# LR Installation recommendations



## ST-EOS (Sep 26, 2013)

Having purchased a second SSD (Samsung 840 Pro 256GB) I hope that I can get some recommendations on how best to set up/configure my Win7 PC prior to upgrading from LR4 to LR5.
I intend to reuse my current SSD (OCZ Agility3 120GB) once I have the Samsung installed and loaded with the Win7 OS, MS Office plus LR5 and PS CS5.  In addition to the two SSD's my system has two 1TB HDD which currently contain:-

HDD1. My Raw and JPG image files as cataloged in LR4.4, plus my other data files documents etc.
HDD2. This is used as the device to back up from HDD1 for all data.

On importing images to the PC using LR 4 I have it set to create a second copy to the HDD2. So thats how the PC is/will be configured. I would welcome any recommendations on how best to set up LR5 and PS to make best use of the resource in my PC build. 

I hope my profile shows the rest of my PC details I will pop over there and check it soon.

Thanks in anticipation


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 27, 2013)

Hi Peter

Bear in mind that the import 'second copy' would be a nightmare to restore from, as they're not stored in the same folder structure and aren't updated when you move things.  So don't consider them your backup.


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## ST-EOS (Sep 27, 2013)

Thanks for the detail on the second copy scenario Victoria. I didn't realise that they don't have the same folder structure. I was aware that changes I make to the images on HDD1 were not carried over to HDD2. I failed to mention that HDD1 is backed up to a USB 2TB Iomega drive.
Though if I'm honest not as often as it should be, which is something that I'll rectify as part of this PC upgrade. 
Given the above how should I configure LR 5 to gain the best/ most efficient use of the two SSD set up that I will have?


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## ST-EOS (Sep 27, 2013)

SorryI made a Typo,  the Iomega is 1TB not 2TB


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 27, 2013)

I'd put the OS/programs/ACR cache on one drive and the catalog on the other SSD personally, although some of our Windows guys (Jim?) might have a more up to date information on that.


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 27, 2013)

No, that would have been my suggestion as well. In the past I separated my ACR Cache from both system drive and catalog drive and images drive, but with the way that has changed over the last two releases it's less important to separate it. So using the two SSDs in the manner suggested is optimal, IMO.

The only issue is the size of the SSD.....it sounds as though the new larger SSD will be the System Drive, so the smaller 120gb drive would be available for the LR Catalog. But depending upon catalog size the previews cache could get pretty large, so need to keep an eye on that.

Re the two HDDs, I agree that Peter needs to stop thinking about HDD2 in terms of a backup drive if it's only the "Second Copy" going there. Happy to hear there's another drive in the mix that gets a "proper" backup of the images (does it also get a backup copy of the catalog as well?), but yes it needs to be more frequent. And what about off-site backups?


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## ST-EOS (Sep 27, 2013)

Jim thanks for the advice, you are correct that the larger SSD is to be the system drive.  I will schedule my back up, so that it's automated rather than my current approach of "when I remember" !

Just to clarify the way forward then, this is my understanding of it
1. The LR catalog on to the 120GB SSD, I will have to secure erase the SSD to get rid of the existing data. OCZ have a tool to do that which I have downloaded but not yet tried.
2. Win7 OS/LR/PS and other programs on to the new SSD.
3. Backup copy of the Catalog to be part of my backup process. I'm not sure how to do that but I assume it's is configurable in LR somewhere.
4. Continue to use HDD2 as the medium for the second copy.

That leaves me with some further issues that probably stem from my lack of savvy both wrt LR and computing in general.  

a. Jims suggestion of offsite backups, I've not considered that before so would welcome your thoughts/suggestions on that?
b. My use of the USB drive for backups was that in an emergency situation I could in theory grab the USB drive and escape (e.g the house is on fire). The reality is that I would grab the Bride and escape rather than the drive.
c. Whilst I can see from a mitigation of risk approach that the use of HDD2 as the second copy medium is good practice, it just seems to me that I may be better to use this (HDD2 Sata3 connected) as my backup drive and use the USB     connected drive for the second copy on import scenario. 
d. Given the limitations of the second copy when would you suggest I delete the second copies?


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 27, 2013)

Peter,
People approach "backups" in many different ways, and at the end of the day they need to be comfortable that they've got the degree of protection that they want. So rather that tell you what I think YOU should do, I'll simply explain what I do, and why:

I have 4 x internal HDs: system drive, catalog drive, ACR cache/test photos drive, main photos drive.
I also have 1 x external hard drive, permanently connected, and 1 x NAS drive also permanently connected.
I also use 3 x portable hard drives, see later.

Catalog backups, i.e. those taken by Lightroom on exit, are kept in the default backup location, in the catalog folder.
I also use the "second copy" during import, these are stored on the external hard drive.

