Thought I would give a follow up since purchasing the Macgurus removable 2-drive Burly system...
First, everything said about Macgurus great service is true. I asked them a number of questions and responses usually came within an hour or two. They really raised my comfort level with the purchase. The box arrived with drives mounted and set up was nothing more then plugging it in. It is very quiet – and fast. I see no performance deficiencies from moving my photos to an external. I'm using Synchronize! X Plus by Qdea as my backup software (also a Macgurus recommendation) and this is also a great product. I figure I'm good for a couple of years, unless business explodes — and that would be a good thing. Thanks to everyone here for their great advice.

Dan

I have made the move successfully and used the method I described above. A couple of notes -
1. LR only allowed me to move one folder at a time. This made for a slower process but probably a safer one.
2. LR does not copy, it moves and deletes the original files and it does this on the fly. You can actually watch the file number decrease on the original folder. It then moves that folder to the trash, empty of all it's files. Needless to say, a quality backup of the original files prior to making this move is of the utmost importance.

The advantage of this move is that LR keeps track of everything and nothing else needs to be done. You can just go on with business as usual.

Dan

I did a test and it was actually moved (technically copied and the original deleted)... which can be a scary thing. So I'm doing a complete back up first and then will move the files a few at a time. I don't expect any problems but will report back with the results.

Dan

I have a very simple folder structure based on the DAM method. I have a Master folder holding buckets holding shoots. Master > bucket > shoot. (There is also a Derivatives Master with the same structure but lets forget that for now) After reading everyone's messages and looking at Mark's link it looks pretty simple. I can just create a new folder - through LR - on the new JBOD external, lets call it "JBOD LR Folder" for now, and then just drag my Master folder into it via the LR Library Module. This will copy all the files onto the JBOD but I assume will keep the Catalog and Previews on the existing drive. Sounds straight forward to me unless I'm missing something.

Dan

Well, maybe I'm not thinking about this correctly...
There appears to be three main sections/folders to Lightroom... Previews, Catalog, and Photos. By Catalog in my first message, I really meant Photos - the actual photos themselves. This is obviously the largest folder and what I really need to move to the external. So the real question is, what's the best way to do this and maximize the speed of LR? Can I just move the photos onto the external and keep the Catalog and Previews on the computer? Or does the Catalog have to be with the photos?

Dan

I'm planning on moving my Lightroom catalog to an external drive (JBOD with backup) but would like to keep the previews on the existing computer drive for speed reasons. I will then delete the original catalog files on the computer drive. Can someone walk me through this step by step or point me where to find this information?

Thanks.
Dan

I emailed Macgurus and asked them why I should spend approximately 50% more for their system. The fact that they quickly responded with a lengthy reply is impressive in it's own right. The response is too long to post but needless to say they convinced me. The bottom line is that quality products demand quality prices and I have been penny wise and pound foolish enough times in the past to know that in the long run it won't pay to go cheap. It's also comforting to know they will truly stand behind their product. Now, just have to find the money...

Dan

Just did a little more research and found this...
"According to an Information Week article on Feb 27, EMC has announced new pricing for it’s online backup service Mozy Pro. Under the new pricing a SOHO customer with 1 server and 10GB of data will increase from $8.95/mo to $24.95/mo. A 100GB customer will pay $224.50/mo, up from $89.50."

Not such a bargain after all...

Has anyone tried Mozy? (mozy.com) This is a great price but I have two problems with it. First, the $4.95 is for MozyHome and if you are a business, even a home based business, you must use MozyPro - which they don't tell you how much it is unless you go through their registration process. (I haven't done this so I don't know how much it is) My second problem is they don't support Mac in the Pro version, just the Home version. (It can be so frustrating being a Mac user sometimes) But I would like to know more about the service if anyone is using it.

Dan

Does anyone have experience with this cooldrives box-
http://www.cooldrives.com/2usb20andfi8.html

AT $180 it's $70 less than a similar one at Macgurus and I don't know enough about these to tell if there is a valid technical reason for the price difference.

Dan

No thoughts?

Dan

I have maxed out the memory of my 250gb internal hard drive on my iMac. I also have been using a 500 gb external drive as a backup. What I intend to do now is to add a 2-drive JBOD box with a couple of 750 gb drives. (using the philosophy of just buying what you need for storage now, I figure this will be good for the next year or two.) I plan on moving my Lightroom catalog off the internal HD onto one of the JBODs and use the second drive as a duplicate backup. The JBOD box will be strictly for image files, I'll keep the 500 gb external for general system backup and Time Machine. After looking at MacGurus, I'm leaning towards their Hotswap Firewire enclosure which costs just a little more than their fixed box - but will allow me to quickly pull out the backup disk and move it to an offsite location when I'm away for any length of time. Before I pull the trigger on this, I just thought I would run it by this forum to see it all makes sense or if I should be looking at something else. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Dan

Thanks Peter,
Do you find you have enough space on the internal drive(s) to be your primary backup? I'm going to be running out of space soon on my internal and will probably have to go to an external as primary. I saw your post on APAdigital...
"I recently bought this unit:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW924AL2K/
and I think it's a great multi-purpose drive box.  I configure it as 
a JBOD."
Is this strictly for backup?

Are you using LR full time? If so, what is your procedure for archiving within LR?

Dan

My current Lightroom process concerning backups is as follows;
• Import RAW files to LR, backup to external HD (hard drive) during import. Copy HD backup to DVD and eventually erase HD files.
• Use LR backup daily
• Image files are placed in LR buckets
• Buckets are burned to DVD

This gives me the originals at time of ingestion on DVD, LR files on DVD, and the LR files on HD. I do not have a permanent external HD copy of files. Does this backup system cover me or should I get another backup to an external HD into the mix?

As Mac users may know, the new operating system Leopard has a built in backup called Time Machine. This is an automatic backup that keeps the entire Mac HD backed up. I have not used this yet as I've heard some grumblings about problems. Does anyone have any experience with TM? Does anyone use some other automated backup system?

Thanks in advance,
Dan

I've been working with my workflow as described below in "DAM - the Lightroom way-revised 1.2" and have no problems setting up the bucket system. In fact, it's very easy to work with. As soon as a bucket holds enough for a backup, I go into the hard drive, locate the folder, back it up to a DVD, and color code it as backed up. (It would be nice if the color coding showed up in LR but it really isn't necessary) At the import stage, I name my import folder and place it in the most current bucket folder. If after importing it looks like there are too many files in the bucket, I just create a new bucket folder and drag the latest import into the new bucket.

It's in the area of derivities that I find LR to be a bit awkward and I'm looking forward to seeing Peter's way of doing things.

(If there is a way to place images in a message I would show a snapshow of my LR folders)

Dan