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[LonWar]

If you have a extrnal HD, you can sync it like you would a Ipod.

Then when you connect it, it would copy over any new music.

[hit_ny]

Another issue to remember is that you should not perform completely automated backups in the event of a virus or malware installation which may corrupt or destroy your music collection. 

Hence the checksum test being run before syncback.

[GHammer]

Thought you already used PAR files, or RAR files with 10-20% redundancy

No, I use RAR with recovery records when I am removing lossless to a DVD.

Personally, I don't understand having error detection instead of recovery in audio files. I'm probably gonna notice the lousy sound anyway. If I don't then there isn't a problem...

Then you get into when the hash (or whatever) is created, what it measures, what can use it. Was the info only written on creation or does it take tagging into account? Do I have to use a seperate app to verify instead of the playback plugin using the info?

Until then I'll stick with my backup method. Haven't lost anything yet and have had a bad SATA cable cause a bit of a problem with moving files from one disk to another recently. MD5 hash flagged it and the backup was fine. Tracked down the problem and restored the affected files.

[RobOK]

Thanks to this thread for spurring me into action and backing up to the Terra Server (which is supposed to be for work only, but I hijacked it at least for a while).

Not sure what my long term solution will be, but for now am trying SynchBack SE and it seems pretty good.  It does not seem to copy special characters -- i think that is a limitation of the Terra server, anyone know for sure?

Rob.

[benn600]

Quote from: benn600 on Today at 11:24:05 AM
Another issue to remember is that you should not perform completely automated backups in the event of a virus or malware installation which may corrupt or destroy your music collection.
Hence the checksum test being run before syncback.

Checksums mean nothing.  I am talking about if you have a virus on your main system (which you shouldn't have, but you must be prepared) and it modifies your .flac, .mp3, or whatever files.  It could destroy their usability, writing over them with random data.  If you had an automatic backup scheduled, your backup would be destroyed as well and you'd be left with nothing.  This is one reason why a 3 way backup system helps a little bit and ideally, an archiving solution if possible--but I can't afford a bunch more 500GB drives--3 is enough.

[NickM]

Rob, absolutely the same problem with Terastation, and been in long correspondence with Buffalo Japan.  The application of the different character sets has not been implemented correctly, IBM850 (now CP850) does not support accented upper case amongst other issues.

According to Buffalo, it cannot be fixed by firmware and can only be addressed in the new Terastations coming out this November.

nick

[RobOK]

Thanks for the reply -- that was very helpful and TIME SAVING!!!

Luckily I don't have a lot of songs that way.  One workaround is to zip them first I think,

[NickM]

I am SURE that I am in danger of  being torn to shreds by all those 'Capitalisation' guru's, but at school, I was taught not to put accents on capitalised letters anyway...

nick

[hit_ny]

Checksums mean nothing.  I am talking about if you have a virus on your main system (which you shouldn't have, but you must be prepared) and it modifies your .flac, .mp3, or whatever files.  It could destroy their usability, writing over them with random data. 

If the checksum does not match regardless of the cause, it's a red flag. You do understand that if a virus eats up the files then no way will the checksum match. Thats the beauty of checksums, it will catch a difference regardless of the cause.

There is one more thing to add here, what if whole directories went missing, then conceivably the checksum file is lost too, since each album folder has a checksum file.

no checksum file, no error thrown ?

When i kick off a job, its MC that gives me the list, so i have a folder count as well as a file count. Now when the checksum tests are done external to MC they also provide a folder count as well as a file count.

Any mismatch indicates a problem. All this happens before syncback is run.

If you had an automatic backup scheduled, your backup would be destroyed as well and you'd be left with nothing. 

I don't have an automatic anything.

If you could set it up, to first checksum and only then go ahead with the backup, the result would be the same. Since this was too cumbersome i do it manually.

[GHammer]

Checksums mean nothing. I am talking about if you have a virus on your main system (which you shouldn't have, but you must be prepared) and it modifies your .flac, .mp3, or whatever files. It could destroy their usability, writing over them with random data. If you had an automatic backup scheduled, your backup would be destroyed as well and you'd be left with nothing.

I don't know what you use for backup.
The app I use has the ability to run other commands before and after a job.
You choose whether a 'pass' or a 'fail' from the other command will abort the job.

So, no matter what happens to the live data, if its new MD5 hashes do not match the last set, the backup does not run.

It is conceivable that a virus would be targeting my system and corrupting/deleting all files. Then when I plug in the backup drive, its toast.

But if I allowed such a virulent virus on my system and it somehow escaped my notice, I'd get what I deserve.

[Marc]

Here's my backup solution.

