# Organize backup



## John M (Mar 28, 2018)

If I use  one external hard drive to backup two LR classics on two Macs when I import on each(inserting usb each time I import and storing hard drive), how can I keep the folder/subfolder organization for each on the external hard drive? Or will my backup be limited to the dates of the images? John


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## Johan Elzenga (Mar 28, 2018)

You can create two parent folders; 'Mac A' and 'Mac B' and then create the backups inside those folders.


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## John M (Mar 28, 2018)

Thank you> Do you know where I can find a step by step process to make the backup mirror the LR folder/subfolder structure with the edited photos. I bought Brampton book  but don't find it there. John


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## Johan Elzenga (Mar 28, 2018)

John McFall said:


> Thank you> Do you know where I can find a step by step process to make the backup mirror the LR folder/subfolder structure with the edited photos. I bought Brampton book  but don't find it there. John


Lightroom can't do that. Lightroom can only make a backup of the catalog file. You have to use a separate backup/clone utility to do this, and follow the manual of that utility.


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## Johan Elzenga (Mar 28, 2018)

BTW, because the edits are stored in the catalog, you won't make a backup of the edited photos this way, you will make a backup of the originals. The combination of this backup and a catalog backup is what you need to have a backup of the edited photos.


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## clee01l (Mar 28, 2018)

John McFall said:


> Thank you> Do you know where I can find a step by step process to make the backup mirror the LR folder/subfolder structure with the edited photos. I bought Brampton book  but don't find it there. John


All you need is TimeMachine or a similar system Backup app.   I use Time Machine to backup two Macs to a Time Capsule on the local network and the same TimeMachine running on each Mac also alternately backs up  each machine on local EHDs  connected to the Mac.


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