Today’s Question: I keep all my images on a 6TB external hard drive, which is quickly running out of space, and would like to back it up to an external 20TB hard drive. What software do you recommend and why?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I would use software such as GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup), though there are some very important issues that need to be kept in mind when performing this work.
More Detail: There are a variety of ways you could migrate photos to a larger hard drive. However, I recommend using software that is designed for this type of purpose to avoid problems and frustrations.
If you’re using Lightroom Classic you’ll of course need to keep in mind that if the overall path to the photos changes, you’ll need to reconnect the “missing” folders after the migration. This is best done by reconnecting a single top-level folder, such as by having a “Photos” folder that can be used as the single folder to reconnect above all others.
I don’t recommend simply copying (or moving) the photos, because this can result in problems and frustration if there are any photos that aren’t able to be transferred for any reason. This process can be managed much more easily by creating a backup job for this purpose with software such as GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup).
One significant caveat to be aware of with GoodSync is that it will make the destination location look exactly like the source location, which can include deleting existing files if you’re not careful. For example, if you have existing files and folders on the destination drive, but then select the existing photos drive as the source and the top-level (root) of the larger hard drive as the destination, GoodSync will delete existing files on the larger hard drive so that it matches what is on the source drive. In this case you should use a new parent folder on the larger drive to serve as the destination for the backup.
While the overall process of migrating photos to a new and larger hard drive is rather straightforward, there are also risks involved if you’re not familiar with the specific process involved. In that case I would recommend having someone who is familiar with this workflow take care of the process for you. Even more important, if you’re using Lightroom Classic I consider it critically important to make sure that anyone who helps you with this type of computer work is very familiar with Lightroom Classic.
