I was curious if anyone knew a PC based program, or a tool that allowed you to automatically copy a file to a set destination. In this case, I want to schedule an automatic backup of my LR catalog to two separate harddrives every 2 days, just so I have a backup copy each time I do any new work. Now I know LR has a built in backup system, but I was wondering if there is a way to do it to multiple harddrives, and at a specific time.
I think you can automate that stuff with Windows Scheduler or something... can't check the specifics on my computer though since I switched to a Mac a couple years ago. Google 'Windows Scheduler Backup Script' though... That will probably bring up good info.
If you're using XP/Vista (not sure about windows 7), there is a powertoy for windows (Synctoy) which, when combined with the scheduler, can provide automatic data copy. You can schedule a daily one, and a weekly one together (or any combination).
Lucky_Dog wrote:
I use SyncBack Pro and do a daily backup.
I also use this to backup my work daily (doctors office, patient files, records etc)
I recommend having it backup twice, once to an internal drive and once to an external for offsite storage. You would hate to get caught with your pants down when you have a fire that destroys your entire office/home.
It also supports FTP transfers so you can backup to an offsite location connected through an FTP protocol.
Just a word of caution as I don't want anyone to have happen to them what happened to me. I asked this question on a differnet forum a couple years ago. Now I am fairly computer savy, but knew nothing about back up programs etc except that I should be backing things up.
I went with Synctoy, nice program worked well and free. I backed everything up to my external drive. Then one day realized my internal drive was getting full and decided to delete a bunch of files and folders off of it to free up some room. What could it hurt I already got everything backed up to my external drive...right??
I just did not know that after I deleted those the next time synctoy ran it was going to mirror the external drive to my internal and delete everything off it as well.
I lost a ton of family photos I had never back up, stuff I could never get back. It was a month or so before I actually caught that files were missing from the external so recovery software would only get some images back. Pisses me off everytime I think about what an idiot move this was on my part. Just wanted you to be aware when using them so it doesn't happen to you.
Itīs a freeware created by a guy working for a german university, and used to backup scientific data. Therefore I has more switches and tools and options than we photographers would need - but it can also do some simple backups.
I configured it to automatically backup several folders during shutdown. I chose an uncompressed backup, just a simple copy so that I can easily find a file again if I need it.
I havenīt tested it, but I assume you can also tell it to backup every 2nd day to two drives...
@g-money - In a perfect world to avoid that sort of thing you'd use software that will perform "normal" and "incremental" backups. Something like Retrospect will do the job, but I'm sure there are others out there that are cheaper or free. Basically, you do an initial "normal" backup of everything. Then incremental backups copy over only files that are either new or changed. This would run every night. This way, you could restore to any point in the chain. Either weekly or monthly, you could do a normal backup again which is another snapshot of your drive entirely. Then the incremental backups would start over again. Doing a normal (aka full) backup periodically basically makes it easier to restore to a given point is all.
The drawback to method the this is that you need large amounts of storage. But it avoids the pitfalls of simply mirroring the drive. The key is that you wouldn't overwrite the old backups stored on your external drive/NAS/other networked computer until you've made a copy on DVD or tape.
