Opening and closing a previous back up.

[John Cicchine]

I am a new member here and glad to have found you folks. I would like to know how can I open up an old back up to try to find some missing photographs and then return to the catalog I am currently using? I am still fairly new to Lightroom. Also how can I use Apple Time Machine to try to recover some missing photos? As of now I have never had to open up Time Machine. Thank God I never lost anything critical but I would still like to recover some of these photographs. If all else fails I will try Data Rescue on my Mac. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Before we answer that, it may be better to establish what the problem is exactly. Do you still see the photo in Lightroom, but does Lightroom tell you it is missing? In that case there is no need to use a catalog backup, because the catalog backup will also show the photo as missing. The problem is that the photo has been moved (or deleted), so Lightroom can't find it. You may have to retrieve it from Time Machine (and we can tell you how), but it may be just a matter of telling Lightroom where to find it.

Or do you not see the photo at all in Lightroom, but you know it was in Lightroom some time ago? In that case it may indeed be necessary to temporarily switch to an older catalog backup.

 

[John Cicchine]

Before we answer that, it may be better to establish what the problem is exactly. Do you still see the photo in Lightroom, but does Lightroom tell you it is missing? In that case there is no need to use a catalog backup, because the catalog backup will also show the photo as missing. The problem is that the photo has been moved (or deleted), so Lightroom can't find it. You may have to retrieve it from Time Machine (and we can tell you how), but it may be just a matter of telling Lightroom where to find it.

Or do you not see the photo at all in Lightroom, but you know it was in Lightroom some time ago? In that case it may indeed be necessary to temporarily switch to an older catalog backup.

Before we answer that, it may be better to establish what the problem is exactly. Do you still see the photo in Lightroom, but does Lightroom tell you it is missing? In that case there is no need to use a catalog backup, because the catalog backup will also show the photo as missing. The problem is that the photo has been moved (or deleted), so Lightroom can't find it. You may have to retrieve it from Time Machine (and we can tell you how), but it may be just a matter of telling Lightroom where to find it.

Or do you not see the photo at all in Lightroom, but you know it was in Lightroom some time ago? In that case it may indeed be necessary to temporarily switch to an older catalog backup.

Hi Johan. The more I think about it the more I think I deleted the photographs when I was having some catalog problems a few months ago. I do not see them or any clue of them in Lightroom. I approach anything with catalogs and back ups with fear and trepidation. If you can explain to me how to try to recover the photos with Time Machine that would be great. But what ever I do in Lightroom if it does not work I need to be able to get back to my current catalog and folders. If not I will try Data Rescue on my Mac to find the files on the memory card. Thank You once again Johan.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Time Machine is very easy. Open the folder where the photos used to be, and then start Time Machine. You will see the folder window like you are still in the Finder, but with a whole stack of folder windows behind it. That's how you can 'browse into the history' of that folder. Once you found the deleted photo in one of those windows, select it and click the Restore button.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The second part depends on whether you made adjustments and/or added metadata to the photo that is now deleted. If not, just import it again into your present catalog. If you did and you want to 'rescue' those, it becomes a little more complicated, but it can still be done.

 

[John Cicchine]

Time Machine is very easy. Open the folder where the photos used to be, and then start Time Machine. You will see the folder window like you are still in the Finder, but with a whole stack of folder windows behind it. That's how you can 'browse into the history' of that folder. Once you found the deleted photo in one of those windows, select it and click the Restore button.

Hi Johan.
Do I close Lightroom and then plug in my Time Machine external back up hard drive and look for the folder and then the photograph in the dialog box of the hard drive? Also if that's correct do I then pick and export the photo/photos to my desk top then import to Lightroom from there? Thank You my friend.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Hook up the Time Machine disk, but don't try to find the folder there. The Time Machine app will do that for you. Open the folder (on your hard disk) where the image used to be, then start up Time Machine. By default, Time Machine will restore the image to that same folder, but you can override that if you want to. It doesn't make sense to override it however, because if that is where the image used to be, that is the most logical place to restore it.*

After you've restored it to that folder, you can import it in Lightroom by ctrl-clicking on the folder name, and then choosing 'Synchronize Folder'. Lightroom will then go through the folder and suggest to import those images that are not yet in the catalog (so the images you just restored).

