Lightroom back up

Nostromo

Nostromo

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Dominic
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So up until now I've not had an external hard drive to back up to (i know I should have done).
I know how to back up my catalogue, it's quite easy.
What I also want to do is backup my lightroom imports (the raw files, I know the files themselves are not in lightroom), but i think that the way I put my photos into folders (in lightroom) isn't how most do it. I rarely use dates, because they don't really mean a lot to me. So I use folders with names, eg flowers, horses etc. In these folders there may be sub folders, also with names or dates (God this starting to sound complicated). So if I've been out taking photos of flowers, they just get imported into the flowers folder. So really my question is, if I back up my flowers folder after adding to it, will it back up the whole folder again (I'm guessing it will)?

I hope this makes sense, even if my filing system doesn't.
I do use keywords sometimes, but I'm not very good at remembering to do so, which is another reason I don't use dates, my photos are just a hobby, so again I rarely need to search for anything by date.
 
Nostromo said:
So really my question is, if I back up my flowers folder after adding to it, will it back up the whole folder again (I'm guessing it will)?
Click to expand...

It will depend on your backup software. Lightroom doesn't backup the photos. It just backs up the catalogue.

Some software backs up when you click it. Some on a schedule, and some (like mine) on file change which is what you are talking about above (folder contents change, backup sees it and then backs up)

Often - backup software offers the first 2 for free, then you pay a premium for the latter. I use GoodSync (paid once) which does everything I want it to. Backs up my cat, my pictures, my music, movies, settings... Some (important stuff) onfilechange, some (less important) on a schedule. There's lots of backup software out there. Do your research and see what people say here.
 
Nostromo said:
So up until now I've not had an external hard drive to back up to (i know I should have done).
I know how to back up my catalogue, it's quite easy.
What I also want to do is backup my lightroom imports (the raw files, I know the files themselves are not in lightroom), but i think that the way I put my photos into folders (in lightroom) isn't how most do it. I rarely use dates, because they don't really mean a lot to me. So I use folders with names, eg flowers, horses etc. In these folders there may be sub folders, also with names or dates (God this starting to sound complicated). So if I've been out taking photos of flowers, they just get imported into the flowers folder. So really my question is, if I back up my flowers folder after adding to it, will it back up the whole folder again (I'm guessing it will)?

I hope this makes sense, even if my filing system doesn't.
I do use keywords sometimes, but I'm not very good at remembering to do so, which is another reason I don't use dates, my photos are just a hobby, so again I rarely need to search for anything by date.
Click to expand...
Mac or PC user? If Mac, have a look at carbon copy cloner as it’s great automated backup software. I wrote about my backup system for my website:

https://spark.adobe.com/page/Os6kX8G8QcZoA/
 
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Have a look at Acronis https://www.acronis.com/en-gb
Its £35 for a one off purchase.
I back my LR catalogue up to a memory stick every time LR closes and then back the whole PC ( all the discs and mem sticks )up to an external HDD
 
Nostromo said:
So up until now I've not had an external hard drive to back up to (i know I should have done).
I know how to back up my catalogue, it's quite easy.
What I also want to do is backup my lightroom imports (the raw files, I know the files themselves are not in lightroom), but i think that the way I put my photos into folders (in lightroom) isn't how most do it. I rarely use dates, because they don't really mean a lot to me. So I use folders with names, eg flowers, horses etc. In these folders there may be sub folders, also with names or dates (God this starting to sound complicated). So if I've been out taking photos of flowers, they just get imported into the flowers folder. So really my question is, if I back up my flowers folder after adding to it, will it back up the whole folder again (I'm guessing it will)?

I hope this makes sense, even if my filing system doesn't.
I do use keywords sometimes, but I'm not very good at remembering to do so, which is another reason I don't use dates, my photos are just a hobby, so again I rarely need to search for anything by date.
Click to expand...
As you can see, there's a myriad of software solutions to handle backs. I too organise my files the way you have; in a way it makes it easier to back up (as long as you have a parent folder). You simply back up the whole parent folder and sub-folders once and then subsequent runs of any half-way decent software will simply do an incremental backup - that is, any file which has changed since the last backup.
 
If you are on Windows it comes with built in backup software. Turn on file history with the backup drive plugged in and you are sorted.
 
zendog said:
If you are on Windows it comes with built in backup software. Turn on file history with the backup drive plugged in and you are sorted.
Click to expand...
And with Mac, it's Time Machine. But I prefer to use two distinct pieces of software - just in case!
 
I’m on PC and use Beyond Compare for all my backups. Super little program.
 
Thanks to everyone who have given great advice and recommendations, I've now got some software to backup my computer (files) and I've set up a backup schedule.
Once again this forum has come to my rescue :)
 
For people on Windows, SyncToy2.1 is available free from Microsoft and can do incremental backups or other options. Neither need the backups be encrypted, ie the files that they back up can be read in any program. It's simple but capable. That's what I use with external hdd's.

A friend with W10 has just told me that uses SyncToy as well.
 
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