New User Trying To Set Up Best Backing Up Scheme

Question

i am trying to set up the best system to upload my photos from my camera and maintain a good backup procudure, and i am a little confused on the best way to do this.
i have a new sony dsc-tx5 that i got around the same time i bought my lightroom software, so am learning new things all around. the camera is great, but the software that came with it is not very good, (PMB).
- i have backed up all my photos from my camera into one main directory on my PC for my original photo files - using the Sony PMB software.
- i then backed this directory up to my external harddrive. and whenever i backup new photos to this directory, i will also back these new files to my external drive as well -  using Windows 7 explorer to do this task.
- then i copied all the original photos to another directory on the same hard drive, but i divided all the photos in this new directory into several sub-directories to the approximate size of a dvd data disk, and then backed those up to dvd data disks; and whenever i get enough files in a new sub-directory about the size of another dvd data disk, i back them up to a dvd disk as well - again using windows explorer.
- so far so good, but now i am unsure about how to incorporate Lightroom into this whole process. The PMB software from my sony camera downloads all new photos and puts them into my main directory to store my orignal files as i had mentioned in step one here. and in fact, PMB keeps an index of all files and directories, and any changes to them, etc. in my "My Pictures" Directory on my PC. so i dont need lightroom to mange that part at all.
- the original photo files should remain separate from anything I do with lightroom right now, so i have a separate directory of photos for lightroom to use and play around with my files, without involving the originals at all. it is a completely separate directory with copies of the original files that  i only use to lightroom as i learn my way around the propram.
- right now i made a new directory of all my files and renamed it as something for just lightroom to use. but i also see in the lightroom subdirectory in the "my pictures" directory on my PC are serveral other sub-directories named in the "Download Backups" sub-sub directory, and i can see some of my same photos in there too. so now i am lost about what is what and where, etc. this part is a bit confusing, and i am not sure how to incorporate a way and/or where to backup the finished modified photos, etc.
- and the issues of backing-up catalogs vs regular back-ups has me confused too.
- am i using the best method to mange my files before and after using lightroom so far, or am i way off track here?
any help one might offer to straighten this whole confusion up before i get heavy into the editing process would be much appreciated! where to look for instructional info to clear it all up, etc. what terms to search for on the help resources, etc.
thank you for you support!

Answer 1

Thank you for your assistance dj_paige.it was helpful to confirm what i am doing is on the right track. but in finally having the time to get around to trying all this out, it has of course brought a few more questions!
before i ask my questions though, i just wanted to more specifically reiterate what my "setting up" process has evolved to, thus far:
-  I use the photo management software tool that came with my Sony camera, named PMB, to upload all of the latest photo files i've shot to my computer into a directory, without any sub-directories, named it something like "Sony Photos <with latest upload date added to this name>". Besides uploading the newest photo files, I do no other tasks with PMB, other than just keeping track of what is where, which it updates automatically somehow.
- The "Sony Photos" directory is placed as a sub-directory in my "My Pictures" parent directory on my PC.
- I have another sub-directory, named "Sony Photos Organized To BU To DVDs", also located as a sub-directory in my "My Pictures" parent directory on my PC. Within this subdirectory, are several sub-sub-directories which are named according the the date ranges of the photo files within them were shot. The files within these sub-sub-directories are copies of the same photo files in the previously mentioned "Sony Photos" directory; the only difference here being that i have divided each of sub-directories in the "Sony Photos Organized To BU To DVDs" to each be approximately 4 GB in size, so that I can then easily copy the subdirectories onto DVD data disks which are also approximately the same 4 GB in size.
- I also have another sub-directory, also located as a sub-directory in my "My Pictures" parent directory on my PC, which is also one big directory holding all of my photos from my previous digital camera, named "Cannon Photos". Since I no longer shoot with this camera anymore, there are no new images to worry about here, and they have all been backed up to my external drive as well as DVD disks. So it is just an issue to keeping track of them in Lightroom, more on that later.
- The last of the four photo-related subdirectories within my "My Pictures" parent directory is the Lightroom directory, simply named "Lightroom" of course. There is one file and one sub-directory in this Lightroom directory. The file is named "Lightroom 3 Catalog" and the sub-directory is named "Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.Irdata".
- When I am backing up all of these 4 photo-related sub-directories to my external harddiskdrive, I am also backing up the entire Lightroom directory, which includes the "previews subdirectory" as well as the catalog file. Even though this directory is relatively small, it sure does take a long time to back up this preview directory, i guess it is because there are so many files to copy/transfer - I have a huge number of photo files.
- * So my first question is:  Are both the aforementioned "catalog" file and the accompanying sub-directory in the Lightroom directory considered as a group that should be kept together during backups, or is just backing up the "catalog" file by itself okay? Ie.: Do I need to back up the previews subdirectory as well?
- Next Question: Do I need to use the PMB software  in this situation at all, or should I figure out how to use just Lightroom by itself, without the help of PMB to manage this set-up situation?
- Which leads to my last question, does this all seem like a good method for setting up my photos for uploading, backing-up, to keeping track of things, etc.?
Thank you again for you time, dj_paige. If you, or anyone else reading this, has any other suggestions here please let me know!
- tee