I've got 17,903 audio files taking 215.3 GB disk space.  About 1/2 of my files are now in APE format.  I bought an external Maxtor One Touch 250 GB  HD that attaches via FireWire.  I connect it once a week and run a script I created that calls robocopy (free utility from Microsoft):

"C:\Documents and Settings\marc\Desktop\Backup\robocopy" /LOG+:"C:\Documents and Settings\marc\Desktop\Backup\fullbackuplog.log" D:\Music G:\Backups\Music /MIR
"C:\Documents and Settings\marc\Desktop\Backup\robocopy" /LOG+:"C:\Documents and Settings\marc\Desktop\Backup\fullbackuplog.log" "D:\Library Backups" "G:\Backups\Library Backups" /MIR
"C:\Documents and Settings\marc\Desktop\Backup\robocopy" /LOG+:"C:\Documents and Settings\marc\Desktop\Backup\fullbackuplog.log" "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\Data\Cover Art" "G:\Backups\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\Data\Cover Art" /MIR

With the /MIR flag set, Robocopy mirrors the source to the destination and only copies the changes.  This, from the included help file:

Maintaining True Replication
If you require the destination directory tree to be maintained as an exact mirror of the source directory tree, you must delete files and directories from the destination whenever they disappear from the source. To accomplish this, use the /E and /PURGE switches in combination, or use the /MIR switch
The /PURGE switch causes Robocopy to delete all Extra and Mismatched destination files and directories. After a Mismatched destination entry has been deleted, the corresponding source entry is then treated as a Lonely file or directory and processed accordingly. When /PURGE results in the deletion of an Extra or Mismatched destination directory, the entire directory tree, including all subordinate files and subdirectories, is deleted (even if /S or /E is not specified).

Caution
Use /PURGE and /MIR very carefully. If you inadvertently specify /PURGE or /MIR with an existing destination directory, Robocopy can quickly delete a large amount of data from the destination.

To prevent specific directory trees or files from being deleted when you use /PURGE, you must exclude them by name, using the /XD or /XF options. /XD and /XF exclude files and directories before all other processing.

Note
Because the /XX switch excludes Extra files from further processing, the /PURGE switch has no effect when /XX is also used.

It's a robust program that has extensive advanced features and logging, and is fully customizable.  Unfortunately, it's a command-line utility, so you GUI-lovers are outa luck.  But, it's free and it works.

In addition to the above, I do a full backup to DVD about once a year (last one took almost 45 DVD's), and keep the last 500 ripped tracks on my work laptop to take with me on my frequent travels.

Marc

[negopus]

From the discussion going on in this forum, I have figured out that there several levels of awareness from user regarding audio file integrity.

- Basic users just let Media Center update tags on the fly (as they are editing them) and write to audio files at will;
- More advanced users disable writing on tags on the fly and let Media Center update tags only on demand.

I have found that even more advanced users can have some more needs about data file maintenance. I think MC can help them if a couple of fields were added into the Media Center database, natively managed by MC itself.

- An archive bit that, similarly to a standard file system, indicates whether the file is in sync with the tags in MC's library. When the archive bit is on, every tag is in sync between the file and the library. When the archive bit if off for a certain file, it means that tags in file need to be updated from library.

- A checksum field that stores the checksum (MD5) for the audio file. Using this field, a checksum verification can be run periodically as a batch (before starting a backup, for example). If some checksums fail, it means there is something wrong with the files, and they must be checked.
When file fields are updated from library, of course a new checksum needs to be computed in order to keep everything consistent.

It seems that the overall system (archive bit + checksum) is robust, but requires some administrative efforts. Are advanced users (who already work this way, but without the help of Media Center) ready to use such a powerful feature?

[Mr ChriZ]

Having just read through this entire thread I am left wondering...
when is the apocalypse arriving? 

Has everyong put in there orders for an Underground bunker with 7.1 surround sound,
in order to listen to their bit perfect backups 

[negopus]

Since there are some users that already do that by hand, I was just thinking that Media Center could give them an hand.

[hit_ny]

Are advanced users (who already work this way, but without the help of Media Center) ready to use such a powerful feature?

Initially i thought this would be more convenient but then realised that an external system offers the slight advantage that its not dependent on MC's library at all. Even tho the starting list to checksum (in my case) does come from MC. So with an external system you have an extra way to reach the same result, and therefore better chances of finding a discrepancy.

I'm dependent on MC to give me a list of what it thinks is in my library. The idea is if anything goes missing i would be able to find it using a "missing files" smarlist. For this reason, "fix broken links" (from the Import Dialog) is permanently disabled. I don't want MC cleaning up after me unless i first see what it cant find.

Another reason is that the checksum tests are done via cmd line, so faster than a windows equivalent.

A third reason is not all formats provide integrity checking, APE is the only one i'm aware of that can do this. Whereas an external checksum solution is capable of handling any format.