SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 I need to start a new way of backing up my studio sessions and weddings, this is a process i'm not familiar too and have just used DVd's in the past. I had a hard drive once, that went corrupt and I lost all my files so i'm very weary of using another. Hence why i've put it off. Any assistance or help in very single terms would be really appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Oh boy! You fear of hard drives will ultimately come to bite you in the arse. I'm very concerned with your data backup method. DVDs are not a long term solution for storage or archiving, especially for something like weddings and other important events. Why? DVDs and other media that you burn / create yourself, usually suffer from what's known as "Bit Rot." What is Bit Rot? Bit Rot, also know as Digital Rot, to put it simply, the 1's and 0's that make up your data / images on your DVDs fade away over time as the material that makes up the DVD degrades. In essence, your data/images go "Poof" over time. You do nothing to cause this; Digital Rot just happens over time with the discs sitting on your shelf or in a drawer. Even the United States Library of Congress, who is responsible of keeping records of all media produced in the US, is trying to figure out ways to combat this. So if the US Government, with Trillions of Dollars at its disposal can't figure this out, Sophie the Photographer won't do much good either. LOL!! If you are going to keep burning DVDs as a way to backup, please choose Archive Grade Media, though is not 100% bulletproof, but has gone through additional testing and is reportedly viable for 100 years. I like the brand Verbatim. Here is an Archive Grade DVD-r 100 Pack. We will see in 100 years time if the Discs hold up. At this point, I want you to start pulling out your old DVD Discs and try to see if you can get to your data. DVDs have gotten better over the years, but the ones from the early 2000's seem to suffer the most. Better to be safe than sorry, even if it will take you an afternoon to accomplish. Now for Hard Drives. There are a few brands that I recommend, and a few recommended models within those brands. Personally, I would never buy the $79 Special from Best Buy or any "Green" or "Eco-Friendly" Hard Drives as they have a high tendency to fail. Unfortunately, people don't know better and are usually price-driven. They know they should be backing up, but spending $500 on an external Enterprise-Grade HD seems a bit much, so they usually get that WD Elements Green Drive that's on sale for $129. Or the Seagate EHD that has "Low Power" advertised on the box for $99. Sounds like a deal, right? In reality, these drives usually contain lower-quality components and really did not save that much power in the long run. Why did they make them? To put it bluntly, it's a huge profit maker, for both the manufacture and the reseller. The COGS and R&D for the manufacture are very low, and that sets the price for the reseller at a good cost, which allows them to either double or triple their money. To give you a reference point, Best Buy makes more profit from selling three over-priced HDMI cables than it does selling a single Sony PlayStation! That's why they are always trying to add things to your purchase, including "Service Plans / Extended Warranties." It's based on making pure-profit. As far as the "Eco-Friendly" portion, it just makes people feel better. Well, at least the ones who pay attention to that sort of thing. In reality, a 10-15 Watt power-saving difference (I'm generalizing here) is a "drop of water in the ocean" in the grand-scheme of things. With the known high-failure rates of these drives...it doesn't do the planet a damn bit of good if they end up in a Landfill somewhere. See what I mean? Not to mention the stress and panic that it causes you when you suffer from a catastrophic data loss. The good news is, unless that EHD that failed had a physical data-crash, the data might be recoverable. It will just take a professional service to do it and that isn't cheap. Usually that cost is between $1000-$2000, though it could be more or less and depends entirely on the situation/status of the Hard Drive. If you are wondering who I recommend for this type of recovery, it's Gillware Data Recovery. Now hopefully, your eyes haven't glazed over and you are still with me. At this point in the game, people are yelling at their screen, "Just tell me WHAT TO BUY!!" My first response is, "What is your budget?" I'm a firm believer in "Buy it Right-Buy it Once!" Philosophy. Often my recommendations are a little on the higher-side, but that's due to me wanting things to last...and when it comes to hard drives and data storage, I'm not cheaping out. I'd rather spend a few hundred more now to have a HD that I won't have to worry about, then spending as little as possible only to fork out $1500 when the drive dies and I need to finish editing that wedding. There are also more options than backing up to a single HD, those units are known as NAS units, or "Network Attached Storage." Often these NAS units have data mirroring and other features that span the data across multiple hard drives, so if one HD dies, you can still get to your data. So, now let's talk numbers and tell me, which computers do you have? Are they all Macintosh based? Or do you have a Mix of Windows and Mac Computers? Where are all of your computers? At your studio and home? Or just the studio? Give me an idea of your import process and how you