Restrategizing my backup plan - LR, what's the point of importing a backup?

[rawdawg]

Now that I have a new drive I'm restrategizing my entire backup plan. For starters, I see many people choose to have lightroom copy a backup of each photo to a separate drive as they import. I don't understand the point of doing this. I wouldn't argue but seeing these people probably also use time machine or another backup for their system that would mean they have 4 copies.

I heard one argument to create a backup when you import is so you have a working copy and an untouched original. But isn't the job of lightroom that changes are stored in the sidecar file as layers and the original is never altered (even when you export you just create a new file, not alter the original). I'm confused. Photoshop, okay, maybe if you forget to "save as", but not in lightroom.

And then does everyone backup all of this? What are your backup strategies? Time machine is difficult for me because I have 3 disks. My 500Gb system on my MBP which obviously isn't my backup disk. A 2tb RAID0 which is my main scratch disk with the fastest interface and also RAID0 so it can't be my backup disk. And a 1tb FW400 which would be perfect for backup but it's too small to backup the whole system.

I just bought another. A 2TB HDD on a eSATA dock to dedicate backing up my 2TB RAID0, I can then use the 1tb on just the system. But I'm already having problems with the new dock.

Do you think my new system is the best method though? Thanks for listening!

 

[rawdawg]

I also just found this on the internet regarding backing up during import:
This backup causes confusion to many photographers. They assume that they have a full backup of the imported files, but in fact this backup only provides a backup of the exact structure of the files on the memory card with their original camera-generated names. So
if you rename in the import dialog box, apply a metadata preset, or any develop preset or keywords, none of this will be available in the backup. This is really just a temporary insurance plan, should something go wrong with the import
It's from the Photoshop Lightroom workbook here. Doesn't this hint that this isn't really necessary expect temporarily in case there's a problem importing? In which case I should recognize right away and reimport.

So this folder would be safe to empty and trash every so often correct?

How many people use this feature?

 

[bocomo]

i don't backup on import. i wait until i do my immediate edits and rename, then backup. i convert raw files to dng on import and the copies that are made during import do not get converted to dng ( i can only guess it's to save time).
i have a mac pro with two 1TB drives for mirrored storage, another drive (10k raptor) is for scratch space and lastly my system drive. to this, i have an external drive for time machine and monthly or so, i copy to another external HD that i keep off site. that's my strategy.

i have to ask, why 2TB for scratch? a bit overkill, right?

(the only way i would bother backing up on import was if i was in the field and had an external drive to send the backups to)

 

[rawdawg]

i don't backup on import. i wait until i do my immediate edits and rename, then backup. i convert raw files to dng on import and the copies that are made during import do not get converted to dng ( i can only guess it's to save time).
i have a mac pro with two 1TB drives for mirrored storage, another drive (10k raptor) is for scratch space and lastly my system drive. to this, i have an external drive for time machine and monthly or so, i copy to another external HD that i keep off site. that's my strategy.

i have to ask, why 2TB for scratch? a bit overkill, right?

(the only way i would bother backing up on import was if i was in the field and had an external drive to send the backups to)

Thanks for sharing your method, bocomo.
I learned the backup that LR creates is an identical copy of what is on the memory card, so no, it wouldn't convert them to DNGs.

About scratch space.... I think I'm a little confused about this. I thought when selecting a scratch disk you simply choose a HDD that's not your system and that HDD could still be used for media. I choose my 2TB because it's the largest. It seems nowadays different programs are using different terms like cache disk (AE). I may be misunderstanding the idea so please enlighten me if I'm wrong. This is something I've wanted to post about. I thought scratch space was similar to virtual memory in a way but the only restriction I knew was it shouldn't be on the system drive. How off am I?

 

[bocomo]

Thanks for sharing your method, bocomo.
I learned the backup that LR creates is an identical copy of what is on the memory card, so no, it wouldn't convert them to DNGs.

About scratch space.... I think I'm a little confused about this. I thought when selecting a scratch disk you simply choose a HDD that's not your system and that HDD could still be used for media. I choose my 2TB because it's the largest. It seems nowadays different programs are using different terms like cache disk (AE). I may be misunderstanding the idea so please enlighten me if I'm wrong. This is something I've wanted to post about. I thought scratch space was similar to virtual memory in a way but the only restriction I knew was it shouldn't be on the system drive. How off am I?

i was just thinking that 2TB would be better for backup and a smaller drive/drives for scratch disk. i'm primarily a photoshop user, so maybe some video folks could weigh in about the size they need. my scratch disk usage has peaked at around 40GB or so (which is a LOT for still images)

you are correct about having a separate disk for scratch space

 

[rawdawg]

i was just thinking that 2TB would be better for backup and a smaller drive/drives for scratch disk.

Yeah, this has been a problem for me when it comes to backup. I go the 2TB RAID 0 because it wasn't much more than the smaller ones (room to grow). And I want to use it as my scratch/media disk because it's the fastest. But it's also the largest. And since you can't buy a larger single HDD right now I can't back it up along with my other drives to another larger drive.

When a 3TB or 4TB drive comes out then I'll be able to have a dedicated backup disk for my whole system.