TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Why not just backup the raw files to a different drive which gives you the second backup of all the information and saves a ton of disk space?

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

I have 2 mirrored hard drives on my desktop and use Backblaze for cloud storage.

tcthome Loc: NJ

I have been burned by this once. When I import my images into LR , I have a second copy(via a LR option) go to a folder called originals on a external drive. Every once in a while I will open Windows 10 File Explorer twice. (in 2 seperate windows). The second window I open my external drive/photos folder. Highlight my pictures library or down one step to photos in the first window/C-drive & copy/paste them the external drive folder.
I end up with a copy of my original unedited photos & a copy of everything from LR including the sidecar/edited files.
Hope this helps.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

I NEVER drag anything. Dragging can get one in big trouble. Instead copy your photo directory to and external drive. Super easy.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

One can accidentally drag a folder to another directory, done it....
One must be really careful with drag-n-drop.

bweber Loc: Newton, MA

I use Backblaze for cloud backup, but a much simpler solution is to use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner to automatically back up everything, including your raw files, to an external hard drive. I schedule CCC to back up to an external hard drive daily. It backs up in the back ground, only backs up changes and does to interfere with anything else I am doing on my computer. In addition, I you are on a Mac, you can use Time machine to back up everything to anther hard drive. I use all three systems as I may be more careful than necessary.

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

I choose to use 2TB SSD hard drives, back up everything on both (images SOOC plus edits), and replace them every two years. At that time, I print a WORD file of each category and class (folder) of photos on the drives to be stored, one at home and one in a climate controlled safe deposit box. The printed Word file allows me to quickly find any photo I may be looking for. If there should be some disaster at home causing loss of files, the externally stored drives will be available.
I also separately place a few photos regularly into a cloud box that I keep available to family and friends that may wish to see or even copy them.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have a folder called "My Pictures," and inside that are many folders with different categories of pictures. The My Pictures folder gets backed up regularly to several hard drives.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Don't let me tell how to do your thing, but here's how you should do your thing:

SSD drives work, but are more expensive than spinners. If an SSD fails, the data are gone. If a spinner fails, there's a chance that data can be recovered (not guaranteed -- depends on the failure mode). Sounds to me as if a spinner is safer.

A climate controlled safe deposit box sounds good until the power fails. Then it's not climate controlled. If the power fails because of a regional disaster (e.g. your town burns down like Paradise, CA) it will probably get the safe deposit box too. For that reason cloud storage is safer. It's distributed across the country, if not across continents so it's not likely to be affected by a regional disaster. The media are managed by professionals. Of course cloud restoration is slower, but that's why it's considered secondary protection. It's there when your local backups all fail.

You said you back up everything. Your word file should include a list of everything that's in your backup, not just your photos. (It's possible that you do that and just didn't word it so I understood that).

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I copy my photos from my SD card to an external drive into a folder with name (yyyy mm text descriptor), then copy that folder to my HD. You’re right that LR does not contain your actual photos, just tags in its database to where the photos are plus a record of all the edits you made.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I don't worry about climate control for storing drives. There is none in the computer.
Spinners don't "breath" a lot either, especially when the ambient temp is fairly stable (save any change in atmospheric pressure due to pressure system changes.).

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Whenever I import files from camera cards, I make a copy to a second location used for long term storage at the same time. One operation, backup done! I use an external (TB4) SSD system for working files and a NAS system for backups. Works well for me and is blazing fast. Best of luck.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

You are right, but temperature/humidity changes can cause moisture to condense on the platter (there is a “breather” hole in the drive) which can cause crashes. When we moved storage systems, we rent air conditioned temperature controlled trucks. For that reason, I’d be cautious about moving HDs (same as cameras) from cool, low humidity air conditioned rooms outside in the summer (especially if you live in the high humidity south )

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yes, there is a breath hole.
Just imagine how much a drive breaths when the room is ≈68° and one turns the computer on and the drive warms up to operating temperature. Air is expelled from the drive due to the heated air in the drive expanding. When the computer is shut off (like overnight) the "warm" drive cools down and sucks ambient air back into it. This exchange of air happens every time the drive is turned on and off.
(I never looked at the breath hole in a drive, but I would hope the manufacturers place a filter over it to keep dust out.)
In Winter, our house goes down to about 62° overnight, an even larger temperature differential.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

To save your pictures, I would suggest you save them on at least 2 separate places (a failure will not be a total loss of all your works).
You should decide how to put them in a system to refined them. By date, location or subject.
I have 2 separate hard drives, one is by date of pictures taken and the other is subject or location.
I have them in folders and just drag them into the folders.
I am explaining my way, you will get others giving you how to do it.