PSE 11 Backup - Am I Doing It Worng?

[Dem55]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this and it's probably a dim question. I've tried searching on TP but can't find anything that matches (tried you tube as well).

Since I bought PSE 11 last year, I've just carried on getting my photos onto the computer in the same way - memory card, copy to hard disk, then importing into Elements from the computer's hard drive. If I understand rightly, there's nothing wrong with this as Elements doesn't hold the actual image files, it's more of a filing system.

I create backup copies of my photos from the laptop to portable hard drive. I also back my PSE catalogue up to the hard drive. I noticed last night that the PSE catalog copy is taking up almost 50% of the used space on the portable drive - 110gb of 282gb used. Am I just duplicating all of the photos on the portable hard drive by copying my images then the PSE Catalog? If I copy just the catalog, would I be able to retrieve all the files if anything happened to my computer? Or do I need to backup bth the way I do now?

 

[velocette]

I may be wrong but as far as I'm aware that with a PSE backup you are also actually backing up the file also unlike say Lightroom where you're only backing up the database. I've certainly been working on this basis myself although I also progressively back up my files to DVD's for safety sake.

 

[Dem55]

Thanks Perter, so that explains the size of the files on the portable hard drive. I'll just bak up by PE from now on