*An alternative could be to indeed restore the image to the desktop, import it into Lightroom the normal way, and move it to the correct folder during import.

 

[John Cicchine]

Hook up the Time Machine disk, but don't try to find the folder there. The Time Machine app will do that for you. Open the folder (on your hard disk) where the image used to be, then start up Time Machine. By default, Time Machine will restore the image to that same folder, but you can override that if you want to. It doesn't make sense to override it however, because if that is where the image used to be, that is the most logical place to restore it.*

After you've restored it to that folder, you can import it in Lightroom by ctrl-clicking on the folder name, and then choosing 'Synchronize Folder'. Lightroom will then go through the folder and suggest to import those images that are not yet in the catalog (so the images you just restored).

*An alternative could be to indeed restore the image to the desktop, import it into Lightroom the normal way, and move it to the correct folder during import.

Hi Johan.
If I try the first approach do I turn on Lightroom and click on what I "think" may have been the folder in the Lightroom Library Module? Or can I leave Lightroom turned off? How will Time Machine be able to find the folder for me? BTW my catalog is on an external hard drive and my photographs are on another external hard drive. Also if I try the 2nd. approach I assume I do not need to have Lightroom turned on. Just find the photograph and export to a folder on my desktop then open up Lightroom and import the photograph from there. Am I correct about both of your recommendations? Thank You Johan.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Please read the instructions carefully. There are two steps in this process:

1: Restoring the image from a Time Machine backup. That has nothing to do with Lightroom, so you can turn it off (but there is no harm in leaving it running in the background either). Time Machine doesn't 'find the folder for you', you have to tell Time Machine where the image was. If you don't know that, it may become a matter of trying folder after folder until you found it. I'm typing this on my iPad so I can't post some screenshots to make it easier to understand, so read this: How to view and restore specific files using Time Machine

2: Once the image is restored, you know where it is. So it won't be a matter of ctrl-clicking on the folder in Lightroom where you 'think' the image was, it will be ctlr-clicking on the folder you know you just restored the image to. Or importing the image from where you know you restored the image to (like the desktop). There isn't really much difference between 'synchronize folder' and 'import'. In both cases you import the image into Lightroom. If you feel more comfortable using the standard import method, then just use that one.

P.S. If your catalog is on an external hard drive and your images are on yet another hard drive, then I do hope that you actually have a Time Machine backup that covers all those drives. Time Machine can backup multiple drives, but always to a single destination drive so that drive must be quite large if it does indeed contain a backup of three source drives...

 

[John Cicchine]

Please read the instructions carefully. There are two steps in this process:

1: Restoring the image from a Time Machine backup. That has nothing to do with Lightroom, so you can turn it off (but there is no harm in leaving it running in the background either). Time Machine doesn't 'find the folder for you', you have to tell Time Machine where the image was. If you don't know that, it may become a matter of trying folder after folder until you found it. I'm typing this on my iPad so I can't post some screenshots to make it easier to understand, so read this: How to view and restore specific files using Time Machine

2: Once the image is restored, you know where it is. So it won't be a matter of ctrl-clicking on the folder in Lightroom where you 'think' the image was, it will be ctlr-clicking on the folder you know you just restored the image to. Or importing the image from where you know you restored the image to (like the desktop). There isn't really much difference between 'synchronize folder' and 'import'. In both cases you import the image into Lightroom. If you feel more comfortable using the standard import method, then just use that one.

