What is the file name LR uses for database backups

[BobK]

I just got my computer back from HP service. As part of the repairs, they replaced my hard drive and motherboard. I had Lightroom on the drive that was replaced so it is gone. All of my images were on an external drive so none of them were lost. My question is, What is the file name Lightroom uses for the data base backup? I am praying that I was backing it up on my external drive but I need to know the file name to locate it. Will any of the edits I made in lightroom still be stored in sidecar files if I didn't specifically configure Lightroom to do so or are all of my edits gone too? Any ideas/suggestions will be most appreciated.

Thank!

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Sorry to hear about your computer problems Bob! Were they not able to send you back the old hard drive? Well welcome to the forum - sorry it's under such circumstances though!

You want to be searching for *.lrcat files - they go into dated/timed folders inside a folder called Backups, which by default is next to the original catalog. I hope you changed it!

The sidecar files - if you selected the files and Ctrl-S/Cmd-S, then it would have written to the sidecar files. Alternatively, if you had 'Automatically Write to XMP' turned on in preferences, it would have automatically do that. You can find out by importing the files into a new catalog and seeing if your changes still exist.

 

[BobK]

Thanks Victoria. no luck finding the backup it must have been on the lost drive.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I'm so sorry to hear that Bob!

Ok, well at least let's prevent this happening again in future.

Firstly, change the backup location to your external drive. To do so, go to File > Catalog Settings and set it to back up your catalog on next opening. Close LR and reopen, and it'll give you the dialog where you choose the backup location. Set it and let it back up. Then go back into Catalog Settings and change it to your normal backup schedule.

Secondly, you may wish to write to xmp from time to time as an additional backup. You could turn on 'Automatically Write' in Preferences, or you could just go to All Photographs, select all files (or select NO files) and hit Ctrl-S / Cmd-S to write once in a while.

 

[BobK]

I am going to move the backup location and try to use "Automatically Write". Hopefully it won't slow things down to much.

Can you point me in a direction for a good back up system. I am planning on putting the OS on it's own drive, Applications on a second internal drive, then I am not sure if I should get RAID or a few external and mirror them. I want the system to be safe and well organized.

Bob

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Raid isn't really a backup solution - it only offers data redundancy if a drive fails. I'd be more inclined to use File Sync software to backup to an external drive (or at least another internal drive). When I was PC based, I used to use a program called Vice Versa, which did a nice job, and doesn't wrap your files up in a weird format.

 

[1080iAddict]

Secondly, you may wish to write to xmp from time to time as an additional backup. You could turn on 'Automatically Write' in Preferences, or you could just go to All Photographs, select all files (or select NO files) and hit Ctrl-S / Cmd-S to write once in a while.

Is there any reason NOT to turn on 'Automatically Write' in Preferences and just leave that on all the time, i,e., why is there an option? It seems like this should always be set.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Many people complained about performance issues in the earlier betas. There is still a performance hit, altho' it gets better with each version.

With auto-write enabled, you have two "channels" of i/o, one to the catalog database file, and a second to the XMP output (embedded or side car). If both of those reside on the same drive, there's a lot of head thrashing going on.

Personally, I always leave auto-write on, even in the bad old slower days. There are other opinions, and YMMV.

 

[1080iAddict]

Thanks. I just setup a new insanely fast XPS72' with RAID ' for my OS drive and a separate 1 TB drive for scratch and storage. I may leave it on all the time also and let the XPS72' go to work!