How Do You Backup?

[Guest voclizr]

Guys & Gals;

I'm a fanatic about backing up my data for my recordings, especially since they take so much time and effort to produce.

I do TWO backups on both kinds of data that I produce. (Track data from my standalone recorder and Kristal Audio WAVs and mix files. I don't bother with the Audacity .aup files because they're too easily corrupted anyway). I back up on an 80 gig Ebook and CDRW disks. Do you think I'm overdoing it?

What are your methods of backing up?

John B.

[john]

Hey John

No I don't think it's over doing it. Back in the days of floppy drive back ups I lost 3 years worth of music when my hard drive fried, another time I lost some when the re-writeable disk I had been saving on was damaged.

Nowadays I have 3 copies... the one on the original drive, a copy on a network drive and a CDR back up, possibly several for each song as snapshots at different points.

Cheers

John

[Nightwolf]

What are your methods of backing up?

I cry when I lose it all

[Steve]

I cry when I lose it all

[FinnArild]

Just bought a 750 gig external harddisk to do some daily backups and storage on. I need to do some periodic DVD backups and store those elsewhere. I can't wait for blueray ...

[typo]

still using cdr. bout time I got an upgrade huh?

[Nightwolf]

CDR's scare me as they are easily lost or damaged. I like to have versions on three different harddrives in three different locations. I see harddrives as more robust than CD's ready to be scratched BAR

[Thrithwaite]

I get quite excited when I loose everything! I like a new start now and again!

[Nightwolf]

Been married huh??

[Steve]

Been married huh??

That's funny! Feckin coffee all over my keyboard now!

[Thrithwaite]

Been married huh??

Ha ha! Very good! I have lots of little snippets of stuff I save. Then, when I listen back, I realise they're all crap!

[davlan]

I use a combination Norton Ghost for a monthly drive image backup of the system drive, and an external USB drive for the audio drive. Working on 2 computers is also handy as I have all the sample data in 2 independant places. I don't do this often enough though.

Edited September 28, 2007 by davlan

[Olggu]

Guys & Gals;

I'm a fanatic about backing up my data for my recordings, especially since they take so much time and effort to produce.

I do TWO backups on both kinds of data that I produce. (Track data from my standalone recorder and Kristal Audio WAVs and mix files. I don't bother with the Audacity .aup files because they're too easily corrupted anyway). I back up on an 80 gig Ebook and CDRW disks. Do you think I'm overdoing it?

What are your methods of backing up?

John B.

I have been testing Cobian Black Moon- back up software past few month in my work, it is open source- software and free of charge. It seem to be a quite clever little software, I use it to back up my drawings to my USB- memory- stick, and it never fails. All you need is HDD big enough, and Cobian. It is very easy to use, so check it out.

[FinnArild]

I have a 700G external disk I backup to. I plan getting another external disks for off-location backups (in case of fire/floods (not likely, since I'm on the 3rd floor) and such).

[FinnArild]

Huh - I actually double-answered this post - talk about being anal about backups!

[Nightwolf]

LOL

LOL

[AnneC]

I'm considering starting to use an online backup service. I see now HP has started one, the notification was in my inbox today. They're offering limited space free of charge for up to a year as a trial or they have an individual computer backup with unlimited space for $60/yr. This computer has given me so many fits lately that I should do something like this, and the online one-click automatic service is good for the forgetful/lazy/unfortunate soul. Not that that describes me in ANY way.

[FinnArild]

I've been looking at online backup services too, but the rate at which I produce material is just too much. Last week I amounted 1GB of new stuff (including updates, of course - but still)! Doing voiceovers or orchestration in 24 bit 44.1 just takes it toll on the harddrive - I'm planning to get a terabyte for backup at home, now.

Edited May 10, 2008 by FinnArild

[dc2daylight]

How's this for Irony?

I just finished typing a reply, but navigated in the wrong direction and lost my post. Shoulda backed it up.

It might have said:

There are at least 3 levels of backup.

The 1st is the change as the song evolves, e.g. mix data. Save early and often, say every 5 minutes or so.

The 2nd is at the end of a session/day. This I backup to a different hard drive using a program that looks only for changes on the master. Very fast. I wouldn't argue with anyone who backs up to more than 1 drive, but that works for me.

The 3rd level of BU is archival. This is at the end of a project that you want to save for more than a month or two. For this, I keep the master drive and print all the data to a DVD. Hard drives are just not suitable for long term storage because they are fragile and susceptible to magnetic damage or deterioration.

On my business PC's, I'm using a program called Memeo Auto backup or something close to that name. It cost $30 and is programmable to keep specific folders backed up to a different drive (in my case a terabyte Western Digital Firewire) and it works on networked PC's.

My 2 pence (oops I mean cents -- just got back from London )

[Rudi]

I use CDs