External Hard Drive

[runswithsizzers]

Did you copy folders/files or are you using some sort of backup software?

Brian, Time Machine is Apple's proprietary backup software that is included with the purchase of Apple computers. It works as you describe -- the first backup copies everything, so takes a long time -- but after that it only copies files which have have been changed (incremental backup), so usually much faster.

 

[Nikon 2]

Brian, Time Machine is Apple's proprietary backup software that is included with the purchase of Apple computers. It works as you describe -- the first backup copies everything, so takes a long time -- but after that it only copies files which have have been changed (incremental backup), so usually much faster.

Correct!
Just shot more landscapes with the Leica MD262 and when backing up those to Time Machine and Seagate’s external drive was instantaneous…

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Scary…

Not so different than all of your/our internet computer usage being mined & squeezed for data. As 'they' say, if it's free (search engines) you are the commodity.

 

[Nikon 2]

Not so different than all of your/our internet computer usage being mined & squeezed for data. As 'they' say, if it's free (search engines) you are the commodity.

Not to mention umbrage…

 

[juan]

I use WD passport drives for backup. They are the small ones, physically, that are powered by the single USB cable. They are small enough to fit in a bank safe deposit box, which is where I keep them for safety. I also backup on a larger drive that I keep in my closet.

 

[Nikon 2]

I use WD passport drives for backup. They are the small ones, physically, that are powered by the single USB cable. They are small enough to fit in a bank safe deposit box, which is where I keep them for safety. I also backup on a larger drive that I keep in my closet.

Good to know…

 

[MattKing]

Whatever your backup strategy, it is imperative that you regularly confirm that the backups are actually uncorrupted, and that when used in a restoration, restore the files you need restored.

 

[Nikon 2]

Whatever your backup strategy, it is imperative that you regularly confirm that the backups are actually uncorrupted, and that when used in a restoration, restore the files you need restored.

How do I know whether the backups are uncorrupted…

 

[koraks]

How do I know whether the backups are uncorrupted…

Pick a random sample of files and inspect them. Easy enough to do with photographs.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

If you can back up your entire computer to a 1TB drive, I would suggest the following depending on how important the photos are. I assume by the lack of a previous back-up, these are personal photos, not for any clients. A 1 TB drive is relatively inexpensive today and you could buy another and make a secondary back-up. I would even suggest an SSD as a redundant back-up. If these were client files, I would put them on a cloud server or at least rotate the two back-up drives between locations: home and a remote one such as a relative's house or office. That way if a disaster were to strike, you still have the files. Another option would be to burn the files to DVDs. Although I have heard about "digital rot" on DVD, I nor anyone I know has actually experienced it. Sure DVDs can be physically damaged, but as back-ups in a sleeve or case, that is unlikely to happen.

Some of my older DVDs aren't accessible anymore. I always use to back up duplicate disks, so I have only lost a few photos.

 

[MattKing]

How do I know whether the backups are uncorrupted…

Pick a random sample of files and inspect them. Easy enough to do with photographs.

Restore your backup first to an alternate location. Then from that alternate location, do what koraks suggests.
Easy for photographs and other relatively fixed "data". Harder for photographs plus Lightroom editing records. Even harder sometimes for customized software programs.

 

[Nikon 2]

Pick a random sample of files and inspect them. Easy enough to do with photographs.

…

 

[Nikon 2]

Restore your backup first to an alternate location. Then from that alternate location, do what koraks suggests.
Easy for photographs and other relatively fixed "data". Harder for photographs plus Lightroom editing records. Even harder sometimes for customized software programs.

…!

 

[George Collier]

Apple's Time Machine allows for 2 backup drives (ideally in separate locations, but at least in case one crashes).
I work on the computer hard drive, at the end of a session, I copy everything to an 8TB external drive.
The computer and the external are all backed up to 2 TM drives, one 10TB and the other 14TB.
Next time I work, I verify by looking at one of the TM drives or the other that everything I copied to the 8TB external was backed up, then I delete off of the internal computer drive.
Drive space has never been cheaper, and I can't afford to lose all my stuff.

 

[jeffreyg]

George since you can’t afford to lose any thing be sure to unplug at least one of your backups after each session or use an offsite service as well. A couple of years ago lightning struck a tree about 25 feet from our house. It sounded like an explosion and took out most of our electronics including my computer, backup drives, printer, scanner,tvs and more even though all were attached to good surge protectors. Fortunately I had a clone of the computer (unplugged) because the homeowner insurance didn’t cover software. The offsite service had my files and most of my photographs are on film or the sd cards. The 100 year oak was sliced in half but somehow part has survived

 

[Pieter12]

Apple's Time Machine allows for 2 backup drives (ideally in separate locations, but at least in case one crashes).
I work on the computer hard drive, at the end of a session, I copy everything to an 8TB external drive.
The computer and the external are all backed up to 2 TM drives, one 10TB and the other 14TB.
Next time I work, I verify by looking at one of the TM drives or the other that everything I copied to the 8TB external was backed up, then I delete off of the internal computer drive.
Drive space has never been cheaper, and I can't afford to lose all my stuff.

