Cloning an external hard drive: I'm trying to now store all of my original RAW photos and edits on an external hard drive and then clone that drive to another identical external hard...

jday3

I'm trying to now store all of my original RAW photos and edits on an external hard drive and then clone that drive to another identical external hard drive. The cloning software program I'm using for my PC is called Acronis.

Would it be easier and just as good to just copy any new photos manually to the cloned back up external hard drive rather than using cloning software? My only complaint is that the cloning software stores the photos in a folder, which is in another folder, which is in turn in another folder. Seems a little cumbersome to me.

Also what's the best way to make a copy of your Lightroom catalog to an external HD?

Davethompson

For any Lightroom experienced people I also have a question. Is it possible to place two external hard drives and if so, will they update if one is removed and then reattached in a week or two?

BJW

About a week or two ago I had asked a similar question and a wonderful discussion with many helpful comments was generated. I urge you to go back in the archives just about a week or two to retrieve and review it.

MMC Loc: Brooklyn NY

IMHO it will be better to give this link to your topic http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-432650-1.html

BJW wrote:

About a week or two ago I had asked a similar question and a wonderful discussion with many helpful comments was generated. I urge you to go back in the archives just about a week or two to retrieve and review it.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Hi,

I've used Acronis for many years. Why not do a continuous scheduled backup (or scheduled at your convenience) of the first external to the 2nd. It will back up every change as you continue to add files to the first external. I don't do that, but I do backup all my internal drives to externals and the Cloud.
Mark

jday3 wrote:

I'm trying to now store all of my original RAW pho... (show quote)

Jbat Loc: Charleston, SC

If you use Macs, you can get Carbon Copy Cloner which will do exactly what you want.

BJW

MMC:
Thanks for the link. I'm still relatively new here and still learning to navigate UHH. Much appreciate it.
BJW (also from Bklyn)

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

jday3 wrote:

I'm trying to now store all of my original RAW pho... (show quote)

If you manually copy a drive, you will have a one moment in time copy. But without any cloning SW, that copy will remain frozen in time and totally dependent upon you doing another manual copy sometime later. Problem is, that sometime later seems to never come, or if it does, how do you synchronise what you have now, and what is on the backup? Or do you delete the backup, and copy the whole thing again? Good luck!

MMC Loc: Brooklyn NY

You are welcome.

BJW wrote:

MMC:
Thanks for the link. I'm still relatively new here and still learning to navigate UHH. Much appreciate it.
BJW (also from Bklyn)

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I'm happy that Mark was able to figure Acronis out. I never was able to, and didn't trust how it stored my files. I found it easier to make manual copies of my files from the Windows command prompt. I'm not sure if you could copy your files to both drives at the same time, but it's worth checking out.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Hi Steve,

The newer versions of Acronis are friendlier than former ones. I totally trust Acronis' backups and recovery methods. I've used them frequently and have recovered entire discs and folders when needed. Not sure which version you use. I'm using Acronis True Image 2017. My friends use 2015, also friendly. I'm not suggesting it is the "only way" to backup, it just happens to work well for me. Copying files also works. I just tried copying and pasting a file to two external drives. I was not able to successfully paste to either unless I pasted individually to each. Maybe you see a way?
Mark

SteveR wrote:

I'm happy that Mark was able to figure Acronis out. I never was able to, and didn't trust how it stored my files. I found it easier to make manual copies of my files from the Windows command prompt. I'm not sure if you could copy your files to both drives at the same time, but it's worth checking out.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Acronis produces an image of the drive, it does not do a direct copy.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

As long as one has a secure and recoverable backup, does it matter?
Mark

rgrenaderphoto wrote:

Acronis produces an image of the drive, it does not do a direct copy.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

jday3 wrote:

I'm trying to now store all of my original RAW pho... (show quote)

You don't need to clone. Just copy the entire drive to the other - Ctlr-A to highlight the entire contents, Ctrl-C to copy, then go to the new empty drive and Ctrl V to paste.

Acronis is excellent software at cloning system drives with software and the OS on it - something you can't do with copy-paste.

Once you have the contents of the drive copied over, then you can do an incremental "sync" between the two drives using the software of your choice.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Gene51 wrote:

You don't need to clone. Just copy the entire drive to the other - Ctlr-A to highlight the entire contents, Ctrl-C to copy, then go to the new empty drive and Ctrl V to paste.

Acronis is excellent software at cloning system drives with software and the OS on it - something you can't do with copy-paste.

Once you have the contents of the drive copied over, then you can do an incremental "sync" between the two drives using the software of your choice.

Gene....I suppose you could do the same with copying the files from your computer to the original backup drive. I can't remember if there is something in Windows that would do an incremental sync. I need to get a Windows 10 book.