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Photos backup device

I’m looking for an external device to download/backup my photos to

Posted on Sep 28, 2023 1:50 PM

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Posted on Sep 28, 2023 2:23 PM

The easiest is an external drive with Time Machine - especially if your Photos library is on your internal drive.


Since my Photos library is on my internal drive, here is what I do:

Maintain a Time Machine backup

Maintain a bootable clone updated monthly or so

use a separate external drive with only Photo's Library copies. (Since this copies the whole library stupidly, it can take a long time.)


If you have your Photo's Library on an external drive, keep a few other external drives and periodically copy your library to them. Note that like above, this is a "stupid" copy and may take a while, depending on the speed of your drive.


Now that I don't work in a secure area, I can even store a copy at work, in case my house burns down.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 28, 2023 2:23 PM in response to Jeremyweir

The easiest is an external drive with Time Machine - especially if your Photos library is on your internal drive.


Since my Photos library is on my internal drive, here is what I do:

Maintain a Time Machine backup

Maintain a bootable clone updated monthly or so

use a separate external drive with only Photo's Library copies. (Since this copies the whole library stupidly, it can take a long time.)


If you have your Photo's Library on an external drive, keep a few other external drives and periodically copy your library to them. Note that like above, this is a "stupid" copy and may take a while, depending on the speed of your drive.


Now that I don't work in a secure area, I can even store a copy at work, in case my house burns down.


Sep 29, 2023 7:52 AM in response to Jeremyweir

For Time Machine, where backups are incremental and don't involve the entire library, speed isn't too important, so a mechanical drive, though slower, is nearly half the cost of a fast SSD, and works fine. In fact, since they're half the cost, I have two Time Machine drives that I swap in and out, just in case one fails. Like Keith Barkley I also make a full copy of my Libraries maybe monthly or so. Because I'm impatient I use a fast Solid State Drive for that.


Since you asked, the mechanical drive I use is this, though I also use 1TB versions:

Toshiba Canvio Advance 2TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, Black


The SSDs are these, though I also have 1 TB versions, as well:

Crucial X8 2TB Portable SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB 3.2 - External Solid State Drive, USB-C


These are portable and USB powered-- for a similar price you can get larger AC powered desktop drives that are cheaper per TB.

Photos backup device

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