backup. Also what method / folder structure do you use. If you just want to know what HD to buy, I can give a quick answer. If you want your process analyzed and critiqued, we can do that as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted February 11, 2020 Author Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) Hi Brian, I need to back my iMac late 2013 21.5 " model, I also can't calibrate my screen because the softwear is out of date so hoping to 'kill two birds with one stone'. I also use a macbook but I don't own a PC so just apple softwear. The iMac is kept at my studio and the macbook comes with me most days but never left at the studio and I have a very old macbook left at home that doesn't really have anything on it. Everything is saved into folders in finder and backed up on DVD's (and USB's until the client has ordered and has a hard copy themselves then just the DVD and iMac for storage) which I know isn't good enough so I'm eager to sort this out. I was looking at one to run alongside the time machine system so if anything went wrong as it is an old Mac I could go straight to that back up with all those folders of the iMac, is that correct? I look forward to hearing your thoughts and recommendations for me. Edited February 11, 2020 by SophieBowden-Caldwell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 First, backing up via Time Machine is perfect for backing up your internal Macintosh HD on your 2013 iMac. I would not use Time Machine that is backing up on an external to backup another external as this causes issues. Ultimately, you want an external HD that is just used for Time Machine Backups only. When people try to "Kill Two Birds With One Stone" they end up having issues and failed backups. Do not cheap out when it comes to backing up, especially if you are truly running a business. This is just one of those costs of doing business. My recommendation for a Time Machine Drive is to purchase a size is at least double of what your internal hard drive capacity is now (or larger, since 2TB Drives are getting harder to find these days and have been replaced by 4TB models.) So if you have a 500GB HD, that would be a 1TB External used for Time Machine, if you have a 1TB Macintosh HD, a 2TB HD, etc. etc. Again, You do not want to use an external HD for Time Machine AND as a regular EHD. Even if you partition it to two separate partitions, you are really playing with fire. In reality, you are looking at two External Hard Drive Devices. Since you have a studio, and your 2013 iMac contains customer images that is located in said-studio, I really think you need two different types of External HDs. One, is just for the Time Machine Backup. The other, will be either another external HD which will follow you home each night (It's important to have an off-site backup) or something called a RDX Unit. A RDX unit is usually made by Tandberg. It's the combination of a External Hard Drive and a Tape Drive. Instead of Magnetic Tape in a Cartridge, there is a little hard drive. These cartridges come in different sizes, from 500GB to it seems around 5TB these days. Here is a 2TB RDX Cartridge. These cartridges go into a RDX Dock, which attaches to a USB Port. Tandberg is the main manufacturer of these devices, and HP also makes them. When you insert the cartridge into the Dock, it acts just like a EHD. Simply copy and paste your customer files to the RDX Cartridge, then "Eject" the Cartridge and put in in it's transport case and take it home. You could have two RDX Cartridges, a Week A and a Week B or something that is even monthly based. Totally up to you. Plus, if you ever wanted to upgrade the capacity, all you would need to do is purchase a larger RDX Cartridge, the Docking Station stays the same. The only thing you want to avoid with RDX units is to not drop them. Even though they are rugged and have plastic transport cases that can take a beating, they still have little hard drives inside of them. That being said, they are a lot more durable than a typical EHD that you would move around. As far as an external hard drive, the brand that I recommend and use is G-Technology. They come Mac-Formatted and there are cables in the box. You could go with a simple 4TB for Time Machine and a much larger one, say a 10TB model that is just meant for your data files. I will warn you, these are Enterprise-Grade Hard Drives and are NOT CHEAP. If you really wanted to save some cash, you could go with a lower end EHD, such as this Western Digital 2TB EHD. This EHD would be just used for Time Machine. So if it dies, it's not a big deal...just as long as your internal Macintosh HD doesn't die at the same time. (Plausible, but HIGHLY UNLIKELY.) Better yet, I'd opt for this 3TB Gaming EHD from Western Digital. I am a big fan of the WD Black Line of drives (Class of Drives, not actual color.) WD Black Hard Drives are an advanced model, and just below a server-class / Enterprise-Grade Hard Drive. I have owned several WD Black Models over the last 30 years and have never had a problem with them. They run fast, run quiet and run cool. Even though it's a "Gaming" EHD that I linked to, it will work just fine on your Mac. All we would have to do is repartition and reformat the Drive. That takes like 5-10 minutes to accomplish. No software needed as it's built into the OS and I can help you with this. If you are in the market for a new iMac, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND just purchasing that 10TB Thunderbolt G-Drive now. The new Thunderbolt Ports on