Editing Archived Photos

[RSDS1227]

Lightroom Version Number

LR Classic version 9.2

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi all, I am fighting with a situation I could use some input on. I currently have approx 1TB worth of photos on a LaCie 8TB 2Big Dock w/ Thunderbolt 3. I bought this thinking it could store all my photos and I could do all my edits in one place. ISSUE: the darn thing started grinding and died on me with-in the first year. No worries I had a 5yr warranty and recovered ALL my images. Now I feel like the LaCie should only be used as a back-up and not the working drive.
Question: as we edit our photos with LR is there ANY activity being done on the drive where the actual photos are located? I know the LR catalog stores all the editing info on my internal SSD but is the LaCie doing any work? I had thought that all the "reading & writing" to the LaCie is what shorted it's life. Or did I just get a Lemmon?

Thank you in advance for any helpful info,

Rich

 

[Jim Wilde]

Writing to the images? Not so much, in fact never, unless you choose to save Metadata to XMP (automatically or manually). If you don't do that, then there will be no write activity on your files. But if you do, there could be plenty of writing going on. If the images are raw, the writing will be very small XMP sidecars, but for all other file types the file could be re-written every time its metadata is changed.

Reading? Yes, whenever a preview is being generated, and whenever you open an image in the Develop module (Lightroom does not use the normal library previews, instead it builds a new temporary - cached - preview every time the image is loaded into Develop).

 

[clee01l]

I have an older LeCie 8TB. It stores all of my photos older than 2-3 months. It has never given me any problem in at least 6 years. I think you got a lemon. Because every drive will fail some sooner than others. you need to have a system backup app running that will backup up all of your critical data including any stored on EHDs

 

[RSDS1227]

Thank you Jim, I will often work on photos that are over 5 yrs old just to apply what I learn in PS. Accessing the LaCie for those photos always makes me nervous. I think I will look for an external SSD to add into my back-up plan. Working from the M.2 SSD backup to external SSD then finally on to the LaCie.

 

[Replytoken]

Now I feel like the LaCie should only be used as a back-up and not the working drive.

I do not know if you are referring to a replacement drive that LaCie sent you or the original drive, but if it is the latter, I would relegate it to a door stop or paper weight instead of a back-up. I want my back-up drives to be as reliable, if not more so, than my working drive. Drives are too affordable to keep around if they exhibit signs of impending failure.

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Califdan]

Writing to the images? Not so much, in fact never, unless you choose to save Metadata to XMP (automatically or manually).

In addition to what Jim said, there are a few other cases where data is written to the images folder(s) - some are a bit obscure. here are some

1. you move or rename a folder
2. you rename one or more image files
3. You move images to a different folder
4. You delete images from folders ("delete", not "remove")
5. you change capture date and have the catalog setting set to write such a change to the image file

Dan

 

[clee01l]

I do not know if you are referring to a replacement drive that LaCie sent you or the original drive, but if it is the latter, I would relegate it to a door stop or paper weight instead of a back-up. I want my back-up drives to be as reliable, if not more so, than my working drive. Drives are too affordable to keep around if they exhibit signs of impending failure.

Good luck,

--Ken

If I understand the issue. It is as follows. You bought an LaCie drive and it failed under warranty. You did not lose data and LaCie sent you a replacement. You are timid to trust the replacement.

Using System software to backup your critical files including those on the LaCie drive, you are protected against any one drive failing even the LaCie. I'd say use the replacement LaCie as intended, knowing that the critical user data on it is backed up elsewhere as it should be. If you still have the original LaCie EHD with the bad HDD, open it up and put a new HDD in place of the bad one. A Seagate Ironwolf 10TB HDD is ~$150.

 

[BarrySchwartz]

Best practice for media storage is to have at least two, if not three, duplicate drives, because it's never a matter of "if" a drive (even an SSD) will fail, but when. My practice, which is not unique to me, is that I have a primary drive that I periodically back up to two other drives. There are lots of really good software options for backing up data, which have been covered on this forum. My backup drives are bare drives that I insert into a dock, but the variations on how to accomplish this are many; the main thing is that no matter how one backs up, it works.

The late Michael Reichman had a great saying, "Storage is cheap, regret is expensive." These are words I live by!

 

[RSDS1227]

Thank you all, I did not get to keep the original LaCie paper weight, they sent a new one with 2 new 4TB Ironwolf drives.
I do have 3 backups thank you, I would go crazy if I didn't have at least 3.
My main concern was the extra wear and tear on the LaCie.
I like to go back and edit lots of archived photos and moving them just to do edits "on the spur of the moment" is a pain.

 

[BarrySchwartz]

Thank you all, I did not get to keep the original LaCie paper weight, they sent a new one with 2 new 4TB Ironwolf drives.
I do have 3 backups thank you, I would go crazy if I didn't have at least 3.
My main concern was the extra wear and tear on the LaCie.
I like to go back and edit lots of archived photos and moving them just to do edits "on the spur of the moment" is a pain.

Excellent!

 

[clee01l]

they sent a new one with 2 new 4TB Ironwolf drives.
I do have 3 backups thank you,

Lightroom Classic is only going to read the files in place. If the files are RAW, then the source will be the RGB file in ACR cache. If the cache file is missing, then and only then will LrC read the original RAW and cache a new RGB file. I would not worry about the LaCie. I think the lemon was just a fluke. After all. I have one that is going strong and it might be 6-8 years old.

 

[Jim Wilde]

If the files are RAW, then the source will be the RGB file in ACR cache. If the cache file is missing, then and only then will LrC read the original RAW and cache a new RGB file.

I don't understand what you're saying here, Cletus. The ACR cache entry (or alternatively a Smart Preview if it exists) would only be accessed when opening the image in Develop, and is what is initially presented on screen. However, in parallel with that initial presentation a full raw conversion of the original image is being done in background and when complete the new preview replaces the initial display of the ACR cache entry. So the original is always read every time you access an image in Develop, regardless of whether an ACR cache entry exists or not.

It's done that way so that the user can get a view of the image without having to wait multiple seconds for the image to be rendered and displayed.

 

[clee01l]

So the original is always read every time you access an image in Develop, regardless of whether an ACR cache entry exists or not.

If the Original is RAW, and there are Lightroom adjustments, the original file only contains the original RGB thumbnail image, not and adjusted image. My understanding I that the image presented to the user comes from the Previews folder stored alongside the catalog file. If there is no preview, then Lightroom is forced to build a new preview from an RGB image. The RAW data needs to be passed through ACR to produce an RGB image that Lightroom can work with. It either has one in ACR cache or it is forced to build a new one. My understanding is that the only time Lightroom needs to access the original file is on export or when printing When an RGB original image is required to apply all of the Lightroom adjustments.

 

[Jim Wilde]

My understanding is that the only time Lightroom needs to access the original file is on export or when printing When an RGB original image is required to apply all of the Lightroom adjustments.

Your understanding is incorrect. I suggest you review the preview/cache loading logic in the Develop module, page 464 of your Missing FAQ book.

The ACR cache entries are tiny in comparison to the original file, IIRC they are only 1024 pixels on the long edge, and are thus only suitable for giving the user an initial view of the image and getting the Basic panel sliders available while the original image is converted and rendered in the background.