what is the proper way to backup images and catalog?

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I have been searching the internet to find a good way to backup all of my images and the catalog. I have well over 17,''' RAW images and counting. They reside in folders off of the root of my secondary drive. Each of these folder contains sub-folders. My wife bought me a 4 terabyte Drobo for my birthday and I have partitioned it into 4 one-terabyte volumes. Two of these volumes on the Drobo will be used as a primary backup. I will also be using a one-terabyte Western Digital external HD for a secondary backup to be placed in our banks safety deposit box. I use a BlacX USB HD docking station for the Western Digital HD. My question is this.....!

What program is best for backing up the images? Microsofts "backup" utility? Or should I use my NovaStor backup software? Both of these utilities seem to copy files to a large data file for a better word. They also allow you to do a verification of the backup. You then need to use the utility to restore files.

Or would just using the copy and paste option be better? This option of course doesn't have a verification process to let you know if a certain file or files failed to be backed up.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
 
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Personally I use a sync utility to create a mirror on another disk(s). On the Mac it is Chronosync, there are similar utilities for Windows.

You are right to not relying solely on your Drobo as an archive, you do need the offsite backup.
 
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I want to offer the suggestion that mirrors are not necessarily a good thing as they protect only against disk failure where you notice the problem soon.

Mirroring a drive mirrors any appplication caused problems, including if you accidentally delete somethign and do not notice before your backup. Or let's say you do something with LR like updating cature time back into the NEF -- what if it corrupts the images? What if something corrupted your LR catalog but not so badly it dies, and you don't find out until you have written over your backups?

Anyway... I'd recommend doing some kind of incremental backup where you can go back in time both for images and catalog, deciding how far back in time is reasonable for you.

I tend to do a full backup every few months, then incrementals nightly in between, and save them all until the disk gets full, then delete from oldest forward. When I seem to be deleting backups that are too new I'll buy more disk.

I prefer incremental to differentials (besides, Windows is not good at real differentials). An incremental is everything that changed since the last full backup, a differential is everything that changed since the last differential, so you need the full + all differentials to get back -- that's a lot of restores.

The common thinking is "what do I do if a disk fails" but you need to think about all the failure modes -- including user error, hidden problems you don't discovered for a month after a dozen new backups, etc.

PS. I'm actually a big more anal about it than the above, I do nightly on-line backups, nightly backups disk to disk for local copies, and every few months I write them all to DVD's so I can store them physically away from the computer (not completely trusting Mozy.com, though I like them). The more you understand computers the more you don't trust any of them!
 
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Linwood, I agree, although since photography is not my livelihood, I'm not completely over the top. I did wake up in a cold sweat one night, I don't know, a year and half or so ago, when it occurred to me that my SyncToy setup would replicate any deletions (intended or not) in the source on the target, as you rightly note. SyncToy does offer a mode where only adds and renames are replicated, deletes in the source are ignored. This gradually leads to creeping 'dis-synchronization' (erring on the side of caution), which I rectify periodically after a secondary backup, and sanity check.

You make a very valid point that many otherwise rock solid methods, could in fact be engraving a hidden mistake in stone.
 
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I use xcopy from Windows to copy my structures (drive P:), including the databse file, to an USB connected external disk (drive Q:).

xcopy /D /S /H /R /Y /C /EXCLUDE:exclude2.txt "P:\PictureMasterFiles\*.*" Q:\PictureMasterFiles\

All included in Windows and works fine. (Copy and update if not existing or older than the source)
 
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Backup4all www.backup4all.com allows programmed and scheduled backups to be automated, making sure that it is done regularly. It has a rich level of options and choice, making it a bit difficult to figure out at first, but once you've set it up you can forget about it. It works for me!

Patrick Cunningham
 
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When I was Windows based, I was using effective fware's XCOPY method but it was running as a scheduled task by using the AT command. For info, type AT ? at the command prompt.
 
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Agreed, all of my other stuff is backed up with scheduled XCOPY scripts, but as I said, the photos I do with SyncToy. No strong preference, just started with that, and works for me.
 
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