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?

Making a duplicate of one's drive is great if the hard drive only crashes, needs to be replaced, and then restored. However....what happens if your system is, say, if the computer that crashes is running Windows 7 and you replace it with a computer running Windows 10? Personally, I prefer to backup my files from the command prompt (or using control c and control v) and then re-load my software. The advantage I find in doing it this way is that I can access the files on the backup disk as easily as on the computer. If, for some reason, my computer's hard drive were to become totally full, I could actually store ALL of my photos on external disks and access them for use as need from there.....or store only selected, more used photos only, on the computer. I have tried doing a file backup in Acronis, but afterwards have not been able to access the individual files. I also find the Acronis manual to be terribly written. Perhaps it's a good program (and I know it's faster than Western Digital's old transfer program), and maybe computer techs can understand it....but for somebody who is computer literate, and can somewhat think like a computer thinks, but is not a techie, understanding Acronis is difficult. I think an interpreter translated the Japanese manual. Acronis needs an American Techie who understands how to communicate to re-write its manual. Mark....are you available????

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

Making a duplicate of one's drive is great if the hard drive only crashes, needs to be replaced, and then restored. However....what happens if your system is, say, if the computer that crashes is running Windows 7 and you replace it with a computer running Windows 10? Personally, I prefer to backup my files from the command prompt (or using control c and control v) and then re-load my software. The advantage I find in doing it this way is that I can access the files on the backup disk as easily as on the computer. If, for some reason, my computer's hard drive were to become totally full, I could actually store ALL of my photos on external disks and access them for use as need from there.....or store only selected, more used photos only, on the computer. I have tried doing a file backup in Acronis, but afterwards have not been able to access the individual files. I also find the Acronis manual to be terribly written. Perhaps it's a good program (and I know it's faster than Western Digital's old transfer program), and maybe computer techs can understand it....but for somebody who is computer literate, and can somewhat think like a computer thinks, but is not a techie, understanding Acronis is difficult. I think an interpreter translated the Japanese manual. Acronis needs an American Techie who understands how to communicate to re-write its manual. Mark....are you available????

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?