copies of back up files

[chris shain]

I regularly backup my LR file - and copy that across several other devices from time to time. (dvd's off site + ext hard drives)  I also do this with other important data like my business accounts file etc. 

what is the DAM recommendation on this - Is there any reason at all to keep the older backups on a working drive - or just the most recent ? or maybe the last 2 ??

Chris   

[peterkrogh]

Chris,
Like the iView catalog, there are a number of strategies here.

• At minimum,keep at least two (preferebaly three) copies on separate media (different hard drives or DVD).

• Burning a copy to write-once media like DVD every month or so lets you rollback to a previous version even in the event of total corruption or other loss of the primary and slaved backup copies.

• For further protection for the paranoid, you could also make daily backups of the LR/iView/Expresion catalogs on a rotating schedule for each day of the week.  So you could have a Monday backup that runs each Monday and backs the catalog up to a dedicated Monday folder each Monday.  This would help protect against a catalog that got corrupted yesterday, letting you roll back to the day before.  Not totally foolproof, but an extra layer of protection.

I do most of my critical work in iView, and have found only a handful of times over 5 years where I had a real problem with a catalog.  So, while I used to have the day-of-the-week backup implemented, I have it switched off for the last several months. Once I get some more backup HD space, I may switch it back on.  For the Lightroom user, it might make more sense, particularly at version upgrade time, but LR makes even bigger catalogs, so you might need a totally dedicated drive for the process.

Peter