Could you check my backup strategy?

[Steve_R]

Hi all, hope everyone is good.

I have always been a little confused as how I should do my LR photo back ups - would be really grateful if I could explain how I use LR and how I do my backups and ask for comments whether it is any good or not.

I have about 1'''' photos (5'Gb) , in a fairly simple directory structure Year>Event>Sub-folder which sit in the same parent folder. They are almost all DNGs and all the changes to the images are held in one catalogue file.

What I do is back up the whole photo parent directory (so I retain the sub-folder structure) to another HD on another PC via LAN. I also back up the catalogue file separately.

If I have a HD failure on my main machine will I be able to copy the photos back and also the catalogue file and then make the two link together again?

Really appreciate any comments or suggestions to improve my backup technique!

Cheers

 

[Brad Snyder]

Steve, Welcome to the forums. I believe we have several forum members in your neighborhood.

As far as it goes, yes your strategy is sound. Given an intact backup catalog, and an intact backup image folder tree, you can easily recover.

I believe many would urge at least one additional back-up copy of each of those.

Another thing to consider, if you aren't doing this already, is to take advantage of LR's built in ability to store/embed pertinent adjustment and other metadata into the DNG files, which would add another layer of potential recovery. Following this policy would allow you to recover the bulk of your LR work on your images even if the your working and backup catalogs should take a total loss. As long as the DNG files were intact, you could relatively easily rebuild your catalogs. This policy is easily implemented by turning on XMP auto-write, or choosing to write metadata (ctrl-s) to selected files.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Yes you should be able to relink the catalog with the files as you describe.

 

[Steve_R]

Thanks Brad and KiwiGeoff. Am now reassured.

If I switch on the XMP sidecars - does this generate additional files that go with the DNGs or does the info get fully embedded into the DNG file?

I can't see a lot of info in the help file - but is there a list somewhere that shows what would be included in the XMP sidecar?

Thanks again.
Steve

 

[Brad Snyder]

With DNGs, and RGB types(TIFF,JPG,PSD) the XMP info is embedded in the image file.
With manufacturer raw types, the info has to go in a companion sidecar file. The reasoning here is that the other file types are built to publicly documented standards, whil manufacturer raw file types have proprietary structures, which, while amenable to some reverse-engineering, are not completely suited to having data written into them.

Things that aren't included in XMP data external to LR (i.e. embedded or sidecar)
Stacks
Collection membership
Virtual Copies
Pick Flags
Develop Adjustment History (final state is preserved, but not intermediate steps)
State of Develop Panel enable/disable switches
Pan location of images left at larger than 'fit' zoom.

For further information, the XMP sidecar file is literally in text format, it's easy enough to generate one, and have a peek at the content/syntax with any text editor.

 

[Steve_R]

awesome, that helps me a lot - many thanks Brad.

Many thanks, steve

 

[Brad Snyder]

Credit where credit is due: a lot of that information was compiled by our good friend and moderator/guru here, Victoria Bampton. Find her at www.lightroomqueen.com