P.S. If your catalog is on an external hard drive and your images are on yet another hard drive, then I do hope that you actually have a Time Machine backup that covers all those drives. Time Machine can backup multiple drives, but always to a single destination drive so that drive must be quite large if it does indeed contain a backup of three source drives...

Hi Johan. I just wanted to inform you as to where I am now. I tried going into Time Machine and I cannot see any clue as to where the photographs are. It says something about restoring the Catalog but I am afraid that doing that may mess up all the settings I have in my Catalog. Am I correct? I looked at the link you sent me but I need to review it a bit more to better understand it. For now I am trying to recover the files with Data Rescue Software. I also have a feeling that my Time Machine may not be properly set up to back up Lightroom for me. Perhaps you can assist me in making sure my Time Machine back ups are properly set up. I have a 4 TB G Tech external hard drive to store my Time Machine back ups. My Lightroom Catalogs (I use primarily only one catalog) are on a separate G Tech 4 TB external hard drive and my photos (Folders) are on 2 separate external G Tech 4 TB hard drives. One is almost full and so I recently added the other drive for my photos. Then I also recently moved my catalog from my Internal Hard Drive which filled up fast to the new external G Tech hard drive for my catalogs. Also my Time Machine hard drive is almost full too. As I said it is a 4 TB drive but it has a bit more than 3.5 TB's on it. So for now I will try to use Data Rescue until I understand Time Machine better. Also just so you know my time frame. I am an American now living in the Philippines. I wanted to let you know this so that if I do not write back to you quickly it may be because I am sleeping. Ok for now my friend. Thank You for all your help and I look forward to hearing from you soon. John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Hi Johan. I just wanted to inform you as to where I am now. I tried going into Time Machine and I cannot see any clue as to where the photographs are. It says something about restoring the Catalog but I am afraid that doing that may mess up all the settings I have in my Catalog. Am I correct? I looked at the link you sent me but I need to review it a bit more to better understand it. For now I am trying to recover the files with Data Rescue Software. I also have a feeling that my Time Machine may not be properly set up to back up Lightroom for me. Perhaps you can assist me in making sure my Time Machine back ups are properly set up. I have a 4 TB G Tech external hard drive to store my Time Machine back ups. My Lightroom Catalogs (I use primarily only one catalog) are on a separate G Tech 4 TB external hard drive and my photos (Folders) are on 2 separate external G Tech 4 TB hard drives. One is almost full and so I recently added the other drive for my photos. Then I also recently moved my catalog from my Internal Hard Drive which filled up fast to the new external G Tech hard drive for my catalogs. Also my Time Machine hard drive is almost full too. As I said it is a 4 TB drive but it has a bit more than 3.5 TB's on it. So for now I will try to use Data Rescue until I understand Time Machine better. Also just so you know my time frame. I am an American now living in the Philippines. I wanted to let you know this so that if I do not write back to you quickly it may be because I am sleeping. Ok for now my friend. Thank You for all your help and I look forward to hearing from you soon. John

I'm pretty sure Time Machine does indeed not backup your images, because it would need a drive at least the size of your internal drive + the photo drives + the catalog drive, so at least something like 13 TB. In reality it's only a 4 TB drive, so I think it only backs up your internal drive right now. That simply means your photos are not being backed up (they never have been backed up!), so you should think about doing this in another way. You should not restore the catalog using Time Machine, because that is useless. Besides, if you moved your catalog from your internal drive to a external one, then most likely the catalogs you see in Time Machine are backups of the older catalog when it still was on the internal drive. So Time Machine is not going to be of any help here.

I'll wait to hear from you if you had any success with Data Rescue. If so, we can look at the next step(s). If not, then I'm afraid that's it; the photos are lost forever.

