A good back up method

[Smorton]

I am pretty new to LR but really enjoying it. I keep the images on an external hard drive and I can see that I need a good back up plan which I do not have.

Can anyone give me input on a good way of backing up my photos that is methodical and reliable. Right now I have a second external hard drive dedicated to backing up my LR external hard drive and although I am just getting started I already have over 7,000 photos imported in LR which will be the tip of the iceberg.

Right now, because I lack computer savvy and/or back up software, I simply copy and paste the photos I put in LR into the back up drive. This is not a good method I am discovering. I would like to back the photos up and have a third external hard drive which I can store off site. If anyone has a good system I would love to heard about it.

Any input is highly appreciated.

Thank you.

Smorton

 

[spg]

You don't say if you're using windows or mac. If you have the space, duplicating the folder structure as a backup works well - it is easy to reconnect the catalog if needed and easy to find your files. Don't forget to back up the catalog as well. I use freefilesync to mirror my file structure which works well.
To automate it you can use a task scheduler (windows). Alternative software includes synctoy, however this only syncs one folder pair at a time (you may have a root pictures folder in which case it would work ok).

 

[Smorton]

I am using Windows.

Input Appreciated.

Smorton

 

[Replytoken]

Smorton,

SPG has offered some good advice. It is good to have your backup structure mirror your working file structure. This way, if something happens to your working files, you can be up and running without worrying about where to put your replacement files. Another thing to keep in mind is to try and keep all of your images and folders under one top level folder. This will also help you keep things organized and allow you to easily move images if need be.

You can you file sync programs as SPG mentioned, and there are a number that are free (or shareware) for use if you do not wish to purchase software, or keep your costs to a minimum. Karenware has Replicator, and I have used it in the past for general file backup. 2BrightSparks has a free version of SyncBack that is also worth considering.

Alternately, you could use a program like ImageIngester or Ingestamatic: http://basepath.com/site/ . These programs can automatically create backups for you, in addition to rename and convert files if you so choose. The beauty of these programs is that they can automatically create an identical file structure for you with a single command, and they can also handle a large number of other features, like add metadata, if you wish. I prefer this method because I choose to rename and convert my files to DNG before I import them into LR. You can think of these programs as a "front end" to LR. When ImagesIngester is complete, all I need to do is tell LR to add my files to my catalog. I prefer this approach because I do not like how LR creates a "back up" of imported files. The folder structure is not exactly identical, and that does not make things easier in the event of a future problem.

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Jim Wilde]

Just picking up on a couple of points raised:

SyncToy - yes it works on folder pairs, but as far as I know there is no limit on how many folder pairs can be setup, and you can execute as many as you like of those folder pair backups in one run. I currently have 9 sets of pairs setup, and each one is duplicated 3 times, as I backup to an external desktop hard drive, a NAS, and a portable hard drive (which is then taken off-site). All 27 folder pairs are automatically selected and processed with one execution of the program. And of course this is an incremental backup utility, so only new and changed files are copied.

Using the "Make Second Copy Option" - as Ken has stated this is NOT an exact copy of your image folder structure, so is not ideal if used as a formal backup of the master hard drive image folders. I do, however, use this function....but only as I believe it was intended to be used, which is a byte-for-byte copy of the images on the memory card. This allows the card contents to be backed up on import, so that when the import finishes there are now two copies of the card contents on hard drive.....this then allows the card to be ejected and safely re-used if needed before the 'regular' backups are taken. I much prefer to run the regular backup AFTER the first cull has been done so that only the images I want to keep are included.

So my workflow, backup-wise is:

1. Insert card into card reader, which launches Lightroom's Import process.
2. Check my Import Preset is selected, uncheck any shots of my feet or the lens cap, hit Import.
3. The import preset renames my files (just adding date prefix), makes a second copy, renders 1:1 previews, and writes the prime copy into one of Lightroom's date-based folder schemes.
4. When I have done the initial post-import cull I initiate SyncToy which, among other things, backups up my entire Lightroom eco-system (images, catalogs, catalog backups, settings), apart from my preview folders (which SyncToy allows me to exclude).