Good Idea to Move All Imatch folders to One Directory for Backup ease?

[kiwilink]

I am now nightly backing up the following four directories for IMATCH5 backups:


C:\users\Mikey\AppData\Roaming\photools\Imatch5

C:\ProgramData\photools.com\Imatch5

C:\Users\Mikey\MyDocuments\Imatch5DatabaseFiles

J:\Pictures\Imatch5test  (My pictures are here)

Would it be O.K. to create one directory called Imatch and move the first three shown above to one directory?  That way I would only have two directories to backup (One for all Imatch5 files and one for just my pictures). 

Thanks!

Michael

[Mario]

These folders (user, program data) are special folders, dedicated by Windows for specific purposes. They separate "per-user" data from "all user data". All your applications use these folders. And IMatch expects certain files in certain folders. You cannot move them around.

You can choose where to store your IMatch databases of course.

The app data and user folder should be backed up completely, every day at least. All your applications keep important and probably irrecoverable data there. I don't know which backup software you use, but you should always include "c:\users" and "c:\programmdata" in your daily routine. Most backup software does this automatically because these folders are so important. This will back up your IMatch data automatically as well.

The database folder should also be included in your daily backup.

[Photon]

I understand and share fully the idea of original posting Michael.
I understand the recommendations of Mario.

But I do not backup every day ALL my files in c:\users\photon\... because the size of this terrible windows directory structure can be very big (5 to 10 GByte!) and included a lot of rubbish like temporary browser cache files. Instead I backup key projects and key software configuration files individually, sometimes with revision tracking. That is why I find it very helpful to know exactly, where specific SW settings are stored. With v3.6 it was a little bit easier to define a user specific subfolder structure for most IM configuration files under ONE master directory. In IM v5.0 it is a bit more distributed and can no longer be configured so flexible due to valid reasons. With this it is just good to know, where all relevant IM v5.0 subfolders are located and to what location a backup has to be placed back in case of urgency or in the realistic case of setting transfer from one PC to another PC. In the latter case the complete c:\users\...backup does not help much.

Kind Regards, Martin

[kiwilink]

Thanks for the replies!

As Photon mentioned, I did create a backup and was really surprised to see how large that directory structure was.  I'm hoping to  back up just the files I need for Imatch5 in case I need to restore.  Since things are spread out in Imatch5 I just ant to make sure I don't miss anything!

Thanks again for the responses!

Michael

[picolo]

My backup for Imatch looks like:

Installationfolder: C:\Program Files (x86)\photools.com\
Where my Database and the settingsdatabase is located: D:\My Imatch\
IMatch Program data: %PROGRAMDATA%\photools.com\IMatch5\
IMatch per user data: %APPDATA%\photools.com\IMatch5\

The Database and Settings are not located in the default folder and I do not backup the cache.
I think I have covered about everything that needs to be backed up...

[ChrisMatch]

May I add the question whether there are any interesting settings stored in the windows registry worth to export and backup?

[Mario]

May I add the question whether there are any interesting settings stored in the windows registry worth to export and backup?

No.

IMatch does not use registry settings. The only setting is the folder used for the settings database, but only if you need to store the PTS file in another folder. This can be easily re-configured if you loose your Windows installation (and thus the registry).

[Mario]

As Photon mentioned, I did create a backup and was really surprised to see how large that directory structure was.

The size does not matter, unless your backup software is pretty basic and neither supports incremental or differential backups. If you have to backup the full set of files every day, choose another backup software which supports differential (more secure) or incremental (even less disk usage) backups.

Differential Backup: Backup only data changed since the last full backup
Incremental Backup: Backup only data which has changed since the last backup.

You will notice that the amount of data changed per day in your 10 GB folder hierarchy is usually only a few megabytes.

[Photon]

The windows directories are not just a few MByte per day, because they are filled with rubbish. Why hide you values in a backup together with rubbish? For standard users, who are normally not able to relocate key software files/settings (e.g. firefox/thunderbird profiles) far from these terrible windows folders, it can be even worse.

