Lightroom 2, SuperDuper and Time Machine

[NStocks]

Hi,

I'm coming obsessive about finding the best way to backup by entire Photo library and lightroom catalog.

I've searched through google and watched lightroom tutorials about this, but most of the thread/resources are made from lightroom 1.x, not 2.0 which is what I'm using. ( and the setting may have changed)

I'm not sure about exactly what backing up the LR catalog does. Does it only back up the catalog ( where all the edits are made) or would it back up my Full versions of Photo's too, so that all I have to do in order to backup all my photo's ( RAW ) and edits, I just enable the setting in LR to automatically backup when LR starts. Would this also backup the history of my Photo's or the original copy ?

I have also heard from Photographer who use a Mac use SuperDuper as it creates a disk image from which you can boot from, should the HD fail... this sounds great but I like Time machine, but I understand that time machine doesn't create a disk image, more like a archive...

Lastly, does Time Machine backup my LR catalog, or would it just backup the Photo's within LR ?

Sounds a little confusing I know, but at the minute I find myself copying and pasting folders and folder so that I have another copy of them ( before going into LR ) so that I know they have not been touched at all my and other programs.

I would really appreciate your comments on this, and your experiences with the LR 2.0 backup option.

NStocks

 

[NStocks]

47 views... anyone .

Please

 

[dimme]

Time machine will backup what ever you tell it to. The same with super duper. I use time machine at home and superduper at work. They both fill a different need. I can't say one is better that the other. As far as you lightroom catalog goes, I my case the lightroom catalog only holds my edits and how my photos are organized. The raw photos are in a different location so both need to back up.

 

[NStocks]

Time machine will backup what ever you tell it to. The same with super duper. I use time machine at home and superduper at work. They both fill a different need. I can't say one is better that the other. As far as you lightroom catalog goes, I my case the lightroom catalog only holds my edits and how my photos are organized. The raw photos are in a different location so both need to back up.

I see. So I could just stick with Time Machine to automatically backup my Photo's and LR to backup my catalog to the external HD.

Thank You

NStocks

 

[ChrisA]

There is a general rule that applies to keeping computer data. You can use any method you like as long as these rules are followed

1. The data should always exist on at least three different physical media
2. The data should always exist in at least two different geographical locations

Some implications of the above are that if your backup system overwrites a backup copy to make a new backup copy then during the backup operation one of your backup copies is "dead". Therefore you will need to maintain four copies so that rule #1 is not violated. Same for rotation to an off site location: Be sure and bring the new copy to the off site BEFORE bringing the old copy home. Notice the "always" in both the above two rules.

Rules #2 covers the most common cause of loss of data: Theft of equipment and also fire and flood.

Once you have the above, all the rest are "just details". Use Time machine or whatever you like. That said. Time Machine has some real advantages and can and should be one of your backup copies. It's biggest advantage is that is happens every hour and you don't have to think about it. It's 100% automatic and it gets "everything". To make your other backup copies the best thing do do would be to use "super Duper" to periodically clone your Time Machine disk. and then rotate the clone to an off-site location.

One important detail is that you should prefer incremental backups to a simple "disk clone" backup. The reason is that incremental, like Time machine, or others do not over-write old data with new data. One common way to loose data is a corrupted file. If a file is messed up the only way to recover it is to get an older copy. You really need thse older copies. Having 50 "clones" of a corrupted file is no help at all.

Hard drives ar cheap now. This morning I say a 1TB USB external drive for $109. Buy a new backup drive every year and retire you oldest and smallest drive. This way you will always be using at worst 5 year old drives. I always replace my smallest backup drive with the biggest one on the market. Every year my $150 gets me a larger drive.

 

[Mr.Noisy]

I find a drobo + 2x1tb drives in a mirrored raid is good for storing my images, end of each year i copy the whole 12 months worth of RAW files onto dvd's and file away, then there are the jpegs that are hosted online, I like to keep it simple

Time machine has it's own hard drive for back ups.

HP sell a nice file vault, Ive got my eye on one as another storage system