 

[John Cicchine]

I'm pretty sure Time Machine does indeed not backup your images, because it would need a drive at least the size of your internal drive + the photo drives + the catalog drive, so at least something like 13 TB. In reality it's only a 4 TB drive, so I think it only backs up your internal drive right now. That simply means your photos are not being backed up (they never have been backed up!), so you should think about doing this in another way. You should not restore the catalog using Time Machine, because that is useless. Besides, if you moved your catalog from your internal drive to a external one, then most likely the catalogs you see in Time Machine are backups of the older catalog when it still was on the internal drive. So Time Machine is not going to be of any help here.

Hi Johan. I will get back to you by next Tuesday or sooner if possible. I have a photo shoot tomorrow and possibly on Monday too. Helping out the local Church. I will try a bit more with Data Rescue and let you know. As I said Thank God I have not lost anything critical but there were a few photographs that I liked and would like to have them back or just try to re-shoot them. And if working with you I cannot then this would be a good time to get my Time Machine properly set up to properly back up my photos. Chat with you in a few days my friend and thank you for all your help.
John

I'll wait to hear from you if you had any success with Data Rescue. If so, we can look at the next step(s). If not, then I'm afraid that's it; the photos are lost forever.

 

[John Cicchine]

Hi Johan.
Thank You for writing back to me. I wrote to you on Friday night on my iPhone but either because my phone is a bit old or because I do not have a good internet here for some reason it did not go thru. But I did write to you and I really appreciate all you are doing for me. I have a lot of photographs from yesterday that I need to get done as quickly s possible but I WILL get back to you by the end of the week to see if "Data Rescue" was of any help. If I may ask you a few questions I was wondering Since I have two 4 TB G Tech hard drives to store my photographs and one 4 TB G Tech hard drive to store my Lightroom Catalogs do you think that to properly set up Time Machine should I purchase a 16 RAID drive? Should that be enough? I see G Tech has one. I like G Tech because they are pre-formatted for Macintosh. Please let me know what you think and I will do my best to write to you during the week. Thank You once again my friend.
John

 

[John Cicchine]

Hi Johan.
I was wondering. First of all Time Machine is NOT backing up my Lightroom photographs! Secondly, I currently have 222.17 GB on my Internal Hard Drive. Plus 3.91 TB on my first Photo Storage Drive. Plus 873.06 GB on my Second Photo Storage Drive. And 234. 07 GB on my Lightroom Catalog Storage Drive. With this amount of data (AND I WANT TO BACK UP ALL 4 DRIVES) do you think the 10 TB G Tech hard drive (WHICH IS NOT A RAID) would be of sufficient capacity and a viable choice? Also if YES what do I do when it is full? Do I get a 2nd. drive for Time Machine back ups? Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you as always my friend for all your help.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Fot now, a 10 TB drive is enough. Time Machine automatically removes the oldest versions of files when the backup drive gets full, so it will probably last a while. As long as the source drives are not getting so full that they already exeed 10 TB, Time Machine should be able to handle it. You can't add a second drive to Time Machine as 'overflow', but MacOS Sierra has a solution. MacOS Sierra restored the RAID options in Disk Utility, and one option is to simply add drives together to function as one (not really RAID, but perfect for this because it means you can increase the apparent size of a drive by adding another one to it). Unlike RAID, this should be possible without reformatting, so you can do this with an existing backup drive.

 

[John Cicchine]

Fot now, a 10 TB drive is enough. Time Machine automatically removes the oldest versions of files when the backup drive gets full, so it will probably last a while. As long as the source drives are not getting so full that they already exeed 10 TB, Time Machine should be able to handle it. You can't add a second drive to Time Machine as 'overflow', but MacOS Sierra has a solution. MacOS Sierra restored the RAID options in Disk Utility, and one option is to simply add drives together to function as one (not really RAID, but perfect for this because it means you can increase the apparent size of a drive by adding another one to it). Unlike RAID, this should be possible without reformatting, so you can do this with an existing backup drive.

