Backing up HDDs

[Ben Johnson]

I'd like to hear some of you guys' ideas on how you back stuff up. As of right now I'm completely unprotected, and after reading a few horror stories lately, I think I'm long overdue for some redundancy. I've never in my life had a hard drive fail on me, but now I have a feeling it could at any moment.

So what I'd like to be able to is to take large folders (dozens of Gb), create an image, and break that down into multiple rar files to fit onto dvds. What's the easiest (free) way of doing that?

 

[Unavailable]

I just have copies of everything on my other HDDs.

 

[Dave Cardwell]

DVDs are hard for me to do since I'd need something like 50 of them to do a full backup. I do the following instead:

Dedicated backup drive in the computer
Multiple external drives
Upload the most important stuff to my web server

There's usually at least two or three copies of my data in different locations.

 

[seditz740novaprospect]

i make a dvd after every tracking session and every serious mixing session as well as copying the files to 3 hd's takes a minute but its worth it

 

[Ermz]

Well I have 4 different HDDs. I don't use RAID or anything of the sort yet.

One drive is the large archival storage drive for past projects, and also where I put my current projects. Another drive is a general storage drive where I back up the current project I'm working on after every session. Another is an external HDD in case both of those fail for whatever reason. The last is just the windows system drive, which is basically designed to fail and be replaced easily.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I backup projects and important stuff on an exsternal 160 gig HD and then when it's done I put it on DVD (or DVDs) and place it inside a fire proof box.

I don't keep important shit on the main drive. Even though my HD died, it's no big deal I just have to buy a new one .

 

[2000ContourSVT]

I use 2 external drives. I do my work and then transfer that work to both drives. That way I have the exact same data on both drives so if one fails I still have the other with all my data. If I have something really important I'll keep it on both drives and get a DVD and burn the data to that as well.

 

[Kazrog]

I use SuperDuper and make multiple external HD backups.

 

[Zack Uidl]

I have a bunch of external hard drives that I back up my stuff on. (recording related and not)

I also do use DVDs as an additional backup for very important things such as documents related to my business, etc

Since external drives are so cheap now, you might as well get a 500 gb or terabyte external.

I buy mine all at newegg.com

 

[Jesse Z]

I have a couple of drives connected on a USB hub, so I can just copy the days work over. I tried doing DVDs for a while, but I got tired of that shit real fast, and when you're doing incremental (daily) backups it's a waste of money and plastic. When I finish a project I do burn a couple DVDs and keep them in another location. Backups are a hassle, and some days I forget, but it's totally worth it when you consider what losing everything would be like.

 

[Andy Sneap]

http://www.qdea.com/synchronize_pro_x_intro.html

 

[tgs]

Backing up the project I'm working on to an external HDD at the end of each day (Allway Sync is great for this purpose). When I'm finished with a project (or have a hiatus) I burn in to DVD and store it in a separate place; usually fit everything on 3-4 discs. I also keep the backup on the external HDD of course.

 

[coneyis]

Not too sound like too much of a repeat but yeah I do back up to (2) external hard drives. For recording projects, once they are complete I additionally back up the projects onto DVD. For backing up my computer system I use a Mac Time Capsule and the Time Machine program. It mirrors everything on my computer so if the computer HD ever dies I have no fear! I can't say enough good things about it!!! Peace of mind at last

 

[-Noodles-]

All my projects are stored individually to DVD, just for my audio drives.
for my mac I use time machine.

My computer drive has recently crashed, so I'm currently trying to recover the bad sectors so I can pull some stuff off that that I've not had a chance to finish (artwork etc). This is my first lesson, and luckily, it's not cost me any work or stuff that I need.

[unfortunately, it's my C drive - so I'll need to reinstall PT etc onto the new drive. which is gay!]

 

[462studio]

Well, I am running Windows XP, but the same would work for OS X.

I have four hard drives in my DAW, 2 250GB (RAID1) for OS and Apps, 2 500GB (RAID1) for audio and sample storage. The RAID provides a good level of immediate redundancy, after I have made some headway on a project, via Samba/Windows Sharing I backup the project to a share that is on a Linux file server. Then once the project is complete, I archive it on my second RAID1 set (500GB), and burn a DVD copy for myself and one for the group.

The RAID provides immediate redunancy and reduces time sucking failed hard drive issues, which always happen just before or during a session! The file server copy gives me a safe copy that I won't be modifying (Fileserver is also RAID1), and having a DVD in the bands hands gets the project out of my studio, where all the other RAID based backups would be lost in a flood/fire/etc.

 

[aortizjr]

I have a 500 GB OS/Software drive and use a RAID 0 160GB (2x80GB) that I only use for active sessions. The RAID 0 improves performance but is even more dangerous.

So run rsync between the Recording Drive to a folder on the OS Drive. Rsync isn't very intuitive, but I have seen programs that do similar stuff. But basically it just copies over the files that have changed. So I run that every break and it only takes a minute to copy over the new stuff.

Then that is backed up "regularly" to a 1 TB hard drive that I also use for all my personal stuff as well. And keep that in a fire safe.

Then for finished sessions, the band get's DVD's (typically 2), and I make a copy for myself and put them in a CD Folder.

If nothing else, back-up to an extra drive. HD's are cheap, fast and easy. It isn't like the old-days and tape or something.

 

[kev]

Synctoy

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

I have two harddrives in my recording PC, the system drive and the dedicated audio drive.
After each session I backup stuff from the audio drive to the system drive (there's enough unused space on there).

Nowadays I also have an external drive, which I put backups on after every two or three sessions.