# Optimal solution for storing images + backup



## Tom75 (Sep 19, 2018)

Hi all,

I have already read through some threads about this topic but anyway wanted to explain my situation and hear your opinions regarding where to store my images etc.

I have currently an iMac (the first 27 inch model with thin screen desing as they are now) with 3 TB internal fusion drive or disc. I am storing all my images and cataloges etc on this internal iMac disc and I am backing everything up to my 3TB time capsule. I have basically been happy with this system but I think in the near future I will change this iMac to a new one and I noticed that the new iMacs have now only 1TB or max 2TB internal discs, not 3TB or more. I find this a little strange and it means that I will have to change my system because 2 TB is not enough if I switch to a new imac, I would need minimum 3-4TB.

I dont really really get why Apple has decided to reduce the storage capacity instead of increasing but and therefore I wanted to ask how you guys are handling this. Would be nice to hear about your setups and suggestions how to do this in the best way.

I see this currently as follows:
- I can still use the smaller internal imac disc for storing everything except images which take most space.
- I will still backup the whole imac disc to time capsule
- I will thne need a big external drive for storing images. 

Questions I have right now:
- Can I backup this external drive with the images also to a time capsule or is that only possible for the internal drive?
- Where would you recommend to store the LR catalogue, on the internal drive or on the external?
- With my current setup with having everything stored on the imac I was of course also working only at home on the imac with LR. But in some cases when I would want to do that when traveling from a notebook, then I guess I would need to bring the external drive with me? So if I would store the images and the catalogue on the external drive then I could theoretically work with whatever from anywhere?
- However I am not sure if it is a good idea to carry around such a big external drive in order not to destroy it .... havent really figured out what the best way is of doing this.
- What kind of external drives could you recommend?
- In case I would have one external drive for keeping at home as a stationary storage unit and maybe in addition a sort of rugged, portable drive such as a gnarbox I can take with me traveling etc how can that work out. Obviously I will not need all images or the portable drive but I should have all on the stationary external drive and I probably should have the catalogue on both drives?
- OR should I not worry at all about this and simply sync the collection I am working on or want to work on with LR CC so I can continue working in CC on the same images when traveling....... I guess thats also a solution but generally I would prefer to work in Classic.

Thanks in advance, looking forward to your commments and suggestions.

Regards,
Tom


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## LouieSherwin (Sep 19, 2018)

Tom75 said:


> Questions I have right now:
> - Can I backup this external drive with the images also to a time capsule or is that only possible for the internal drive?.



Yes TimeMachine will backup any attached external drives


> - Where would you recommend to store the LR catalogue, on the internal drive or on the external?



The new iMac likely offers 1/2 TB SSD drives and this is the optimal place to have your catalog file except if you decide to make your whole catalog and image portable in which case you would want to have the catalog be on the same external drive.


> - With my current setup with having everything stored on the imac I was of course also working only at home on the imac with LR. But in some cases when I would want to do that when traveling from a notebook, then I guess I would need to bring the external drive with me? So if I would store the images and the catalogue on the external drive then I could theoretically work with whatever from anywhere?



Yes.


> - However I am not sure if it is a good idea to carry around such a big external drive in order not to destroy it .... havent really figured out what the best way is of doing this.



I have a very small LaCie 2TB external drive with Thunderbolt and USBC interface that is very small (2.5 in disc), light and rugged. i use it when ever I travel. In my case it's primary use is as backup for my MacPro hard drives instead of primary catalog/image storage. Keep in mind that you still should consider backup while traveling. 



> - What kind of external drives could you recommend?



Thunderbolt or USB-C interface from a well known manufacturer (i.e. WesternDigital) or OEM (i.e. LaCie).


> - In case I would have one external drive for keeping at home as a stationary storage unit and maybe in addition a sort of rugged, portable drive such as a gnarbox I can take with me traveling etc how can that work out. Obviously I will not need all images or the portable drive but I should have all on the stationary external drive and I probably should have the catalogue on both drives?



There are a number of different strategies that you can use. I suggest that you start by searching  this forum for some ideas and then come back and start  a new topic if have any further questions.


> - OR should I not worry at all about this and simply sync the collection I am working on or want to work on with LR CC so I can continue working in CC on the same images when traveling....... I guess thats also a solution but generally I would prefer to work in Classic.



This is one of the options that some people use but Classic and CC have some distinct differences that can make this challenging. I think that most people here do some form of a "Travel Catalog" that they take with them. Lots of options to explore.