the new iMacs are FAST and believe it or not, you can actually work off this drive without any lag. Of course, this makes Damien's head spin, but I do it all the time. That being said, I would never do this with a USB 3.0 EHD, that interface is just too slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted February 13, 2020 Author Share Posted February 13, 2020 Thank you Brian, I've ordered the WD ones for now to see how I get on and will update you once they're here. It's been really helpful as this is a minefield for me so i've enjoyed reading through your tips. I've ordered carry cases too for carrying them home just to keep them safe. I assume I take them both home at night. How often would you recommend doing a time machine back up? How long also would you recommend keeping files for customers on the EHD, i usual call them after 18 months and say i'm wiping them do they need an extra bard copy and keep everything quite clear on my macs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 3 hours ago, SophieBowden-Caldwell said: How often would you recommend doing a time machine back up? If you store a lot of data on your main hard drive and work off of it exclusively, which is probably the case at this point, you can leave it on and it will automatically backup every hour or so. The first Time Machine Backup usually takes awhile during the first-go-round. Technically, if you have a large enough HD (like a 4TB Drive,) Apple wants you to have the TM EHD hooked up at all times and let it run in the background. I will say, it works REALLY WELL. I once had a catastrophic failure, had the HD replaced and restored from a TM Backup. I was operational at about 99% with having do tweak a few things here and there, like 3rd-party license keys and such, after about 20-30 minutes. Steve Jobs wanted doing data backups to be "Fun" and to have little input as possible for the end-user, so they couldn't screw up things. Time Machine is a "Set It and Forget It" type of thing, and in reality, it's designed just to work in the background; it doesn't take that much system resources either. I personally use my TM Drive about once a week, basically it's what you are comfortable with losing. If you can afford having a week's worth of possible data going "poof," just doing it once a week is fine. If you can't, or if you like adding / deleting files on a normal basis, then more often or at the very least, daily. Simply power-off the EHD or eject & disconnect the TM Drive so Time Machine won't kick in if you want to hold off on backups. You could also flip the switch in the System Preferences / Settings but this is a little dangerous, as you could forget to turn TM back on each time. When you configure Time Machine, make sure you EXCLUDE any other external hard drives. You just want to backup the Internal Mac HD. Open the Time Machine Preferences and click on the "Options" button. You should see your other EHD (if it's hooked up) in the Exclude List. I'm currently running a TM Backup as I type this and my Exclude List looks like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 3 hours ago, SophieBowden-Caldwell said: How long also would you recommend keeping files for customers on the EHD, i usual call them after 18 months and say i'm wiping them do they need an extra bard copy and keep everything quite clear on my macs. This is totally your choice. It boils down to what you are comfortable with. If you do a lot of sessions, 18 Months seems reasonable. I know other Photographers who keep stuff for decades. You'd be surprised on how many requests are generated for photos when someone dies. But if you are a newborn photographer, your situation might be different. It really depends on WHAT type of Photographer you are. If you are into Commercial Work, and need to have proof of negatives just in case you need to go to court, your needs might be different than one who sets up hay-bails and corn-stalks for "Fall Mini Sessions." Personally, I keep all of my stuff and will gradually move old Weddings that I've shot over to a EHD that's put into a storage unit. So I tend to keep stuff for years. If 18 Months works for you, keep doing what you are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 One more thing... When you get those Western Digital EHDs, LET ME KNOW. We will need to prep them for use on your Mac. DO NOT USE ANY BUILT-IN WESTERN DIGITAL SOFTWARE to do this, no matter how much it bugs you. Everything that you require is built into the Operating System. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted February 13, 2020 Author Share Posted February 13, 2020 Thanks Brian, once they've arrived i'll let you know! I'm heading up to Scotland for a week so it'll be in a weeks time if thats okay. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 I will be away from my computer next week as well. I still will have access, just not able to post screenshots, so we will pick this up after next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted February 27, 2020 Author Share Posted February 27, 2020 Hi Brian, hope you're well. I'm back at the studio and the HD's have arrived so i'm ready to start setting them up if you're able to assist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 OK, great. Refresh my memory. What MacOS are you running currently? Which hard drives do you have now and what are their capacities? Will you have a dedicated Time Machine Drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hiya, it's currently on OSX 10.9.5 and i've got 2 WD passport 2TB as it's 4 x my capacity on the mac i believe. One is for time machine and one is to take home with my studio work backed up on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 OK, since you are on MacOS Mavericks, your screens will look different, but the process should be similar. The first thing I want you to do, if you haven't already, is turn on the feature that allows you to see HDs and other "Mounted Devices" on your Mac Desktop. Open the Finder. The easiest way is to click the Smiley Face on your DockBar: Then head to the Finder Menu and select Preferences: Once there put checks next to these items and change the bottom to "Macintosh HD" if you want: From there, just click the Red Circle in the upper left corner to apply the changes. Now for Part 2... