Lightroom Backing Up Photos

[fokker]

I want to back up my photos to my external hard drive (can't believe I haven't done this yet!) but it seems lightroom is a bit of a **** to use in this regard (and in many others, but I digress). I understand that the catalog backup option only backs up the previews, locations of files etc, but I want to back up every single photo, as well as the sidecar files so that I can revert back to it if things go pear shaped.

So how do I do it? I've tried googling, and unbelieveably I can't find a solution that doesn't involve buying more software. Please help!!

 

[Styler]

Just paste your photo originals folder to your ext. harddrive?

 

[fokker]

Surely there's a better way though? If I do that it will take quite a while, and if I want to do it again say a week or two later then rather then just adding a few dozen more photos or whatever I'll have to re-copy the entire directory again. Plus, I have to preserve the exact folder structure or lightroom won't recognize the file locations. This is a problem, since I have a folder titled named '2010' on my laptop with half of my 2010 photos on it, and another folder on my portable drive named 2010 with the earlier photos from this year on it. I want to back both of these up to my big external drive but copy/paste in windows explorer will mean I have to combine these folders, thus if I need to bring them back into LR the catalog won't know what's going on...

 

[Buckster]

I use this and it works fabulously:

Allway Sync: Free File Synchronization, Backup, Data Replication, PC Sync Software, Freeware, File Sync, Data Synchronization Software

There's a free version. I bought the "pro" version for a whopping $20 bucks. Money well spent. Keeps track of what you have backed up already and only backs up the new stuff, which saves time and effort.

And I'm pretty serious about my backups:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...180437-looking-file-storage-alternatives.html