Be careful. As Apple states: "Your first Time Machine backup includes everything on your Mac. After that, Time Machine finds and saves only new and changed items, so the backups become smaller. Also, as your backup disk fills up, Time Machine deletes older backups to make room for new ones..." So if your back up disk fills up and you have deleted the originals, the older back-up file will be deleted too.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

yes, yes, and yes, with a couple of caveats

First, backup your entire hard drive -- or at the very least, all of you photos -- NOW! Personally, I would back up to two different external hard drives and keep them in different locations. Or you might consider some kind of "cloud" storage for one of your two backups.

You have a Mac, so you could use the Time Machine backup software that every Mac comes with -- all you need is an external hard drive. Time Machine backs up everything, not just your photos. I would recommend that an external hard drive intended for use with Time Machine have at least twice the storage capacity of the hard drive in your computer.

If you want to backup only your photos, then how you do that may depend on what kind of software you use to edit / catalog your photos. For example, I use Adobe Lightroom Classic for editing and organizing my photos. If I find the folders that Lightroom uses to store my photos, and I then copy those photos to an external hard drive, that will backup my photos -- but not any edits which I have made in Lightroom. When you edit a photo in a non-destructive editor like Lightroom, the editing instructions are kept in another file (catalog), and the edits don't get written to the files until you Export the photo. The original files are left untouched, just as they came out of the camera.

One way to be sure you are backing up EDITED versions of your photos would be to first Export them as TIFFs or high quality JPEGs, and then copy those exported versions to the external drive(s).

Apple's Time Machine is wonderful and has saved myunorganized butt several times in the last few years!

 

[albada]

As others have said, you are living dangerously if your files are not backed up. Preferably multiple back-ups in case a back-up is corrupt.
I have had hard disks fail.

Mark

 

[Sirius Glass]

Apple's Time Machine allows for 2 backup drives (ideally in separate locations, but at least in case one crashes).
I work on the computer hard drive, at the end of a session, I copy everything to an 8TB external drive.
The computer and the external are all backed up to 2 TM drives, one 10TB and the other 14TB.
Next time I work, I verify by looking at one of the TM drives or the other that everything I copied to the 8TB external was backed up, then I delete off of the internal computer drive.
Drive space has never been cheaper, and I can't afford to lose all my stuff.

I have been using Apple's Time Machine for since it first came out and for several generations of machines. When I retire a machine, I move the drive that I dedicated as the Time Machine only drive to the new machine and install it as the second drive before I power up the machine for the first time [per Apple's instructions]. When it powers up, the machine asks if this is an upgrade from a previous machine, points to the second drive and asks if it should restore from that drive and15 to 20 minutes later the machine is ready to go, listing the programs that have been installed and updated [list A], installed but not updated, needing manual updating [list B] and programs which were not loaded because they are now incompatible and should never be installed from available copies [list C]. Then if the Time Machine drive is too small or running out of space, I duplicate that drive to a newer and bigger drive and replace the original Time Machine drive with the newer larger drive. That will be the easiest machine upgrade one can ever have.

 

[MFstooges]

Reminds me that I have a partially backed up WD drive that had a controller board failure. It is said that I can save the data if I find the exact board. Still haven't found it.

 

[Pieter12]

I have been using Apple's Time Machine for since it first came out and for several generations of machines. When I retire a machine, I move the drive that I dedicated as the Time Machine only drive to the new machine and install it as the second drive before I power up the machine for the first time [per Apple's instructions]. When it powers up, the machine asks if this is an upgrade from a previous machine, points to the second drive and asks if it should restore from that drive and15 to 20 minutes later the machine is ready to go, listing the programs that have been installed and updated [list A], installed but not updated, needing manual updating [list B] and programs which were not loaded because they are now incompatible and should never be installed from available copies [list C]. Then if the Time Machine drive is too small or running out of space, I duplicate that drive to a newer and bigger drive and replace the original Time Machine drive with the newer larger drive. That will be the easiest machine upgrade one can ever have.

I keep all my data files on external hard drives so I can easily migrate to a new machine when necessary. Time Machine will back up those drives, too.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I keep all my data files on external hard drives so I can easily migrate to a new machine when necessary. Time Machine will back up those drives, too.

[<<Smile>>]

 

[Philippe-Georges]

All my photos taken with a digital and film camera have been downloaded to an OS X El Capitan to a Mac Pro desktop computer in albums.
The desktop is a late 2015 model.

1. Is it correct to understand that being as old as it is could fail at any time loosing my photos?
2. Does an external hard drive keep these photos safe after downloading them to it?
3. Can a recommended hard drive be shared…

If on your internal harddisk: make a copy with Apple's Time Machine
If on an external (and internal-) harddrive (+/- your question #2): make a carbon copy on an other external disk with Intego Backup Manager Pro (Laci), preferable on a SSD.
A carbon copy can be shared, even cross platform if disk is accordingly formatted...