I use aperture and store all of my files NOT in the aperture library but on the gdrive. I then back up my gdrive on a drobo. i realize that eventually my gdrive will fail. what is the best way to prevent losing the data on my gdrive? should I buy a new gdrive very 3 years and transfer the data to the new gdrive? Basically i am looking for a fail safe way to never loose my images/data. thank you
Katy,
No such thing. A drive can fail a week, a month, a year, or a decade after installation — or never. Keeping a good backup is really all you can do. If you start noticing problems, especially odd sounds you’re not used to hearing coming from the drive, that’s a good indicator of impending doom, and at minimum start running repairs on it.
Replace your drives as you outgrow them and maintain consistent backups and you’ll be as good as anyone can be.
And consider an offsite backup as well. There are several articles here on backing up, and I’m a huge fan of cloud backup to Backblaze. If you have twenty backups but they all are in the same building and the building burns down, you’re in trouble.
@PhotoJoseph
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just an update, thanks to all of you. I have made a great deal of progress and now have vaults and use back blaze. Thanks for the info and recommendations. As an FYI (you might already know this ) there is a new drobo , the drobo 5D, that came on the market in September which is 100 percent compatible with macs. it looks incredible and I plan on getting it. Again, thanks for helping navigate all of this
Thank you, I am going to look into back blaze. Also, what is the vault feature in aperture? I appreciate any help, I am not very techy. I have spent the last year and a half importing all my photos and videos into aperture and organizing them. I now have over 80,000 images in aperture and am terrified of losing them….Ive been using an off site back up called live drive ( not sure if you are familiar with them) . They seem fine but they slow my computer up.. Again, many thanks. Im really trying to learn and get up to speed on all of this. Katy
The Vault is a backup of the AP library. If your images are in there they will be backed up so make sure you put the Vault on another drive than the Lib. If your images are on a separate drive you will need to back them up separately because the Vault won’t see them.
So your gdrive is a two drive mirror? Thats good! and then a drobo! My images are on a drobo and my Lib (reference) is on a separate vol of the main HD. That many images could slow down the library so relocating them might be better for speed and safety.
Just a thought, maybe others can talk about how large a library can actually be.
Cheers
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
Thank you. Ok, just to make sure I understood what you just said, I store my files NOT in Aperture but on a Gdrive. So if I understand you correctly that means the Vault will not work for me?
Originally, I tried storing my images on the drobo but aperture didn’t work very well with the images stored on the drobo ( the images were fuzzy). So then I got the gdrive and stored the images in aperture on the gdrive. (that solved the problem as the gdrive works well with aperture and the images are not fuzzy). I then back up the gdrive with the drobo. I hope that makes sense.
Thats a fantastic point about the ref (Lib). Something I have also been thinking about. By Lib (reference) I assume you are talking about all of your metadata and keywords, rating etc for all of your images? Where are you backing them up? Sorry, not sure what separate volume of the hard drive is.
Many thanks
Your original questions states, ” I use aperture and store all of my files NOT in the aperture library but on the gdrive” then in the last post you stated, “got the gdrive and stored the images in aperture on the gdrive”. I get confused so let me stated the obvious. Aperture is an application on the Main HD of the computer. The Lib is the data base of adjustments and meta data stored where you want it, either on another vol of the main HD or another external HD. The Vault is a backup of the Lib stored on an external HD (away from the Lib HD, this protects fro a HD failure. Images are either in the lib (as Managed) or on another HD.
Fuzzy images does not make sense so lets forget that subject for now.
So are your images referenced or Managed? Lets start there and we’ll move forward.
dbm
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
Sorry, to be clear: my images are all stored on the Gdrive. I am not sure if my images are managed or referenced. I BELIEVE they are referenced. Ex) If I use two fingers and tap on any image a menu pops up, then if i choose “locate referenced files” it will show me where the image is located on the Gdrive. So, this leads me to believe the images are referenced. My apologies, I really am not very savvy and am learning. Thanks again
The vault feature sounds fantastic, but am i correct that it will not work if my images are stored on the Gdrive?
Thanks for your help and patience.
Katy
Ok Yes you have a reference Lib. The lib is on your main HD but references the images on the Gdrive. I believe you already copy the Gdrive to the Drobo so you have two copies of your images. If you make a Vault (highly recommended) and have the Vault located on the Gdrive then you will basically have two copies of the Ref Lib. And if the entire Gdrive is copied to the Drobo then you will have the original lib and a value and a back up of the vault on the drobo. Once you have a good handle on on that you can think about an offsite back up of the images… Backblaze
out of curiosity is the Gdrive a single HD or are there two drives mirroring each other?
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
THANK YOU! I will look into creating a vault and had it located on the gdrive immediately. You have been extremely helpful; thank you.
I thought the g drive had 2 drives mirroring each other, but when i asked my husband he said he thought it was a single HD. On the gdrive it says it is a 2TB gd42000, is that helpful?
Your Gdrive is a single HD but your are backing the entire hd to the Drobo so you are safe as long as there is not a theft or a fire. I have some backups a mile away at my parents house which is ok but the cloud backup is best (BackBlaze)
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
Thank you so much for your help. I am going to look into building a vault and then back blaze