backup and the catalog/file locations

[Linh]

I'm trying to organize my files in a way that would be the least amount of trouble if I had to restore from data loss, in addition to splitting up my catalog to working/archival.
The scenario:catalog/pictures in c:\users\linh\picturescomputer blows up, but I have a full backup.catalog/pictures now in c:\users\linh2\pictureswould the catalog still open properly, or is the path hardlinked?
aside from the obvious "don't change the name," I'm wondering how that works if the OS changes (XP->Vista/7 reworked your user directory).

Now, regardless, I think I will move everything to a Windows Home Server in the future, and have it accessible via a mapped drive to maintain consistency to avoid that problem. But then I run into the problem of if my WHS dies and I have to restore my backup locally instead of to the WHS. Same question comes to play.
Thanks for any input

 

[clee01l]

Migrating XP ==> Vista is transparent. Vista ==> Win7 is transparent. XP==> Win 7 requires a clean install. However, if you use the Windows Easy Transfer option, migration from XP to Windows 7 is pretty seamless.
You do not need Windows Home Server. You can do the same with any Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. These are like an external USB HD except they connect through your ethernet and are available to every machine on the network as a mapped drive. A 1 TB NAS is ~$2'' or less. All drives are subject to failure at some point. Expect this. So you do not need just one NAS, but two. If you go for a RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) storage, you can do RAID level1 with two disks where one is mirrored on the other. Higher levels of RAID will give you complete redundancy with 4 disks

I have two NAS in my home network. One is used for additional storage just like you might use an external USB connected drive. The other is used for backups. I keep part of my catalog images local and older less often needed images (archive) on one of the NAS (which I have mapped as Drive A. Both Drive A: and Drive C: have scheduled backups that create differential back ups to the Backup NAS (Drive B If drive C: fails, I replace it and restore from the NAS drive B:. Drive A: ia a RAID level 1 disk. If drive A: fails, I'm fine as long as only one drive fails. Should both fail simultaneously, I replace it and restore from Drive B:

 

[Linh]

I'm quite familiar with how RAID works. WHS is desirable to me because it acts in the same way as drobo, just not as cleanly and neatly. You can easily expand by adding drives, or replacing smaller drives w/ larger ones (assuming you have enough free space/plan for it). All done without destroying the RAID volume. *EDIT* I seem to have been mistaken, I thought WHS used an underlying custom RAID structure, but it's just folder duplication (or you can do a normal controller based RAID, but that defeats the purpose of easy upgrading). *END EDIT* Of course, I also have a backup of my data, WHS just gives me ease of expansion and sharing. Still not set on it, just expanding on above.

However, I did not mean for this to be the focus. My primary question is how LR handles the catalog. If I take my catalog and pictures right now, copy it to an external drive, then go to some other computer to open the catalog, what happens? I did a quick test and installed the trial at work.

From what I can tell, it seems to know the relative path of where the pictures are to the catalog. And if that gets lost, as long as the folder structure has not changed for the pictures, I can point to the root and it'll figure it out. Is this correct? I didn't fully test it yet, just a single folder.

 

[clee01l]

OK, I'll try to do better at answering your first question. LR is a database that holds information about image files. The Path is just a pointer in the database. Everything is relative to the root/parent folder. If it is assumed to be c:\users\linh\pictures, then every folder points back to \..\Pictures. You can copy your .lrcat file to a USB drive and plug that drive in and LR will use the catalog and expect the images to be in the same relative posiition "c:\users\linh\pictures". If you move an image out from under that outside of LR, LR gets lost. If you do this inside of LR, LR updates its pointers. If you move \..\Pictures and everything under neath it without doing this in LR, you need to tell LR where \Pictures is before it can fined your images. You can have more than one top level (parent) folder. One can be "c:\users\linh\pictures" another can be on a Mapped network drive like "Z:\imagearchive\" You can not move your .lrcat file to a network drive and still access it in LR. You can make backups of it on a network drive and as long as you copy it back yo the local drive, LR can use it.

If you migrate to Win7 using the Windows Easy Transfer option. the new OS will see the same mapped drives as the old. If you do not use the Windows Easy Transfer option, you will have to manually re mapp each network drive. External, USB drives, belong to the OS. If they are assigned a Volume name and reconnected then the old drive letter for the USB drive will be reused IF no other removable storage device has clamed that drive letter first.

 

[Linh]

[quote author=clee'1l link=topic=8879.msg59688#msg59688 date=126319'229]
OK, I'll try to do better at answering your first question. LR is a database that holds information about image files. The Path is just a pointer in the database. Everything is relative to the root/parent folder.
[/quote]

That's pretty much what I was trying to confirm, thanks.