store a second identical file on the other hard drive as well. So backing up my data takes cares of itself quite easily.
One can also store an third or fourth copy of their catalogs on the two external hard drives used for file import.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
The Lightroom catalog is relatively small. It is a database of metadata that corresponds to perceived changes in your images. Lightroom is non-destructive. I have 48,000 images in my LR collection, but the catalog itself is about 708 MB. Any real changes are made to exported images. I try to delete most of my exported images after they are used, because LR can always kick them out for me on demand. That is the intended design process of the application.
LR backs up this catalog weekly. I keep the images outside of LR and just have LR reference them. It's easier for me to them backed up this way.
I don't have to perform any manual interventions like you seem to be doing. Every week I have Superduper (for Macs, but I'm sure in the Windows world there are multiple fast backup utilities) copy any new images or changes to old images to mirrored folders on an external hard drive. The LR catalog is also backed up on the same external drive. That 708 MB is the sum of all my image improvements. That's it.
No need to eliminate anything.
Re: removing images from LR, first, do you want to totally delete the image off your hard drive, or just remove them from LR? If it is the former, you need to be in LR's Library>>Folder view. Select the images you want to zap, hit delete and choose to wipe 'em from the hard drive.
If you only want to remove them from LR's catalog, the you can be in Collection view or Folder view and just select and delete.
Finally, considering strongly upgrading to Version 2.x. Substantial improvements on all levels. I only go into CS3 about 8% of the time.
M
My workflow is identical for backups and the program you're looking for in the PC World is called SyncBack. It's made by 2brightsparks. The free version is fine but I've benefited from the added features in the paid version.
I have read in one of Kelbly's books about backing up the images on import. That seems to make a lot of sense and I will start doing that as well.
Tonight I backed up the catalog and exported the images. I should be okay in deleting the images (from my hard drive) as I have copies of everything stored on two other hard drives now, right?
ON EDIT:
The backup to one drive just finished. I hooked that drive to another computer that has LR on it. There are about 5,500 images on the laptop that I would like to save. What I want to do is copy them somewhere else where they can be opened so that I can clear the pics off the hard drive of my laptop.
When I look in the folder using the other computer there is a folder that was created (not by me) that is called LR Catalog Preview.lrdata. When I open that up there are hundreds of other folder inside of it.
Out side of the folder is one doc that is called catalogpreview.lrcat, and another one called LR catalog.olrcat.lock
When I look in my "photos" folder which is where I exported the actual images too I see the file names, there are some jpg's, CR2's, PSD and XMP's. I can open everything but the XMP's. When I try to open one it says the image cannot be located. The XMP's have another image associated with them that has the same name, but usually a CR2. What is the XMP?
At this point all I really want to do is just make sure I have the pics on my laptop backed up so that I can clean off the hard drive in my laptop to make some room. What would be the best way to do that, should I get one of the reccomended pieces of software?
Canon 350D
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L IS
580EX II
1.4x Extender
Gitzo 3531 w/ RRS BH-55 Ballhead
RRS L-Plate, quick release clamp and plates
I'm having trouble following what you're asking so forgive me if this doesn't quite fit. It sounds to me like what you should do is this.
1) Take pictures
2) Hook up two external drives to laptop (1 as the working drive the other as a backup drive)
3) Import pictures to the working external drive while copying them to the backup drive.
4) Make edits in LR
5) Once a week when prompted (or more often if you like) backup your LR catalog to the backup external drive.
Now you've got your pictures and your LR catalog in two places and you aren't using up any laptop disk space with raw image files. If you want some of the pictures on your laptop hard drive for those times when you're away from the externals, simply export some jpgs from LR to your Pictures folder. Then you can use those for wallpapers, sharing, etc.
I'm sorry, I haven't been very clear I guess. I've been using Lightroom 1.4 on my laptop for a couple of years. I've been doing the backups to an external hardrive, but found out that it's only a catalog backup, and that I could still lose my images if my hard drive on the laptop crashed.
Right now I have over 5k images on my laptop hard drive. After doing some reading, and through this thread, I've learned in the future that I should do a backup of the images onto an externa hard drive as I'm importing them. For right now what I want to do is safely get these images off of the hard drive on my laptop and onto two different external hard drives, to preserve them. Once they are safely on another hard drive I would like to get rid of the images on my laptop hard drive to free up some space.
What would be the best way to get all of the images that are right now in LR on my laptop onto another hard drive so that I can open them later if I choose?
ON EDIT: What I'm doing because I know it works is creating folders on my desktop for each category and exporting pics one at a time from LR to those folders. When I'm done with that I'll copy those folders to the other hard drives, and may put some on some archival DVD's as well. That should work, shouldn't it?
Canon 350D
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L IS
580EX II
1.4x Extender
Gitzo 3531 w/ RRS BH-55 Ballhead
RRS L-Plate, quick release clamp and plates
I have a working disk and 3 back ups....for me it is all drag and drop....I do not want to have to rely on having special back up software in case the SW company disappers one nite........
