LR backup via Ext HD

[backpacker111ca]

Lightroom Version

LR6 version 6.0 (Standalone)

Operating System

1. macOS 10.15 Catalina

I am looking for a way to back up my photos. I am using the standalone LR6 and import and store my photos to 2 Ext HDs. The first holds only the back ups of my LR Catalog whilst the second holds all my photos. Every so often I also back up my LR catalog to my iMac (using OS Catalina)

I also copied my 1 TB of photos to a third HD as I panicked when not having a backup of all my pics. This HD has not been updated in a long while.

I am looking for a way to back everything up incrementally rather that doing a full copy of all my photos each time. Also could I use the back up copy of my LR catalog (holding all my edits) later on with a copy of my photos that are not updated?

I am worried that if LR crashes or my storage HD fails that I will lose all my pics and edits. In addition, I am not sure how much longer I can use Catalina without having to upgrade the macOS version, which would probably not be compatible with LR6.

Other than time, is there any difference from copying my latest HD of photos and catalog to this extra 4TB external HD? Could I test it out?

The Catalog being separate from my unedited RAW photos in LR has me confused :(

Thanks in advance for your help!
Shawn

 

[Johan Elzenga]

There is no difference. Just get a backup utility like Carbon Copy Cloner or similar to make incremental backups and you’re done.

 

[clee01l]

Use TimeMachine to back up all of your critical data including your Lightroom Catalog and your image files. It runs every 30 minutes and makes a new version of anything that changes. It baffles me as to why anyone running MacOS does not use TimeMachine for all of their critical files. This is why Apple created the TimeMachine backup process. It is a free app. All you need is a backup destination volume large enough to hold all of your critical user data on all of the volumes that you want to include in the backup

 

[backpacker111ca]

Use TimeMachine to back up all of your critical data including your Lightroom Catalog and your image files. It runs every 30 minutes and makes a new version of anything that changes. It baffles me as to why anyone running MacOS does not use TimeMachine for all of their critical files. This is why Apple created the TimeMachine backup process. It is a free app. All you need is a backup destination volume large enough to hold all of your critical user data on all of the volumes that you want to include in the backup

Thanks for your reply Cletus. I do use Time Machine to back up my iMac.I don not have enough memory to keep all my photos on my iMac hence to external HD. My LR Catalog does get backed up as well as the folder is small.

 

[backpacker111ca]

There is no difference. Just get a backup utility like Carbon Copy Cloner or similar to make incremental backups and you’re done.

Any preference between CCC, SuperDuper or ChronoSync?
Do the two HD have to be identical and nothing else on them?

​

 

[clee01l]

Thanks for your reply Cletus. I do use Time Machine to back up my iMac.I don not have enough memory to keep all my photos on my iMac hence to external HD. My LR Catalog does get backed up as well as the folder is small.

By default, TimeMachine excludes all but your primary volume from the BackUp list. You can include the EHD containing the image files in TimeMachine and both the primaryVolume (MacIntosh HD) and the EHD will be included in the regular TimeMachine backup. As I noted before, the Backup destination Volume needs to be large enough to accommodate all of the volumes being backed up.

A corollary to that is that you can have more than one backup destination, each a backup up ALL of the data in the selected sources.

I have time Machine backing up two volumes for a total of 5 TB going to a EHD that is 8TB and another EHD of 8 TB. TimeMachine will alternate between destination volumes every 30 minutes so that I have two complete backups of my critical data on my Primary disk and my photos disk.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Any preference between CCC, SuperDuper or ChronoSync?
Do the two HD have to be identical and nothing else on them?

​

I use CCC myself, but never tested the others so I can’t answer that.
The two disks do not have to be identical. As you can also backup folders rather than entire disks, they also can contain other stuff without any problems.

 

[backpacker111ca]

I use CCC myself, but never tested the others so I can’t answer that.
The two disks do not have to be identical. As you can also backup folders rather than entire disks, they also can contain other stuff without any problems.

Thanks Johan.

 

[backpacker111ca]

By default, TimeMachine excludes all but your primary volume from the BackUp list. You can include the EHD containing the image files in TimeMachine and both the primaryVolume (MacIntosh HD) and the EHD will be included in the regular TimeMachine backup. As I noted before, the Backup destination Volume needs to be large enough to accommodate all of the volumes being backed up.

A corollary to that is that you can have more than one backup destination, each a backup up ALL of the data in the selected sources.

I have time Machine backing up two volumes for a total of 5 TB going to a EHD that is 8TB and another EHD of 8 TB. TimeMachine will alternate between destination volumes every 30 minutes so that I have two complete backups of my critical data on my Primary disk and my photos disk.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ah, now that explains a lot. I did not know that I could back up the external hard drive, in addition to my iMac, to another larger External HD. I have a 4TB HD that I can use. I will have to read up on how to configure Time Machine to do just that. Thanks for your advice!

 

[Zenon]

I use Time Machine to back up the OS to an external drive. That is ED #1. I use CCC to back up my files from ED #2 to ED #3.

 

[clee01l]

Ah, now that explains a lot. I did not know that I could back up the external hard drive, in addition to my iMac, to another larger External HD. I have a 4TB HD that I can use. I will have to read up on how to configure Time Machine to do just that. Thanks for your advice!

1. Open Time Machine Settings
2. Select Options
3. Remove the External Volume that you want to include in the Time Machine Backup for the List of Volume Excluded from Backup.

By default, Time Machine excludes a list of all external volumes from backup. You meed to manually add any mounted volume to the list of files and folders in the included list of backed up items.

 

[backpacker111ca]

1. Open Time Machine Settings
2. Select Options
3. Remove the External Volume that you want to include in the Time Machine Backup for the List of Volume Excluded from Backup.

By default, Time Machine excludes a list of all external volumes from backup. You meed to manually add any mounted volume to the list of files and folders in the included list of backed up items.

Thanks! Seems easy enough