JOhannSnyman
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Library backup on FAT32 drive

Hi,

 

I just read a reply from LeonieDF is another thread that got me wondering about something. I keep my referenced images on an external FAT32 drive, and also I have a seperate FAT32 drive that I occasionally export all the images in my library as jpg files. What is relevant to my question, I also keep a vault of my main library on each of these drives. Now Leonie mentioned that .aplibraries work better on HFS+ drives, which makes sense with the linking and whatnot that goes on in there.

 

My question is, are my vaults on these drives worth something or am I wasting my time?

 

Time Machine also backs up my library to a Time Capsule, and I have a CCC cloned drive of everything, so I am safe. Just checking if I might be wasting time/space keeping vaults on these drives as well.

 

Thanks for any insights!

Johann.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Jul 11, 2013 3:19 AM

by léonie,Solvedanswer
léonie léonie
Level 10 (108,884 points)
iCloud
A:

Vaults are essentially Aperture Libraries, they just have another filename extension. And an Aperture library needs to be on a volume formatted for MacOS X - see this support article:

 

Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library

 

With the wrong formatting you may have problems with files not being readable. Usually you will notice this problem when you need to copy or move a vault between drives, or when originals cannot be found.

 

So you'd better move your vaults to drive that is supported by MacOS X. I would not keep my original image files on a FAT32 formatted drive either, at least not, if you are using commands in Aperture, that will write metadat tags to your originals.

 

Regards

Léonie

Posted on Jul 11, 2013 3:34 AM

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JOhannSnyman

Q: Library backup on FAT32 drive

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  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Jul 11, 2013 3:34 AM in response to JOhannSnyman
    Level 10 (108,884 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 11, 2013 3:34 AM in response to JOhannSnyman

    Vaults are essentially Aperture Libraries, they just have another filename extension. And an Aperture library needs to be on a volume formatted for MacOS X - see this support article:

     

    Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library

     

    With the wrong formatting you may have problems with files not being readable. Usually you will notice this problem when you need to copy or move a vault between drives, or when originals cannot be found.

     

    So you'd better move your vaults to drive that is supported by MacOS X. I would not keep my original image files on a FAT32 formatted drive either, at least not, if you are using commands in Aperture, that will write metadat tags to your originals.

     

    Regards

    Léonie

  • by nbar,Helpful

    nbar nbar Jul 11, 2013 3:43 AM in response to JOhannSnyman
    Level 5 (6,980 points)
    Jul 11, 2013 3:43 AM in response to JOhannSnyman

    You can still strip the metadata content and save the original jpegs to a FAT32, however. Only then would it be beneficial. The obvious advantage of FAT32 formatted volume is universal compatibility...if you ever wanted to drop these files on a windows PC there would be no issue. That being said, the Aperture metadata tags need to be removed for this to be worthwhile, in my opinion.

  • by JOhannSnyman,

    JOhannSnyman JOhannSnyman Jul 11, 2013 3:53 AM in response to JOhannSnyman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 11, 2013 3:53 AM in response to JOhannSnyman

    I export my  "Finals"as full quality jpgs with EXIF only. This is only for incase, if my mac breaks (they are very expensive to replace repair here in South-Africa) and I need to switch back to cheap PC hardware, so that I still have access to my photos. (I may lose metadata, but my memories are safe, which is my main concern)

     

    The other drive has the RAW files only, so no metadata or anything gets written there.

     

    I have 2 other vaults on HFS external drives that I update every month or so. The vaults on the FAT32 drives I made just because I have space, so thanks to Leonie, I now understand this is a waste of time.

     

    Thanks to both of you!