Apple Frequently Asked Questions About Aperture - Manual (Page 11)

Backing Up
Should I keep my backup vault on my computer or on an external hard disk?
All your images are stored in the Library on your computer’s hard disk or on another
hard disk that you’ve selected. When you create a vault, Aperture creates an exact
duplicate of the Library on the vault’s hard disk. Make sure that the Library and vault
use different hard disks. That way, if you have a problem with the hard disk holding the
Library, the vault’s backup copy is safe on a different disk.
Hard disks are sometimes divided into “partitions.” A partition is a portion of a hard disk
that has its own name and hard disk icon, and functions similarly to a separate hard
disk. A single hard disk may have multiple partitions. Don’t use different partitions of
the same hard disk to hold the Library and a vault. If the partitioned hard disk has a
problem, both the Library and the vault could be at risk.
When should I back up my vault?
It’s a good idea to back up your vault after you import new images. That way, you have
copies of your digital master files in the Library and in the vault. It’s also a good idea to
have more than one vault so that you have several backups of the Library. When
Aperture updates a vault, it copies only the new and changed items to the vault and
doesn’t update all the files that are already backed up. This makes frequent updates fast
and easy.
Can a vault span two or more hard disks?
No, a vault is limited to the disk capacity of one hard disk drive. You can use a RAID hard
disk array, which combines the storage capacity of several disks, to hold the Library or a
vault, but you must use an application such as Disk Utility to set up the RAID array.
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