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 First, plug in one of your new Western Digital Externals into a USB Port on your Mac. It may appear on the desktop, it might not. Next, Open Disk Utilities. Head to Applications Menu >> Utilities >> Disk Utilities. This is where your Disk Utilities might look slightly different. Anyway, here is mine: At this point, you are going to have to work with me. Post a Screenshot in this thread of what your Disk Utility Window looks like and we will continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 Sorry, I thought you hadn't replied so i manually logged out and back in and it;s been sat here for a week. Really sorry! Please find attached the screenshot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 No worries. Anyway, I hooked up my old 2009 iMac which has High Sierra installed. The setup screens, though different that Mavericks, are more in-line with what you will see vs a Mac with Mojave installed. What you will need to do next is click once on the line where it says "2 TB WD MY Passport 26..." and then you should see some options at the top. Here is an example: Click Partition at the Top. A screen should appear as follows, or something similar: Give it a Name, like Time Machine (for the TM Drive) or something like WD 2TB EHD. The partition type should be MAC OS EXTENDED (JOURNALED). This is very important. Do NOT choose anything else. Just plain-old Mac OS Extended (Journaled), no encrypted or Case-sensitive...none of that. The size should be at the Maximum it allows. The Scheme, if asked, should be GUID Partition Map. Do not choose APFS if asked, that's for SSD Drives! Chances are you won't have this option, but I'm just making sure. Verify your choices, then Click Apply at the bottom. A Pop-Up Box will appear asking if you really want to do this, tell it Yes / OK / Partition and let it do its thing. Click Done or OK at the end. You should now see the WD EHD appear on your desktop. Do this same process for the other drive and give it a name. When both drives are converted over to being a Mac EHD, we will then go through the one meant for Time Machine and get that one synced up to work with Time Machine. Let me know of your results. This process shouldn't take more than like 5-10 min. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted March 7, 2020 Author Share Posted March 7, 2020 Hi Brian, it won't let me rename it and the options don't look the same. Do I need to verify it first? I've uploaded what it's showing me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted March 7, 2020 Author Share Posted March 7, 2020 I think it's the layout it wants me to choose from first how many partitions from the layout drop down option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 OK, that's the old way. You are in the right area. First, click the down arrow next to Current and choose a Single Partition or One Partition in the drop-down menu. Over on the right: "Name:" give the HD a name, like 2TB WD EHD or whatever label you choose. "Format:" Mac OS Extended (Journaled) "Size:" 2TB or whatever the maximum is. Then click Apply and let it do it's thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 That's all done so i'm ready to sync the time machine hard drive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 OK, screenshots will be needed. Your OS is so different than the last couple of versions. With the TM drive hooked up, and NO OTHER EHD HOOKED UP, head to the System Preferences and select Time Machine. Here is what mine looks like: You should still have an option to "Select Disk" or something similar. Then choose the TM Drive you just created in the list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted March 12, 2020 Author Share Posted March 12, 2020 Hi Brian, please find attached the screenshots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 Well, this is easy and self-explanatory. Select the Time Machine Backup 2TB in the list and click "Use Disk." Flip the Time Machine Switch to "On." Then click the red circle in the upper left and let it do it's thing. The 1st TM backup takes the longest. This is one of the BEST FEATURES with the MacOS: Time Machine. Apple has made this so freakin' easy. Windows on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophieBowden-Caldwell Posted March 13, 2020 Author Share Posted March 13, 2020 Hi Brian, it's changed on the desktop to a time machine back up but I can't see any progress in finder or how to tell what it's doing? Also can I take the HD out and take it home with me so I know i've got the back up just in case or does it need to be plugged in at all times? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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