Outside of Lightroom, I use an incremental backup utility program (currently Microsoft's free SyncToy), which does the following Lightroom-related incremental backups (it actually does more, but I'm ignoring that here as it's not Lightroom-specific):

1. It backs up my master catalog folders, which include the Backups folder containing all the Lightroom-generated backups.
2. It backs up my Lightroom settings folder, which is in the user AppData library.
3. It backs up my original images.

All of these are written to both the external hard drive AND the NAS, and also to ONE of the three portable hard drives (all done within one run of the program). The two copies on the EHD and the NAS are my immediate "*file *security" copies, i.e. provides immediate recovery of any failing Lightroom drive .

The copy to the portable hard drive is my "*fire *security" copy, i.e. it's taken off-site (to my mother-in-laws apartment), where I maintain a cycle of three drive, so I'll have my data available if I survive the fire and get setup again! The oldest one is brought back ready to be used during the next backup run. This is at least once per week, but more often if I do a lot of Lightroom work in the meantime.

The "off-site" part could equally be done using cloud-based backup services such as Carbonite or Crashplan, but for now I'm happy with my current method.

So with that in mind and space permitting you could run a similar backup system, copying to BOTH the HDD2 and the USB drive, taking the USB drive off-site somewhere. Just a thought, but you may need to look at the capacity of the HDD2 if you also have the "second copy" on there as well.


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## ST-EOS (Sep 27, 2013)

Thanks for the information Jim, much appreciated.


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## DaveS (Sep 27, 2013)

Hi Peter,

  Your setup is remarkably like how I have my PC set up.     

Like you, I have the same Samsung SSD set up as my system and application software disk.
My old SSD is set up to contain the LR catalog and previews.
I have a pair of 1TB drives for my data (Photos in this case).  The difference is my drives are mirrored, so I get redundancy from a drive failure perspective without having to use other means to "clone" my data.
I use a backup program (Macrium Reflect in my case, but could be anything) to backup up my various drives to my server which uses mirrored drives (but could equally be a NAS, as the server provides that functionality).  These backups do full backups monthly, and daily incrementals.
Like Jim, i have a set of rotating USB drives for an extra set of backups (run weekly) that always have at least one copy stored at my in-laws for Fire/Theft, etc. protection.  I rotate them every 3 months as well.   
The "second" copy thing that Lightroom does, I use (they go on my nas/server), but only for short term storage until I'm satisfied that the photos have imported properly and there is no data corruption.   As Victoria pointed out above, this copy is the next best thing to useless from a recovery perspective.

Dave.


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## ST-EOS (Oct 2, 2013)

Thanks for the detail of how your system is configured DaveS. I've had a bit of trauma with the new SSD I installed it without any problems but whilst reinstalling the old SSD to use as suggested here I somehow managed to damage the Samsung SSD connector. Samsung won't/can't repair it, so I bit the bullet and purchased another one.
Both SSD's are in place now, though I still have some housekeeping to do to the original SSD before configuring LR to function as suggested.

I installed LR 5.2 yesterday evening which was all going well until the catalog upgrade had some problem in the conversion process. I had to fall back to my last backup catalog and use that which, is now my LR5.2 catalog.

I now have a problem that is a niggle/annoyance in all of this trauma/learning experience I seem to have lost my import settings and various develop presets that I had in LR4.4.
What is the best way to restore these settings?


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 3, 2013)

Go to Preferences > Presets tab and try checking Store Presets with Catalog and see if that makes them reappear.


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## ST-EOS (Oct 3, 2013)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Go to Preferences > Presets tab and try checking Store Presets with Catalog and see if that makes them reappear.


I had that box checked Victoria, still can't find my presets!


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## ST-EOS (Oct 3, 2013)

Thanks to everyone who commented your responses have helped me to sort out where I want to be with LR and my PC configuration


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 4, 2013)

Well done Peter.  Did you ever track them down?


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## ST-EOS (Oct 4, 2013)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Well done Peter.  Did you ever track them down?



I did thank you Victoria, see here LINK


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## jameschowe (Oct 4, 2013)

Jim 

what do you use for your nas drive?  is it just an older hard drive with FreeNas? or is a pre-bourght NAS specific drive

thanks

James


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## Jim Wilde (Oct 4, 2013)

It's a WD "MyBook", nothing fancy, but yes a NAS specific drive. I use it basically as an external drive which just happens to be connected to my router rather than any one specific computer. Used mainly for backup purposes, but also for some data interchange with the rest of my family (which is more flexible than the Windows "Homegroup" feature). I've been hankering after a Synology NAS for some years now (got a geek mate who raves about how he has his setup), but every time I get close I realise I don't actually need anything that sophisticated, so I go buy another lens instead!


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