How and what to backup?

[brentj]

Up until now I have had no backup for my photos/work (unless you include the full res jpegs on smugmug).

Well I finally broke down and purchased two 5'' GB external drives.

If I had to guess I would say I have around 25' GB worth of photos.

My thought process is to have redundant backups. Make sense?

From a LR standpoint, what do I need to backup? Is there a certain master file that contains all my changes? From my understanding, changes to RAW files are not stored in the file itself, but stored instead in a LR file? I'm sure I sound dumb by now.

I have seen other posts on this topic, but what backup software would you recommend?

Thanks!

 

[gumpY]

If I recall it correctly you have to save the "lightroom catalog.lrcat" file . thats the file that contains all the changes you made.

 

[Replytoken]

Up until now I have had no backup for my photos/work (unless you include the full res jpegs on smugmug).

Well I finally broke down and purchased two 5'' GB external drives.

If I had to guess I would say I have around 25' GB worth of photos.

My thought process is to have redundant backups. Make sense?

From a LR standpoint, what do I need to backup? Is there a certain master file that contains all my changes? From my understanding, changes to RAW files are not stored in the file itself, but stored instead in a LR file? I'm sure I sound dumb by now.

I have seen other posts on this topic, but what backup software would you recommend?

Thanks!

Think of your Smug Mug account as extra insurance. Having two sets is probably the minimum to give you some sense of protection from most disasters. Changes to RAW files are kept in the LR database, but they can also be pushed to XMP ("sidecar") files as well. If you pushed the data, back up the XMP files.

There are a large number of programs for file backups. I like Karenware's Replicator, but there are several other programs that are easy and dependable, and free. I believe there was a recent thread either here or at The DAM Forum that listed a number of programs.

--Ken

 

[Victoria Bampton]

So, in summary, things you want to back up:

Your LR catalog (*.lrcat file)
Perhaps the previews, but not a big deal if they're not backed up (*.lrpreviews file, next to the *.lrcat)
Your images
Possibly all of your presets - those would be a pain to recreate if your hard drive died. I'm guessing you're XP? I'd back up the whole folder: [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\[your username] \Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\
And maybe your preferences file for good measure: [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom Preferences.agprefs