-louie


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## Zenon (Sep 19, 2018)

I have had my files on an external drive that is backed up for a long as I can remember. The catalogue and everything else is on the HD. I have never had any issue.


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## Tom75 (Sep 19, 2018)

Thanks to both of you for the answer, I will think some more about this and do some more research, this is not easy to decide what will work best.

I was also really happy with my solution but it seems I will have to change it so why not improve some things at the same time.

Regards,
Tom


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## Tom75 (Oct 2, 2018)

Have one more question regarding this.

When I change my iMac soon I have now basically decided that I have to go for a combination of iMac + external disc for storing images since the imacs hard disk is not big enough. 

The thing is that I have now a 3TB imac but when I change a 1TB imac would be enough combined with a 4-5TB external disc.

Since I have now everything also images on my 3TB imac drive which is backed up to time capsule, how shoudl I set up my new 1TB imac from from time capsule backup if not everything will fit on the new 1TB internal disc? Is possible to exclude images from that and relocate them later or how does this work?

Regards,
Tom


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## clee01l (Oct 2, 2018)

Tom75 said:


> Since I have now everything also images on my 3TB imac drive which is backed up to time capsule, how shoudl I set up my new 1TB imac from from time capsule backup if not everything will fit on the new 1TB internal disc? Is possible to exclude images from that and relocate them later or how does this work?


I would connect the EHD to the old Mac and move the folds containing your master image file to the EHD.  Then Open LR and make sure that LR has been assigned the new folder location  in the catalog. 
After this, I would make sure that Time Machine has run once more to pick up the move changes.   
I would then use the Migration Assistant utility on the new Mac to migrate everything from the old Mac TimeMachine  last Backup.  Lightroom on the new Mac should be happy.


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## Tom75 (Oct 2, 2018)

Thanks, that sounds like a well structured plan. 

Are you using such a solution with one or more external drives? If so would be nice to hear you comments or suggestions about my below plan.

My 3TB time capsule is the same age as the imac so I thought anyway to replace also this to have a new backup drive with the new mac but now I found out that time machine should work perfectly fine with any external drives as well so now I thought instead of buying one external drive and one new time capsule I could as well buy 2 identical 4TB external drives such as a G-drive and use one of them as time machine backup drive and the other one as external image storage drive. Then I should be able to backup both the internal imac disc + the external image storage disc to the the same second external disc which I use for time machine backups.

I think I will go for such a solution, the only thing is that I not so happy with buying a "normal" external disc, I would rather prefer a SSD but they just so damn expensive as for 3-4TB. But anyway if I would buy one 4TB G-drive external hard disc + 1 4TB G-Derive SSD, which one of them would you use as backup and which as image storage disc?

Regards,
Tom


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## Zenon (Oct 2, 2018)

clee01l said:


> I would connect the EHD to the old Mac and move the folds containing your master image file to the EHD.  Then Open LR and make sure that LR has been assigned the new folder location  in the catalog.
> After this, I would make sure that Time Machine has run once more to pick up the move changes.
> I would then use the Migration Assistant utility on the new Mac to migrate everything from the old Mac TimeMachine  last Backup.  Lightroom on the new Mac should be happy.



After 7 years of baggage sometimes I wonder about a clean install. Fresh OS and just re-install everything. Copy documents  to the new machine later.  I'm going to replace my iMac next year so I have time to ponder.


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## Tom75 (Oct 2, 2018)

Hmmm, good point. I guess by setting up a new imac from a time machine backup you are also taking over all the shit the old mac collected over years. 

Maybe setting up from a time machine backup will anyway be problem for me because I cannot update my old one now to Mojave so maybe that will cause problems with Mojave on the new one?


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## Zenon (Oct 2, 2018)

I don't know. My laptop is running Mojave and everything seems fine but it gets almost no usage. I don't really have a lot of software. CC products, DXO, Canon's DPP  and Photomatix Pro which I can take or leave. Have to figure out  plugins, presets and what to do with the catalogue. iTunes library, Office for Word and PP which will need to be replaced. That is about it. Have to do a little research about a few things. I'll see when the time comes.      

I don't want to upset Windows users but I switched to Mac about 10 years ago. I had read that Mac carries less baggage but I don't how much Windows has changed since then. I'm not even sure that less baggage thingy was accurate back then. Not the reason I changed.


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## clee01l (Oct 2, 2018)

Zenon said:


> After 7 years of baggage sometimes I wonder about a clean install.