I have not had a prob yet...but I drag all of my files into drive A first and then drag to drive B and C.....it has not mis placed files .......yet....knocking on hrd wood....my head.....:D
the next time I see a pop up about overwriting and I click yes for overwrite all and go to bed.........I do this until my working drive is about 1/2gb from full and I start another series of 4 drives.....the working drive stays in computer and the rest are filed at a friends house in Browning 24 gun safe and some at my sisters house.....so nothing is stored altogher.............
I use a Scott Kelby library system where everything is in one neat file, by date and keywords and titles.......it makes for neat looking hard drive with only 1 file folder and that tree looks busy.................
Thanks Art, that makes sense. And here I thought you were just the strobist/multi king!:D
Canon 350D
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L IS
580EX II
1.4x Extender
Gitzo 3531 w/ RRS BH-55 Ballhead
RRS L-Plate, quick release clamp and plates
I import pictures from my memory card to a Photos folder on my secondary hard drive. Every day at noon (or at my button press) the new contents in Photos are backed up to an external drive. This happens with software called Syncback. The company isn't going to disappear overnight and even if they did the software would still work.
Then, every morning at 2am Mozy kicks in and begins uploading from the external drive to my online account. If I could do it over again I wouldn't choose Mozy but I've paid for the year and it's working okay now.
In your scenario - and this may be how you have it already - I'd have a folder called Photos that contained all of the raw images (and sidecar files) and also contained the folder where you put your daily/weekly catalog backups.
Then I'd get syncback and configure it to back up that folder twice a day. Once at noon to external drive A and once at midnight to external drive B (or whatever schedule suits you). Then I would choose some off-site backup feature (FTP, SmugVault, other online company, etc.) and have it run daily.
I have LR 2 and also backup as I import. Works fine.
Justus Photography
www.lindasherrill.com
This really is the best way to do this task. The LR back up of the database isn’t enough! You need to back up the images, saved presets etc. Easiest way is to dedicate a drive to all this, then use one of the mentioned utilities to fully clone all the data. First time takes longest, after that, only new data since last backup is copied so its very fast. I use SuperDuper on Mac, its awesome. You can schedule it to do this every night if you wish.
Author "Color Management for Photographers"
http://www.digitaldog.net/
Not sure it makes sense when you consider what it really does.
ALL that does is copy the images from the card, as is, to another drive. None of the info you use for import (keywords, other metadata) are copied or backed up. Where this is somewhat useful for some is when you wish to import to DNG on the fly but keep a backup of the original proprietary Raws. Otherwise, its not useful because all the work you do on import and after isn’t saved (Did Kelby mention that?).
It also slows down import since you have to copy all the files (many you’ll end up deleting).
I convert to DNG on the fly when importing but don’t care to save my CR2’s (that’s just me). After import and a rough edit, then I use Superduper to clone all the new changes made that are reflected in import.
Author "Color Management for Photographers"
http://www.digitaldog.net/
I've read about converting to DNG upon import. The majority of my shooting is in RAW. What is the advantage of converting the RAW files to DNG on import, and are there any disadvantages?
Thanks for all of the help everyone, it is most appreciated. What was said about backing up on import including images that will later be deleted makes a lot of sense.
Canon 350D
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L IS
580EX II
1.4x Extender
Gitzo 3531 w/ RRS BH-55 Ballhead
RRS L-Plate, quick release clamp and plates
I agree, but the redundancy of two sets of files in the field feels good to me.
Andrew, you are correct that all backing up on import does is backup the RAW unedited, untainted files. That is all I care about with my laptop when I am traveling.
When I get home, I will import one of those hard drives to my desk top VIA Lightroom2, where they will be stored on their own separate hard drive, and as they are edited, the files will on that specific hard drive in my desk top machine, will be copied to a second hard drive via Super Duper. SO that second hard drive in my desktop machine will have all the changes made due to editing my image files as well.
I do not do serious editing on my laptop, but reserve that function for my desktop and its bigger monitor. Just my way of working.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
I have about 100gigs of images total. I keep them all on my primary workstation that is using a RAID Sata controler and mirrors 2 1T drives. I then have a server that is used for backup. I backup the LR catalog weekly there in LR. I also have created an imgbackup share on the server. I use Robocopy (Free tool in Windows). It is command line, but if you use the /MIR copy it will make an exact mirrored directory of your files. So if you delete a file it removes it from your backup, etc. Then from there I pay $4.95 a month for unlimited backup storage with Mozy.com, and back everything up to an offsite storage facility.
The most important thing to remember when working with digital photos, is that you don't have a negative laying in a box somewhere if you happen to loose part of your collection. They are gone forever.
My Gear
That’s why in the field I use something like this (fast and verifies the data):
http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2009/11/review-sanho-hyperdrive-colors.html
Author "Color Management for Photographers"
http://www.digitaldog.net/
Thanks for the article Rodney. I have been thinking about one of those devices, and had the chance to use an Epson for a week some time ago, so the whole concept makes great sense.
However, I am now thinking that an even better idea is to get a Dell Mini10V, which you can get, with a 10" screen, and 160GB hard drive, for less than $300 refurbished. It is only marginally bigger than a Colorspace or Epson, and while it is not as convenient to use in the field, it does have a bigger screen. I would not think of running Lightroom on such a thing, so that is not part of the thought here.
Probably replace windows with Linux or even OSX, but still it is a very attractive idea.