Drb68 Loc: Utah

I have over 30,000 pics in iphoto on my iMac. I have Time Machine connected and subscribe to Carbonite.....and am still paranoid about the possibility of losing pics in a crash. Suggestions to safeguard my files would be most welcome...thank you...drb68

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

There is a utility called SuperDuper that can make a bootable backup of your main drive to an external disk - the most prudent backup approach is to rotate at least a couple of external hard drives. So you could run SuperDuper to drive "A", then a week later use drive "B", and the following week go back to "A", etc. Even better is if you remove the backup drive to an external location (bank vault, office, mother-in-law's house, whatever) so if you house collapses there is still a copy of relatively recent stuff.

johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio

Simply, have another backup. I do. I have the IMac drive, which is 1TB. I have a 3TB Time Machine Drive, which as you know keeps files back up for years even if you delete one from your Imac drive, it will be on the Time Machine Drive, and I also have a 500gb external drive, portable, which I use to back up only photos, and holds all mine, 30-40000 as well. Recently I bought a 256 GB SD and it too can easily handle all my photos, but to date have not.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Sounds like you have your bases covered. Two backups is a good plan as long as one is offsite (Carbonite), it's fine if the other one is on-site like a Time Machine.

The thing most people miss with backups is to test them. Put together a test plan, try to recover large amounts of files from Carbonite. I'd not involve any drives you are currently backing up, but I'd try to restore to a separate drive. Even if you don't physically test it, you need to know the steps to take in case an emergency. What happens if your computer crashes and you get a new one, the drive is named differently. After a restore do you know how to re-point your catalog to the new location. The steps you need will be different depending on the type of restore you do. Could be a very simple plan :
New MAC Arrived today
Drink alcohol
Re-Install PS CC
Re-Install LR
Call Adobe - deactivate license on crashed computer
System Restore from Time Machine
Drink more alcohol
Time Machine restore failed go to Carbonite restore
Drink even more alcohol while waiting for download.

If you try to do this when you need to while under duress, well you see posts here everyday about someone who panicked and lost their data, or screwed up a catalog, or something.

sbesaw Loc: Boston

I have exactly the same set up, iMac, Time Machine and Carbonite. I also added 2-2TB GDrives. http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive-professional-external-hard-drive The list is$199.95 but Best Buy and others will often have them at $179.95. I use Data Backup http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_backup.php
and have a back up to one drive that is a full clone of my system and on the other drive i just backup photo's and files with a backup mode where it synchronizes the files

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Super duper is a great app. Use it inconjunction with a Black X from Thermaltake http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/storage.aspx and you have unlimited backup capability with either laptop or desktop form factor drives. That means than right now you could drop a 4 TB drive into this and fly.

Also, the drives are easily removable, just eject like any other USB, eSATA, Firewire connected device before removing. If really paranoid, make bootable back up of your drive and place the copy with a trusted friend or a safety deposit box.

INshooter Loc: Indiana

I let Time Machine back up the entire computer to 2 separate external hard drives. But since my photos are on their own external hard drive I use software called "GoodSync" (free, downloadable) to copy all those photos to each of those backup hard drives. Since both backup drives are here at home I have a 500GB drive I have copied all photos to in my bank safety deposit box. I have to periodically update that one. The lightroom database is also backed up the same way.
:) :)

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Let me add that to archive images I reformat the drive and copy all the files, usually one year's worth on each removable HD, again. Although time consuming and probably unnecessary, I have never lost an image due to a HD failure.

Do what you need to do. Only you know how valuable your images are to you. Save only the best or all!

rleonetti Loc: Portland, Oregon

Even with the backup drives, photos stored with Aperature are not viewable without Aperature. Do you "export" the photos as jpeg's so you can see them or is there away to preserve the editing you have done and un-done years later when the storage format Aperature uses is changed? "What" are you backing up?

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

I've never used Aperture, but I think it reads RAW files so no need to convert to JPEG. I think what you meant to say is you may not see your edits and keywords if you move to another platform. But I believe LR is working on a plugin to import your Aperture library, if it's not already out.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Actually, I use Aperture (there's no second 'a') in "referenced file" mode - that is, when I import images into Aperture the original RAW and JPEG files are located in directories on an external drive (which I back up separately from the main iMac), so the Aperture Library contains all the add-on data (edits, etc.) but the original files are standalone. I also use Aperture (or sometimes another utility) to rename the image files from the default DSC_nnnn that comes out of the camera to something human-readable, such as 2014-01-01_NYEParty-nn or whatever - this way I can peruse my external drives and fine image files without having to even open Aperture if I so wish.

rleonetti Loc: Portland, Oregon

Sounds clever--I like it.

When I go to print photos, can I still use Aperture to "export" the corrected and cropped files to my print programs?

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Of course - the "referenced" file approach just has Aperture put a pointer in the program which points it (duh) to the external folder that contains the file. If I end up moving the image files to a different directory or the I use the function to relocate the pointers using File --> Locate Referenced Files function.