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Archive 2013 · Back up in Lightroom

  
 
mombodr
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Back up in Lightroom


As a neophyte, I need some advice re backup. Is there a need to make a second copy of files imported to Lightroom if there is cloud backup for your computer (including external hard drives)? Do I really need three copies of all files: internal hard drive, external hard drive, and cloud? Advice appreciated.


May 13, 2013 at 09:38 PM
howardm4
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Back up in Lightroom


Depends on how nervous you are and confidence in the cloud. I don't use the LR 2nd backup but my master files end up duplicated 5x due to multiple RAID1 and additional backups. This is excessive of course and I'm looking at changing things around a bit


May 14, 2013 at 06:16 AM
OntheRez
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Back up in Lightroom


mombodr wrote:
As a neophyte, I need some advice re backup. Is there a need to make a second copy of files imported to Lightroom if there is cloud backup for your computer (including external hard drives)? Do I really need three copies of all files: internal hard drive, external hard drive, and cloud? Advice appreciated.


Don't know where you live and what sort of upload bandwidth you have, but out here in the desert there's no way I can back up to a "cloud." My upload speeds are quite low. I get by with multiple hard drives and I guess hope. I do at any one time have 3 copies of the work though 1 of them lags behind the other two.

Robert



May 14, 2013 at 10:40 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Back up in Lightroom


Cloud recovery can be very slow and expensive if you want lots of data in a hurry and your internet data plan is limited in terms of speed or available "free" downloads.

Drives die. If you'd had as many die as I have had then you would not have asked the question. Furthermore, if you get a bit flustered after a drive has died then you may do the wrong thing and destroy the data on your backup. Or you might have a lightning strike the power network while you are doing a backup and trash both drives.

Aside from drives dying there:s the ever present chance that you do something wrong and accidentally delete or corrupt your data. Plus there's the chance that corrupted files will go unnoticed for some time and that you'll back them up too, so then you have no long-term backup with the uncorrupted files on it.

In my case the cloud is just about useless and a single backup drive is far from being enough. I have several copies of all of my image files and I am sure to make backups of Lr catalog files every time I use Lr. These backups are always to different physical drives rather than just to different partitions or folders on the same drive.

Ideally you will clone your second-oldest backup to the drive that had your oldest backup and then test to make sure there were no copy errors. Then you'll clone your third-oldest backup to where your second-oldest backup used to be, and so on. Another variation is to clone each level of backup (including the master copy that you work on) alternately to two or more different drives. They could represent daily backups for a week, weekly for a month, etc.

Backing up is a PITA but nowhere near as painful as losing your data.

- Alan



May 14, 2013 at 10:48 AM
PV Hiker
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Back up in Lightroom


Alan +1
I can’t image how many months of my life I would have to wait for 10 TB to upload to the cloud.



May 20, 2013 at 05:24 PM
David Baldwin
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Back up in Lightroom


"Drives die. If you'd had as many die as I have had then you would not have asked the question."

Yes, I totally agree, I've had 2 external drives die on me in the last 18 months (technical friend suggested I buy an uninterruptible power supply but I digress). Touch wood in the last 18 years I have lost multiple hard drives but so far no optical disk failures (I migrate from media to media regularly, at present I am backing up my best stuff to blu-ray as well as hard disk).

I wonder if as an extra precaution you should consider backing up to 50 GB blu ray. Just an idea.



May 20, 2013 at 06:41 PM
mhayes5254
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Back up in Lightroom


Back to your question - This has nothing to do with Lightroom. If an image is imported into Lightroom the file is not in Lightroom. You need to simply backup your hard drive, which contains your image files as well as the Lightroom catalog containing information about your images.

I have the copy on my HD, a copy on a "backup" drive plugged into the computer and a second backup that is stored off-site in a safe deposit box. I used to keep it in a fireproof safe in the cellar, which is not too bad.

In my case the safe copy is the only true backup copy. I swap the backup on the computer with the safe copy every 1-2 months. The frequency is dependent on how much you are wiling to loose in the case of a fire, flood, theft, lightning strike, etc, etc. As others have said, cloud is only practical up to a certain size. I have used it in the past but now have about 400 GB and it no longer makes sense. Also, I would not trust it exclusively since I do not have complete control.



May 21, 2013 at 03:26 PM
ScooberJake
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Back up in Lightroom


Conventional wisdom says to have three copies: two on site, one off site. That's what I do. When I import a card of photos, those get backed up almost immediately. Then I feel comfortable clearing the card. The main drive is then cloned to the external whenever I think of bringing it home from work, once a month or so.

I do not use the backup features of Lightroom, since I need to back up other things as well (documents, music, etc.).



May 23, 2013 at 04:55 PM





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