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Archive 2012 · What all do you backup?

  
 
JimClark
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · What all do you backup?


Just started using Lightroom 3 and also have photoshop CS4 and Bridge is installed.
I was wondering if you backup the Bridge Cache, Camera Raw cache?
I am going to backup my images (DOH) and the lightroom catalog for sure but not sure about the Caches?
What say you?

Jim



Jan 21, 2012 at 10:26 PM
mshi
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · What all do you backup?


Photoshop/LR uses image caching to speed the redraw of high-resolution images. With caching, Photoshop uses low-resolution versions of images to quickly update the image onscreen as you work. Just delete junk stuff inside once in a while to free up the disk space.


Jan 22, 2012 at 12:21 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · What all do you backup?


You do not need to back up the caches as they are readily - but slowly - rebuilt at any time. The issue is whether the extra time it takes every time you back up outweighs the time you save if / when you have to recover from a backup. I'd say not, unless you have a flaky computer.

Occasionally I have had troubles with recovering preview data correctly but it happens so inconsistently that I have not established why it happens. When it does occur the previews need to be rebuilt anyway and the recovered backup is largely useless.

btw, my computer has been very flaky for several months and I backup very often to multiple external drives - so often that it is not worthwhile backing up tens of GB of Lr previews and ACR cache.

I set Lr to backup the catalog every time it shuts down but sometimes I shut it down manually to force a fresh backup even though I want to do more work. Those backups are only on the internal drive because I do not keep external drives connected unnecessarily, but they're all sent to an external drive within a few days (sooner if I do a lot of work in Lr) when I do a general backup. When I've made at least two external backups onto physically separate drives I will delete most of the Lr backups that are on the internal drive.

I rely on my Lr catalog a lot because I do not use .xmp files. That is because when I use external software such as from camera manufacturers it does not respect the .xmp files. Even so, I do as much as possible of any file relocation, renaming, etc., within Lr.


My experience suggests that having too few backups is far worse than having too many. Even my backup drives die on me.


The ACR cache holds partially-converted raw files. Depending on how many separate raw files you process in develop module and how often and how fast, that cache will either be huge or will not contain all of the image files you need and so maintaining a backup is not convenient and is certainly not critical. New ACR cache data will be built as and when you open a raw file if it is not already in the cache.

The Lr preview cache can easily be rebuilt overnight any time it is needed. That might be because you lost the old cache in a drive failure or because you have changed default settings in Lr and want the previews updated. Either way, having a backup is not critical. It will be no good if it is out of date.


In case you have not considered it, there is a great advantage in Lr to have all of your image files under a single parent folder so that if you need to access your backups at any time - even on a different drive letter from the original location - you can very quickly find missing files for any one image folder and it will automatically find the rest. If the folders are separated in the catalog by not sharing a common parent folder then Lr needs you to find them separately. This issue may never arise for you until you come to recover lost data from backups and at that stage you already have enough hassles on your plate.

- Alan



Jan 22, 2012 at 12:56 AM
cwebster
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · What all do you backup?


Since my backup runs unattended every night, I back up everything, including the backup catalogs that LR creates during its backup process.

I agree with Alan about having all your image file folders under one parent folder. It's easier if you have to restore a backup and it's easier when you need to migrate your files to a new computer.

<Chas>



Jan 22, 2012 at 02:43 AM
James_N
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · What all do you backup?


JimClark wrote:
Just started using Lightroom 3 and also have photoshop CS4 and Bridge is installed.
I was wondering if you backup the Bridge Cache, Camera Raw cache?
I am going to backup my images (DOH) and the lightroom catalog for sure but not sure about the Caches?
What say you?

Jim


I have a multi-step backup process but I don't backup/archive the raw cache since it can be easily rebuilt.

1. I use Acronis True Image to back up my System drive daily. This makes sure that the actually Lightroom program and all my develop presets, metadata templates, plug-ins, etc. are backed up.

2. My Lightroom catalog and photos are on separate drives from the System Drive (by default Lightroom will place your catalog on the System drive but it can be moved anywhere). I use the Backup function in Lightroom to save my catalog backups to yet another drive for safety. The Catalog Backup function isn't very intuitive but when selected, a dialog box pops up when exiting the program where you can specify the location of your catalog backup. By default Lightroom will save your catalog backup in the same location as the actual catalog which really doesn't make much sense. Use the dialog box to specify where you want the catalog backup saved; the selection is also "sticky" so once its chosen all your catalog backups will be saved to the specified location.

3. The Lightroom catalog does not contain your images; only previews that it generated so its imperative to back up your images. I use Second Copy to back up my images to external drives. The advantage of using a program like Second Copy is that your photos are not encrypted as they would be when using drive mirroring software like Acronis True Image. This reduces the chances of file corruption and allows me to view the image backups without having to use proprietary software.



Jan 22, 2012 at 07:22 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · What all do you backup?


I think I need a program like Sixteenth Copy


James is right that the Lr catalog does not contain the images but the image previews are held in a Lr preview cache that is actually separate from the catalog database file, though usually stored at the same location.

- Alan



Jan 23, 2012 at 03:26 AM
Kittyk
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · What all do you backup?


we backup only source and completed images uncompressed images.
capture one catalogs we don't backup as they are easily to recreate should we need to and we cannot be sure they will be compatible years in advance anyways.



Jan 23, 2012 at 08:26 AM
JimClark
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · What all do you backup?


Thanks all for your opinions


Jan 23, 2012 at 10:18 PM





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