My backup strategy and tools are professional (SVN, CVS, FreeFileSync, AutoVer, ...) , but more complex than just differential or incremental. What I realized is a backup based on projects and versions with daily and revison backups. For this it is mandatory to identify the location of relevant data on your hard disk. This is in any case good to know and I think the discussion and directory collection in this forum posting is very helpful. Thanks!

I think it is also worth to consider, if and why a backup is really required. Take for example the IMatch thumbnail cache which is default under "C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch5\previewcache\". I did not yet check all IM thumbnail details, but I would not like to spend time, storage and effort for its backup. See also the separate cache size discussion. It is better to concentrate on media file asset backup and IM settings backup, because then the regeneration of thumbnails is an easy excercise.

Regards, Martin

[Mario]

IMatch stores thumbnails in the database. The cache is in the previewcache folder. It can be very time-consuming to re-create this cache (rescanning all files) so you might want t backup it after each change. Once backed up, incremental or differential backups of the cache folder are very small, unless you add thousands of files per day.

IMHO The best backup is one that runs automatically, without any user intervention. I work in IT for 20 years, and I've seen bad things happen. Often.

That's why I use imaging software like TrueImage for backups. It runs automatically, backs up only modified sectors (!) in differential mode and even on my development machine with very high daily throughput, the daily backup volume is only between 8 and 15 GB. The initial backup file I create each week has about 700 GB.

Using TI I can go back several weeks (!) in my backup to retrieve a specific version of a file, I can mount the backup of a specific day as a regular disk to access the files via Windows Explorer. And I can (important!) run verification procedures in the background to ensure that the backup is healthy and the restore works.

I backup my entire system every day. Takes about 20 minutes.

[Photon]

Yes Mario, I mixed thumbnails vs previewcache wording for this subfolder structure.

Indeed I forgot to mention that I use also Trueimage v2010. Just took the chance to upgrade it to v2013. Due to a payment bug at Cleverbridge I got the upgrade for only 9.99 USD instead of 23.79 USD. Thanks for your triggering which resulted in this gift! With IMatch onllne purchase I would never ever try such price reduction thing!!!

Indeed I use three backup concepts in parallel. One manual sync backup to other drives (with identical folder and file structur). One continuos revision backup with identical folder structure and versioned files_yyyy-mm-dd.ext). And the complete regular/automatic hard disk backup (with proprietary TIB database files).

Regards, Martin

[kiwilink]

Photon/Mario:

Thanks for all of the insight.  I use a NAS (QNAP) and backup my IMATCH pictures, database, and all associated files using NETBAK Replicator (which comes with QNAP as part of the NAS).  It does not backup incremental or differentials - it simply makes a backup of any file that has changed automatically when I choose the files.  Now, I know this is not good so I keep a few backups by writing them to DVD's so I have multiple versions to go back to. 

I had thought about buying True Image 2013 ($29.99 USD) for the home but I saw many reviewers that said they tried using it to backup their NAS devices and it caused them many problems.  I didn't want TI2013 for my Windows 7 PC and NETBAK for my NAS but if you two like TI2013 maybe I should try it because I have not found very many good backup programs.

I would like to add that I clone my entire C disk (which has just programs and the OS on it) once per week using Seagates DISCWIZARD (which is an Acronis written backup software package).  I'm just looking for a backup strategy to keep my IMATCH5 system safe.  Before with 3.6 it was easy because all I had to worry about was using the Database backup routine within IMATCH (I already always clone my data/pictures on another drive).  Now with IMATCH5 I have 4 directories I need to backup as I mentioned at the beginning of this thread.  If you guys think TI 2013 will be of benefit to me to accomplish this I will purchase this.

Thanks for all of your comments.

Mike

P.S.  Mario:  I'm ready for IMATCH5 (I've been testing and I'm eager to start migrating my data).  I'm mostly worried about my light table sort order that I worked very hard on so hopefully I'll not lose this.  Because of a mix of scans and pictures I chose Light table as an alternative to creating EXIF data.

[reader]

Thanks for the replies!

As Photon mentioned, I did create a backup and was really surprised to see how large that directory structure was.  I'm hoping to  back up just the files I need for Imatch5 in case I need to restore.  Since things are spread out in Imatch5 I just ant to make sure I don't miss anything!