Fot now, a 10 TB drive is enough. Time Machine automatically removes the oldest versions of files when the backup drive gets full, so it will probably last a while. As long as the source drives are not getting so full that they already exeed 10 TB, Time Machine should be able to handle it. You can't add a second drive to Time Machine as 'overflow', but MacOS Sierra has a solution. MacOS Sierra restored the RAID options in Disk Utility, and one option is to simply add drives together to function as one (not really RAID, but perfect for this because it means you can increase the apparent size of a drive by adding another one to it). Unlike RAID, this should be possible without reformatting, so you can do this with an existing backup drive.

Hi Johan.
Ok then for now I will as soon as I can purchase one of the 10 TB hard drives from G Tech. But eventually that will fill up and I will get a RAID drive but it will not be set up as a true RAID. My questions then are when they fill up do I just swap out another hard drive like if it has two drives in it just replace them with another drive and just safely store the older drives in a safe spot? (I NEVER WORKED with a RAID before). Then I keep on forgetting which system I have. It's the one with the photograph of the mountain with the flat side on it but what I am running should be in my profile data. Do you know if that and the newest OS which I plan to upgrade to soon allows for the RAID option like you said Sierra allows? Finally can you possibly look at the G Tech website and see which RAID you can recommend if I were to buy one now? Going to sleep shortly and I will write back tomorrow. I do not know how to say thank you but as always Thank You Johan.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Hi Johan.
Ok then for now I will as soon as I can purchase one of the 10 TB hard drives from G Tech. But eventually that will fill up and I will get a RAID drive but it will not be set up as a true RAID. My questions then are when they fill up do I just swap out another hard drive like if it has two drives in it just replace them with another drive and just safely store the older drives in a safe spot? (I NEVER WORKED with a RAID before). Then I keep on forgetting which system I have. It's the one with the photograph of the mountain with the flat side on it but what I am running should be in my profile data. Do you know if that and the newest OS which I plan to upgrade to soon allows for the RAID option like you said Sierra allows? Finally can you possibly look at the G Tech website and see which RAID you can recommend if I were to buy one now? Going to sleep shortly and I will write back tomorrow. I do not know how to say thank you but as always Thank You Johan.
John

No, swapping of disks in a RAID is meant to replace a faulty disk without losing data or losing time. It's not meant to store old data elsewhere and start with a clean drive. If and when you run out of space on the 10 TB drive, there are two things you can do. First, you can buy an even bigger drive to replace it. In that case you can indeed keep the old drive in a safe place and start a brand new Time Machine backup on the new drive. The second possibility is that you hook up a second drive (let's say another 10 TB drive), and use Disk Utility to combine the two drives to become one 20 TB drive. If you use the so-called Concatenated (JBOD) setup, then you can add a new drive to an existing one without wiping the data from that existing one, so Time Machine will simply go on making its backup on this bigger drive.

The MacOS X version with the mountain is El Capitan (El Capitan is a mountain in Yosemite national park). To make sure, just click on the small Apple menu all the way to the left and choose 'About this Mac'.

It's difficult to tell you which G Tech drive to get. I'm not you and I can't take a look in your bank account. However, my advice would be to go for a USB 3.0 only drive. Backup drives don't need to be that fast (Time Machine works in the background, so you are never waiting for it to finish), so I would probably not pay $1199 for a 16 TB Thunderbolt/USB drive if I can get the same drive with only USB for $999, for example. But hey, that 120 TB for $32999 sounds great as well...

 

[rob211]

RAIDs and concatenated disks aren't trivial. If you are having trouble even understanding what system you are on, I wouldn't recommend them without learning more. I'd suggest you do some work on learning about the different backup strategies; TM may not be the best choice for backing up all those photos...that's industrial league storage. Most single users can't make use of that many photos at any one time, and it sounds like you may actually need an archiving solution (which is different than backup per se).