IIRC,  Migration Assistant allows you do a selective install.   Also it is quite easy to manually do your own housekeeping on a Mac.   The problem is that few of us take the time to periodically go through the crap that accumulates on our machines and actually do the job.  


Tom75 said:


> Maybe setting up from a time machine backup will anyway be problem for me because I cannot update my old one now to Mojave so maybe that will cause problems with Mojave on the new one?


Your  Time Machine Backup will not be concerned with the OS already installed on the new machine.  There won't be any problem letting Migration Assistant copy files from TimeMachine  and less headache than if you manually copy these files yourself.


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## clee01l (Oct 2, 2018)

Zenon said:


> I had read that Mac carries less baggage but I don't how much Windows has


MacOS uses plists to store preferences for apps.   It is pretty easy to manually trim off the unneeded files in the Library.   Windows still uses a database file  (Registry) to house all settings and these preferences get scattered through out the database file making them difficult to track down and find .   There is a whole cottage industry devoted creating apps to clean up the Windows registry


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## Tom75 (Oct 2, 2018)

That sounds great, I was hoping that time machine would take care of such but so far I needed it only once and then it was a because of a crash and it said something like when when restoring form a time machine backup the install disc will be erased or so but good that Migration assistant has control. 

I hope my imac will survive a little more because I think there will come new one in November and I am waiting for that but the hard discs etc I can get already


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## Tom75 (Oct 2, 2018)

clee01l said:


> MacOS uses plists to store preferences for apps.   It is pretty easy to manually trim off the unneeded files in the Library.   Windows still uses a database file  (Registry) to house all settings and these preferences get scattered through out the database file making them difficult to track down and find .   There is a whole cottage industry devoted creating apps to clean up the Windows registry



I have the late 2012 imac, the first model with thin edge and fusion drive and it has worked perfectly until now. At work I am using windows PCs and I never had one for more than 3 years....

What do you think about my plan with 2 external drives or maybe one normal and one SSD?

Regards,
Tom


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## Zenon (Oct 2, 2018)

clee01l said:


> IIRC,  Migration Assistant allows you do a selective install.   Also it is quite easy to manually do your own housekeeping on a Mac.   The problem is that few of us take the time to periodically go through the crap that accumulates on our machines and actually do the job.
> Your  Time Machine Backup will not be concerned with the OS already installed on the new machine.  There won't be any problem letting Migration Assistant copy files from TimeMachine  and less headache than if you manually copy these files yourself.



That is interesting. I'm aware of the playlists. I have a Safari and Library Cashes cleaning routine but that is about it. I don't keep any Apps I don't use and delete with APP delete or uninstall if available. I check libraries for left overs. I ran a duplicate finder once but sure was nervous when it was deleting files. I try to keep the rest clean as much as I can.  Actually when I took it in for servicing the fellow was surprised at how clean it was. 

I just wonder about possible minor corruptions here and there that may slow something down. I don't know about much about that or how to find them.     

I do like the migration option much better. Thanks for the help.


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## Tom75 (Oct 3, 2018)

Hi again,

another question came to my mind since I have so far only used the 3TB internal imac disc for storing everything. When I swich to a system where I store all images on an external drive, how do I then import images from memory cards etc?

Can I still just plug them into the imac give the external drive as destination?

Regards,
Tom


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## clee01l (Oct 3, 2018)

Tom75 said:


> Hi again,
> 
> another question came to my mind since I have so far only used the 3TB internal imac disc for storing everything. When I swich to a system where I store all images on an external drive, how do I then import images from memory cards etc?
> 
> ...


Yes. The Import dialog Destination panel lists all of the volumes currently attached.  Simply select a folder on the EHD in the Destination panel.

I do something a little different.  Since my internal disk drive is the fastest, I import to a sub folder of the standard "Pictures" folder.  Then Once a month I drag the oldest folders to the final destination in the EHD using  "drag and drop" in the Lightroom folder panel.   Folders that are more than 3 months old have usually been processed (edited) to completion and the necessity of having them on the faster disk has past.


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## Ed Anderson (Oct 3, 2018)

clee01l said:


> I import to a sub folder of the standard "Pictures" folder.  Then Once a month I drag the oldest folders to the final destination in the EHD using  "drag and drop" in the Lightroom folder panel./QUOTE]
> 
> That's an interesting way to work with photos.  My SSD is mostly empty as I dont use many apps and delete and the trials or unused apps.  May have to give this a try.
> 
> ...


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## Tom75 (Oct 4, 2018)

Great, thanks for the answer


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