When backing up LR catalog to an external drive, what do I copy?

Hi,
Let me explain what I'm doing with back ups for the LR catalog. First I backup the catalog to the same drive my photos are on, simply to allow LR to access the catalog without having to power up an external drive. That LR folder contains 1.) the LR catalog, 2.) a previews file (lrdata), and a backup labeled with the date of the backup. At least once a week, however, I copy the LR file to an external hard drive, to another LR folder. I notice when doing this that the entire catalog is transferred to the external drive each time I do the copy.
Question 1: When doing a catalog backup to the photos folder, should I delete the previous backup? I.e., I did a back up today; on Saturday I'll probably do another. Should I just save the last dated backup and delete the earlier dates?
Question 2: Should I just copy the updates to the external drive? Or is it more appropriate to copy the catalog, previews, and latest update? It seems to me the latter is the best alternative, but perhaps it's not necessary.
Thanks much in advance,
BAB

there's really no right answer, but these are my recommendations
Do not make a backup of your catalog file to the same folder as the photos unless it is on a different physical hard disk than your working catalog. You can save as many backups as you want, the amount of insurance that you take out (the number of backups) is entirely up to you. I keep at least one month, and then some older catalogs as well.
I don't know what updates you are referring to, but there is no reason or benefit to copy/backup previews
Additional comments ... I strongly prefer an automated backup approach, that doesn't rely on a human being remembering and having the time to make a manual backup. Thus, I would recommend you have Lightroom automatically place the catalog backup on the external drive. I don't really know why you are opposed to powering up your external HD, that's what it was made for, to be used! Mine is powered on 100% of the time. Furthermore, if your backup to the photos folder is on the same hard drive as your working catalog, I would strongly recommend you not do this ... because the day that this disk fails (and it is 100% sure it will fail at some time in the future), you have lost your working catalog AND most recent backup and thus it is possible that you could lose nearly two weeks of work when this disk fails (and more if you just so happen to have forgotten to manually make copies to the external HD).
Additional comments 2 ... Nowhere have you mentioned making backups of all of your photos. I assume you are doing that, and if you're not, stop what you are doing, do not celebrate Hanuka or Thanksgiving, and make backups of all of your photos immediately. Of course, you might have been asking only about the catalog backups and you have done a thorough job of making backups of your photos, in which case ignore this paragraph

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Roderick Guerry wrote:
The MacBook Pro will not allow me to cut-and-paste to and from or to click-and-drag to the external drive. I can copy-and-paste, but then I must send the original to the trash, which doubles the time and effort. Is there any way to cut-and-paste?
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Roderick Guerry wrote:
Also, the MacBook Pro will not allow me to rename multiple documents or photographs. I can click-and-rename a single one, but this is impossibly time consuming. I can batch-rename in iPhoto, but when I transfer the photographs to the external drive, the rename does not transfer.
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Roderick Guerry wrote:
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When backing up LR catalog to an external drive, what do I copy?

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