Adobe Lightroom Export question

[Rocco]

Well, if I have it right... You don't even have to export as original. (which will be .CR2) when it imports the files it saves the CR2 files in the designated folder then all of the edits are saved to the catalog file, with the original file untouched. It doesn't apply the edits until the export stage, but even then the original file is untouched. That's the beautiful thing about lr, it's editing system is non destructive.

If your goal was to backup the originals, simply back up the catalog and the folder the originals are stored in.