I have a mile of room left but just thinking about the future
How do I start 2 new vaults? (Using 2 now), and
How do I use and manage the “old” vaults?
Or do I just need to replace them with even more TB?
I have a mile of room left but just thinking about the future
How do I start 2 new vaults? (Using 2 now), and
How do I use and manage the “old” vaults?
Or do I just need to replace them with even more TB?
Your vaults will be as large as your library. As your library grows, so grows your vault.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Hi Walter,
What I want to know, is what happens when the 2 3TB vaults are full? How do you handle the “spill over”?
Do you create 2 new, say, 2 x 6TB drives to replace the old vaults, do a backup then delete the old ones?
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
I think you can copy an existing vault from a smaller drive to a larger one, then reconnect Aperture to the vault on the large drive. I’m hoping someone else will respond who has more experience with vaults. I don’t use them anymore. I maintain copies of my Library on multiple disks and those are easy to move from smaller drives to larger ones. All my libraries are managed.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Wondering why you prefer to manually manage multiple copies of your libraries instead of using Vaults? With Vaults, Aperture knows what has changed since the last update to your Vaults and only synchronises those items. Managing themselves, presumably you have to copy the entire library each time (could take many hours) or you try to remember what has changed since your last backup and work that way.
Am I missing something?
That sounds like a reasonable plan, then I guess it is just a matter of renaming the new vaults and eventually formatting the old ones
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
Hi Walter,
On another forum, it was suggested that I establish a new library,
How well Aperture manages multiple libraries compared to just larger external HDD’s I don’t know?
Might delve into the “war and peace” novel, (the Aperture manual) see if I can find anything on multiple libraries
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
Zero issues with managing multiple libraries. Just don’t have any overlap, meaning the same image(s) in multiple libraries. You can easily export a subset of images from a library into a new library, work on them separately, and then import/merge them from that new library back into the existing library. That import will merge the updates to your images from the new library back into your old one. This is a very useful capability when you may want to take a subset of images on the road on a laptop, do some things with them like finish processing and editing the metadata, and then merge those updates back into your main library upon return.
I have several libraries. One is the master for all my camera original images. Others contain scans from specific events or locales or subjects like film scans from my 1994 Hawaii Honeymoon or 2000 Grand Canyon trip, or print scans of historic family prints handed down to me from numerous relatives.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Thank you for the heads-up Walter
Now that sounds like a great solution,
New Library-new vaults for that library perhaps?
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
If you create a new library as an export of a subset from a different library and plan to merge the changes back into the original library, you can do that merge as many times as you want. It might be better to merge updates into your original library, then update the vault for the original library instead of creating a separate vault for the temporary library.
If you create a new library for entirely new images, yes can you can create a vault for that new library.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
“If you create a new library for entirely new images, yes can you can create a vault for that new library.”
Yes that would be my plan!
Lastly, and I guess it may be obvious? Say one of my “old” vaults transpires, is it just a matter of replacing it with another formatted drive and then doing an update?
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
Do you mean expires, as in disk crash? If so, I think you have to replace the drive and create a new vault.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Yes Walter, vault dies!
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
If your vault disk dies, you have to replace it and recreate the vault from scratch. You also have to delete the old vault from Aperture. Aperture will tell you the old vault is unavailable and warn you about deleting it. You will have to delete it anyway since the disk and data are lost. Your only option is create a new vault.
This is one of the reasons I don’t use vaults. I use a synchronization tool to maintain backup copies of my Library disk. I have one master 2TB drive. I maintain three copies of that drive. One of those copies stays at a remote location. One copy stays at my home. The master and one copy stay with me wherever I go.
There are many synchronization tools available, some are free and some require a license. I open a Terminal window and use rsync. I’m an IT professional by trade with 30 years of IT experience so this is a very comfortable solution for me. Others may prefer a point-and-click solution such as ChronoSync, SuperDuper! or Acronis.
Vaults are nothing more than fancy Library folders with a different extension. Aperture updates them by doing a full compare between the source Library and the Vault copy. Any changes to the source are replicated to the vault copy. As your Library grows, this process can take longer and longer to complete. The synchronization process is just as fail proof and takes significantly less time.
One benefit of using copies instead of vault is that I can start using one of my copies as the new master if my master dies. I don’t have to restore a vault from some time in the past. Another benefit of using copies is damage control. I can export images from a copy and pull them back into my master if I accidentally delete something from my master. Vaults do not allow for partial restores. They require all-or-nothing restores.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Thank you Walter for your detailed reply, the only thing I understand about “it” is just using it as a word,
At the moment, on import I save to a folder for back-up, and then copy to another drive, I appear to have access to these folders OK but as you would be aware, they are just the original, at least all is not lost I guess
The external HDD’s are containing both the Vault and back-up folder in each case, I will at least introduce a couple of new drives for the back-up on import
Cannot see any other way of accessing an “Aperture edited” NEF raw file unless it through Aperture?
Lastly,
Thank you for all your help, reading through the threads here, you are a busy IT man, I’m sure it is appreciated
Regards,
Gary
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
Saving a separate copy during import to the same drive as your vault makes that copy no more safe than your vault. All of my libraries are managed libraries, and all are stored on the same external master disk. When I update my backup copies, any changes to any of my libraries will be reflected on my backup drives. I don’t have to update separate vaults for separate libraries. I do one disk sync for each backup disk (three total) and I’m done.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Thank you Walter,
Glad Ive had a good look at this well in advance,
What if I save the files to a separate drive than the vault and then clone that one?
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
You could do that, but as you pointed out those copies don’t include any of your other equally valuable work done to the images inside Aperture. My method preserves the images and all of my work on them. I’m not saying my method is for everyone. It is what I feel works for me.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
1. OK, how does your workflow work without vaults? I’m guessing you have the previews but the images are saved on the external drive?
2.I guess I’m technically stuck with vaults I have now, no way of getting those edited files across to another external disc?
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
I have managed libraries. That means the library folder contains all the Aperture data AND the actual images. One master drive has ALL of my master libraries. Each of the three backup drives is a complete copy of my master drive. When I make updates to any of my master libraries, then I synchronize the master drive to all three backup drives once again giving me three complete backup copies of my master drive.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Much appreciated, I get that,
Might have to make a few decisions when I start a new library
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
Like Walter, I have multiple Libraries (Managed). In fact one for each year. I have a corresponding Vault for each Library. While each is fairly large, I don’t think any one is as cumbersome as having one large Library.
Your present question points out the biggest reason I don’t have a single Library. As it outgrows your available storage it is a big PITA to transfer all that data to another larger EHD (and the source of a lot of transfer frustration on the forum).
Walter has posted his back up scheme in other threads. When I recently transferred all my Libraries to a larger storage system I kept the old EHDs for my off site back up and I now have to learn how to easily synch these when I want to “refresh” them.
Stan
sbysshe.smugmug.com
Thank you for your input Stan
Much appreciated,
Very good point about library/vault size, that gives me a better handle on future planning, hadn’t thought of that. Although I find editing and using Aperture very easy, including the operation of plug-ins, my library management experience is nil
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed