backup question

[honsbeek]

Hi there ,

i have collected about 8.7 Gigabytes of RAW images and want to back them up. I am about to delete my windows and format and re-install. What of the catalog files. and previews. I rendered 1:1 previews and it has accumulated to
some 7''mb. Do I need to back up the previews as well or just the catalog file and BAK file ? Will the previews be re-rendered when I reinstall windows and open the catalog of the RAW files in question ?

thank you

 

[Victoria Bampton]

For a start, you need to make sure you've got your images backed up. That's obviously essential!

I'd also open your LR catalog, select all, and hit Ctrl-S to write all of the data to xmp sidecar files. They're a useful backup.

Next, I'd make sure you've got a hierarchy to your catalog folders list, which will make it easy to relink files if they end up in a different location.

Then you want to save the catalog file somewhere safe too.

You don't HAVE to back up the previews - they will render on demand, or you can select all and choose Library > Previews > Render X Previews once you've reinstalled. It'll take a while to render them again though, so you may decide it's a good idea to back up the previews to save time.

 

[honsbeek]

Tell me again about the XMP files where are they written to?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

The XMP files are written alongside each raw file, or into the header of other kinds of files.

 

[Bruce J]

XMP files are written to the image folder, using the same root file name as each image.