Papa j Loc: Cary NC

I have LR CC and 40,000 photos. These are backed up on 3 external Seagates hard drives. I am relatively new at Cc and this back up process. In the past I simply exported all my photos as a catalog to each external drive, I have 2 in my home and 1 off site. My question is does the new export as a catalog over write the existing one or does it make a new one ? Can anyone suggest a better way to back up my photos. Thanks in advance to your on going assistance

Joe

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

From the way you framed your question, I believe you have the mis-impression that the LR catalog actually contains your images - which it does not. The catalog is the file that LR maintains to keep track of all the edits and metadata that you ascribe to each image - but the image (and raw) files themselves are external to it.

Using multiple external backup drives is a good method, generally speaking. You could back up the actual image files to those drives as well - this is what I do each week...basically, copy my entire set of image folders over to one of my backup drives. I rotate the drives (last week used "A", this week "B", next week "C", etc.) so that at worst I might lose a week's worth of newly added files and folders. One of those external drives is kept at my bank's safety deposit box, so if the house were to explode I at least have the majority of m images, etc. on a backup drive there.

Others prefer to back up to a cloud service, which is certainly a viable alternative as well. But the point is, it's important for you to realize the LR catalog is not a repository for the actual image files at all.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

f8lee gave an excellent response and I wanted to add one other point. The "backup" offered by LR when you exit backs up the catalog file only. It does not backup your images. I never use that function because of this limited scope.

Do some research about backups. Get a viable backup software title (I use, and recommend, SyncBackSE which is free) and let it perform your backups. Doing so lets you decide what files are collected for the backup. It just allows you to be more proactive in this very critical part of your photography.

I want to add this . . . . many backup software titles have functionality to save the backed up data in a proprietary file format, and creates a catalog of the files that got backed up. Should you ever need to restore any files, YOU MUST HAVE THAT CATALOG. Well, what if the drive that failed was the one containing that backup catalog? Answer . . . you're hosed.

SyncBack allows me to simply make a copy of the files on the backup drive. Should I ever need to restore something, it's as simple as copying the files from the backup drive. I need no software, nor backup catalog, to get back to where I was. This is a huge feature for me.

Good luck!!

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

There's an excellent article in this month's Popular Photography with different backup strategies for Photographers.

As everybody has already said, your LR backup only saves your catalog, not the underlying images. I strongly suggest you take advantage of one of the many Cloud services that allow you to back up your images into the Internet, AND get yourself some backup software like Acronis True Image that will allow periodic backup to one of your external USB drives.

Here is my setup:

Network Attached Storage drive with two RAID mirrored 2 Tb SATA drives made for NAS use. Backs up my Master Pictures folder daily when the system is idle.
Master Pictures resides in the C:\Dropbox folder, which automatically synchs realtime when it detects new files or updated files.

Foolproof? I certainly hope so.

Papa j Loc: Cary NC

I'm sorry perhaps I did not phrase my question correctly. I do back up my LR catalog once a week on exit.. I know this is not my photo back up . I used a tube video tutorial which instructed me to open LR in Library I selected the folder all my photos are in and righ clicked and selected export these photos as a catalog to my external drive I know they are on my external I checked get info and35,000 + items are there 2+ TB of space. My question is if I redo those steps will I create a 2nd backup or will it just update the existing backup

J

stillducky

Remember you exported, you didn't do a backup. Choose whatever folder you desire and point it to whatever location you want and it will export what you asked it to to where ever it asked you too.

I just tested myself and this is what I have been wanting to do, archive some photos to a slower external drive so thanks for the information.

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Joe, you mention you export your photos as a Catalog (that I don't know what you mean) if you mean a folder, then....Photos are not stored in LR's catalog as you know.
Regarding your catalogs, (assuming you store your catalog and photos on your computer drive/s) Just copy your catalog/s (all the external backup drives...allow them to over wright existing...after all, you do want the catalogs identical and up to date across the scope of external drives. No need to keep copies of older catalogs.
As far as photos...are you looking for quick and easy or safe and thorough?

I use pretty much the same BU method, (3 externals). First of all, None of my work, drawings, photos, catalogs etc. are stored on the computer drives, (programs only). Everything else goes to a 4TB external, (drive one, my working drive) which is then backed up/copied to another 4 TB external (drive two). A third (drive 3) is brought on site Saturday Mornings. My computers & Laptop are all Raid systems but backed up again automatically on yet another set of external drives via Acronis software. Not really necessary but I do it. When I back up my photos and cats, I simply drag and drop my catalogs to 2 of the other externals from drive one... over writing the existing catalogs on drives 2 & 3. My file structure for photos is by year, month, day and short description (2016_7_24_xxxx). On the weekend, I drag and drop newly created folders from drive 1 to the other 2 backup drives...when done, I return the 3rd drive back to my safety deposit box along with the computers 2nd external. BTW, I use two 500GB pocket sized external drives for travel. Those are then dumped onto #1,2,&3 when I return.
Is there easier ways, sure...External Raid setups such as a Drobo...but I was taught this system back when tape drives in the early 90's were used for backups. Daily incremental, weekly totals and offsite Totals. Just became habit, at times may be a bit laborious but it works and I'm sticking with it. I don't use the Cloud, don't trust it and eventually if not already will cost to retrieve your files on top of just using it...$$$$ per GB. One other thing, if you do follow what I do and find access to an external work drive (what I call it) to be slow, you can either invest in Solid State drives (which I have in my laptop) or, create a TEMP folder on your computer, work from there, then at a scheduled time, distribute the temp folder contents to where the stuff belongs... on the external drives.
I hope I didn't confuse things...

ALN Loc: San Diego, CA

Lots of sophisticated BU processes noted here. I simply use Win 10 backup feature (backing up to my external drive), and since I trust the cloud, sync my files to Google Photos. Except for trusting the cloud, am I at risk with this process?

stillducky

He is absolutely right. Try it! I did. Export folder as catalog --- Lightroom creates a new folder that you designate and adds sub folders INCLUDING the actual photos and a a new catalog for it.

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Unfortunately there is always risk when it comes to electronics...faulty equipment, surges, carelessness, misfortunes, mother nature, is my way better than yours...not necessarily, the so called "Cloud" it's just a bunch of computers all susceptible to failure. In my eyes, I suppose it depends on what you stand to lose should something go wrong. My wife says I'm paranoid when it comes to my work, backups and security. Am I 100% protected, absolutely not. Do I feel secure... yes. An once of prevention is worth a ton of sorrow for sure.
I have set up backup systems for many that didn't have any in place, unfortunately when it was to late, they paid for it and I don't mean in cost for my services, mostly lost data and or down time when they could be doing business something a bit more enjoyable. Usually cause they didn't take the time to set up some sort of backup...not doing anything is a tough learning curve. It's not if something can fail, more like when will it. Could be as simple as creating a restore point or just a systems backup, an initial snap shot of a new computer OS when first turned on. Which I think is one of the most important and the one most over looked, they to often think, ahh! new computer, what can go wrong, what's to back up? Anything is better than nothing.

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Very Cool! never did it that way...I'll still stick to my way. But good to know. Thanks...

Papa j Loc: Cary NC

Thanks f8lee

Papa j Loc: Cary NC

Thanks Bruce

Papa j Loc: Cary NC

Thanks for the reply

Papa j Loc: Cary NC

Thanks ducky