 

[John Cicchine]

RAIDs and concatenated disks aren't trivial. If you are having trouble even understanding what system you are on, I wouldn't recommend them without learning more. I'd suggest you do some work on learning about the different backup strategies; TM may not be the best choice for backing up all those photos...that's industrial league storage. Most single users can't make use of that many photos at any one time, and it sounds like you may actually need an archiving solution (which is different than backup per se).

Hi Rob. Thank You for you suggestion. Any recommendations about an "archiving solution"? I am open to any and all ideas. BTW I finally had a chance to check what I am running. It is Yosemite Ver. 10.10.5. Hope to hear from you soon.
John

 

[John Cicchine]

No, swapping of disks in a RAID is meant to replace a faulty disk without losing data or losing time. It's not meant to store old data elsewhere and start with a clean drive. If and when you run out of space on the 10 TB drive, there are two things you can do. First, you can buy an even bigger drive to replace it. In that case you can indeed keep the old drive in a safe place and start a brand new Time Machine backup on the new drive. The second possibility is that you hook up a second drive (let's say another 10 TB drive), and use Disk Utility to combine the two drives to become one 20 TB drive. If you use the so-called Concatenated (JBOD) setup, then you can add a new drive to an existing one without wiping the data from that existing one, so Time Machine will simply go on making its backup on this bigger drive.

The MacOS X version with the mountain is El Capitan (El Capitan is a mountain in Yosemite national park). To make sure, just click on the small Apple menu all the way to the left and choose 'About this Mac'.

It's difficult to tell you which G Tech drive to get. I'm not you and I can't take a look in your bank account. However, my advice would be to go for a USB 3.0 only drive. Backup drives don't need to be that fast (Time Machine works in the background, so you are never waiting for it to finish), so I would probably not pay $1199 for a 16 TB Thunderbolt/USB drive if I can get the same drive with only USB for $999, for example. But hey, that 120 TB for $32999 sounds great as well...

Hi Johan.
And now a few more questions. But first I finally had a chance to stop and look up once again what I am running but I also thought you could look that up in my profile which I filled out when signing up. I am on Yosemite Ver. 10.10.5. Plan to upgrade very soon. My Questions are as follows.

1, What is the name of Apple's newest OS? I can look it up too if your a bit busy.
2, I CAN just purchase another non-RAID drive and begin another Time Machine back up (but the drive must them be larger than the 10 TB drive I plan to purchase next
and then just sore the first back up drive in a safe place?
3, Can I use a USB Dock (if I cannot daisy-chain the drives) to combine 2 OR MORE 10 TB non-RAID drives into 1 big drive?
4, Will my current OS (and Apple's latest OS) allow to JBOD 2 or more drives?
5, Can I set up the non-RAID drives as JBOD or must I use a RAID array?
6, When I purchase the new 10 TB G-Tech drive for back up CAN/SHOULD I go to Finder and click and drag the data on the old 4 TB back up drive onto the new back up
drive and begin new from there then erase the old 4 TB back up drive and use it of photo storage or just begin a new back up without transferring the old data?
7, How do I do this in Disk Utility?
8, Finally rob211 wrote and recommended I try other strategies. He suggests archiving but I thought that was basically the same. I agree totally with him that this is
serious storage that I need to do. Any suggestions on how to do archiving?

Thank You very much Johan. I realize this is quite a lot but as you can see I am trying to learn about various ways to protect my images. I am coming to the conclusion that we are reaching a point of diminishing return with all this technology. How much technology can any person keep up with??? I am most definitely a GEEK but not a total Geek. I like technology but I do not like to be overwhelmed by it. Just my little rant. Ok my friend. Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you as soon
as you can. Now back to working on photographs .
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Hi Johan.
And now a few more questions. But first I finally had a chance to stop and look up once again what I am running but I also thought you could look that up in my profile which I filled out when signing up. I am on Yosemite Ver. 10.10.5. Plan to upgrade very soon. My Questions are as follows.

1, What is the name of Apple's newest OS? I can look it up too if your a bit busy.

It's MacOS X 10.12 Sierra and you should indeed have looked that up yourself.