Thanks again for the responses!

Michael

Thanks for the replies!

As Photon mentioned, I did create a backup and was really surprised to see how large that directory structure was.  I'm hoping to  back up just the files I need for Imatch5 in case I need to restore.  Since things are spread out in Imatch5 I just ant to make sure I don't miss anything!

Thanks again for the responses!
Michael

This may be clear off the wall and I haven't tested it but I have done things like it in the past.
If you were to create a directory C:\ AllMyImatchTargets
And in that directory you create shortcuts to all the paths that contain
imatch files (assuming you had them all in your OP).

C:\users\Mikey\AppData\Roaming\photools\Imatch5
C:\ProgramData\photools.com\Imatch5
C:\Users\Mikey\MyDocuments\Imatch5DatabaseFiles
J:\Pictures\Imatch5test
(You'd probably have to go to each directory and create a shortcut then move it to the new location)

Now if you aim your backup tool at the top directory C:\AllMyImatchTargets wouldn't it do what you are after... or am I getting my linux background mixed in there

Of course you need to test thoroughly before trusting that approach

[ChrisMatch]

I also haven't tested this but:
If you create a normal shortcut under windows I think the backup software would simply copy the shortcut (only a file itself).
If you use hard links, this could work.

[ChrisMatch]

Having said that, I don't think this would be a big advantage.
You just transfer the setting 'which folder to backup' from the backup software to the file system - but if it's to your liking 

[Photon]

Just in case, if you are interested in getting the full version Acronis TrueImage (ATI) 2013 for 9.99 USD (9,40 EUR incl. tax).

TEXT REMOVED BY MARIO.

Although this might be a bug in the payment processor used by Acronis, I don't support seeing such a glitch being abused to basically steal money from the friendly folks at Acronis. They produce good quality software and they charge a fair amount of money for it. I hope that nobody discovers a similar bug in the payment processing of my distributor, stealing my money.

If one of the fellow community members wants to take chances, you can contact the poster of this post via PM.


Thanks again Mario for the trigger, Martin

P.S.: I am not at all related with Acronis and would not make such recommendation in a public forum. I do this here only, because this forum is not public, because I like other beta testers and because Mario mentioned Trueimage with a couple of good general backup recommendations.

[Photon]

I do not want to hijack the OP subject and perhaps a separate IM backup strategy subject in this forum is more appropriate? Nevertheless the backup discussion is very important and helpful, because the situation with HW/SW at IMatch user side is so different. For example I found out that TrueImage and other tools are partially not able to handle mounted TrueCrypt drives, or TrueImage File-Sync is impossible without Internet connection, or Lightroom does not support substituted drive letters, or... . This means, that there is no single backup strategy or tool possible and every user has to develop his personal backup solution. Apparently not only various DAM workflows, but also various BAM workflows are required (BAM = Backup Asset Management:-).

For some Lightroom, Picasa and CaptureOne directories/database files, I already use hard linked or symbolic linked directories, which are located on other subdirectories or other hard disks. With such links, the application does not see any difference to standard installation, but the data is located physically elsewhere. This can have big benefits for transfer of settings, for operation, for speed and for backup. But there is of course also risk, if you do not know exactly what you are doing. I am currently considering, if symbolic links can be a solution also for Imatch, which stores by default important settings distributed over the C drive. I am not complaining about this "distribution", because this is decision of competent software developer.

Regarding standard links, hard links, symbolic links, ... the impact for backup tools can be different. Normally for standard links only the link file (*.lnk) is copied and not all the content behind. But some backup tools allow for example enabling/disabling of "follow symbolic links". Again, this can be dangerous and lead to unwanted backup effects (e.g. backup of you complete network data, nested backup structures, infinitive loops, ...:-)

Kind Regards, Martin

[Ferdinand]

For example I found out that TrueImage and other tools are partially not able to handle mounted TrueCrypt drives, or TrueImage

I don't want to hijack this thread either, but I have some experience in trying to use Trueimage and Truecrypt and have only found one instance where there was a problem, and I use another backup program in that instance.  But I am still (successfully) using an older version of ATI.  If you want to start another thread, I will post more details.