2, I CAN just purchase another non-RAID drive and begin another Time Machine back up (but the drive must them be larger than the 10 TB drive I plan to purchase next and then just sore the first back up drive in a safe place?

Yes, you can do that.

3, Can I use a USB Dock (if I cannot daisy-chain the drives) to combine 2 OR MORE 10 TB non-RAID drives into 1 big drive?

You probably mean a USB hub. Yes, you can do that. You can't daisy-chain USB drives anyway. That function only exists for FireWire and Thunderbolt.

4, Will my current OS (and Apple's latest OS) allow to JBOD 2 or more drives?

I believe so, but it's a long time ago that I used MacOS X Yosemite. Apple took out that function in MacOS X 10.11 El Capitan, but I think it was still present in MacOS X 10.10 Yosemite.

5, Can I set up the non-RAID drives as JBOD or must I use a RAID array?

You can use normal drives.

6, When I purchase the new 10 TB G-Tech drive for back up CAN/SHOULD I go to Finder and click and drag the data on the old 4 TB back up drive onto the new back up drive and begin new from there then erase the old 4 TB back up drive and use it of photo storage or just begin a new back up without transferring the old data?

No, you can't just copy a Time Machine backup to another disk like that. It's better to keep the 4 TB disk in a safe place and start a new Time Machine backup on the 10 TB disk.

7, How do I do this in Disk Utility?

You mean make a JBOD from two disks? Read this: How to configure a software RAID in macOS Sierra’s Disk Utility

8, Finally rob211 wrote and recommended I try other strategies. He suggests archiving but I thought that was basically the same. I agree totally with him that this is serious storage that I need to do. Any suggestions on how to do archiving?

Instead of making one big backup of all the disks, you could make smaller copies of each disk separately. That's what a lot of people do. You can't do that with Time Machine however, because Time Machine can only backup one source. That source can consist of multiple disks, but you can't make separate backups for each disk. If rob211 has certain ideas about how to archive, I'll let him explain that.

 

[John Cicchine]

It's MacOS X 10.12 Sierra and you should indeed have looked that up yourself.


Yes, you can do that.


You probably mean a USB hub. Yes, you can do that. You can't daisy-chain USB drives anyway. That function only exists for FireWire and Thunderbolt.


I believe so, but it's a long time ago that I used MacOS X Yosemite. Apple took out that function in MacOS X 10.11 El Capitan, but I think it was still present in MacOS X 10.10 Yosemite.


You can use normal drives.


No, you can't just copy a Time Machine backup to another disk like that. It's better to keep the 4 TB disk in a safe place and start a new Time Machine backup on the 10 TB disk.


You mean make a JBOD from two disks? Read this: How to configure a software RAID in macOS Sierra’s Disk Utility


Instead of making one big backup of all the disks, you could make smaller copies of each disk separately. That's what a lot of people do. You can't do that with Time Machine however, because Time Machine can only backup one source. That source can consist of multiple disks, but you can't make separate backups for each disk. If rob211 has certain ideas about how to archive, I'll let him explain that.

Hi Johan.
I just got done working on photographs for today. I will review everything you wrote and try to get back to you tomorrow. I am up to my eyeballs with photos to work on. But that's a good thing! As always I really appreciate all your help.

 

[John Cicchine]

Hi Johan.
I have been reviewing the information you sent but this is such a busy week photographically for me with a lot of Church events to document. I will try to write back by Saturday with a few questions. Seems to make sense to me so far but I always like to be sure about this stuff. As always I am truly grateful for you help. Chat with you in a few days.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I'll travel to South Africa tomorrow for about three weeks. I will have internet in the hotels, but it does mean I may not be in this forum for some days.

 

[John Cicchine]

Hi Johan.
Thank You for letting me know. I understand. When ever you can write to me is fine. As you know I appreciate all your help. Hope you get some good photographs!
John