INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: sapnho on December 06, 2003, 03:08:49 am
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I have two 250GB with lots of APE music in my MC jukebox. I also use 2x2 external HDDs as backup for these music files. Considering the time and effort put into it (and some desasters), I can definitely recommend doing that.
However, today I copy the entirety of the base disks onto the external backups HDDs and this takes like 8 hours per HDD. I wonder if there is a program which would only copy (and overwrite) the changed files. I am not using a backup program (except Ghost for the system partition) but copy the files straight across instead. Is there a program which doesn't compress etc. but just synchronizes two harddisk partitions/folders?
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The back up utility in XP pro supports incremental back ups.
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hi, i've tested a lot of programs...but secondcopy (http://www.centered.com/) does exactly what you want...i promise
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I use FileSync from www.fileware.com (http://www.fileware.com) which takes maybe 20 minutes to go through my library over the network (we're talking close to 40 k files). It looks at the change date of the files. If you're even more anal (like I am) you can set it to bit by bit compare. That of course takes a lot more time, but I run these when I'm working, so it doesn't really bother me. Then I know that everything is exactly the way it should be. Believe me, if you're slightly paranoid about your music, that's the way you want to go.
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I also replicate from pc1 to pc2 and use the freeware tool Karen's replicator (www.karenware.com (http://www.karenware.com)). It copies everything the first time, but only changed files later on. So once you have tagged your music, very little is going to change. But be aware, every tag change is a file change!
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For the last couple of years I've used SynchroMagic Pro ... it has a LOT of options yet is easy to use - highly recommended:
http://www.gelosoft.com/
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Thanks! Great choices. I also found a simple one here: http://www.focussoftware.co.uk/syssync/index.htm (http://www.focussoftware.co.uk/syssync/index.htm)
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hi, i've tested a lot of programs...but secondcopy (http://www.centered.com/) does exactly what you want...i promise
I use this program too.
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At the current moment, I just keep everything on a 1.75 TB RAID 5 array. If anybody know of an easy way to back something like that up, I would be interested, I guess. I think I just went with RAID so I don't need to worry about drive failure.
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I use 'FileBack PC'. All needed options are there (and more). My files (current around 40'000) are compared in a few seconds, OK, a FEW seconds. But it's not free- or shareware.
http://www.maxoutput.com/FileBack/
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I also replicate from pc1 to pc2 and use the freeware tool Karen's replicator (www.karenware.com (http://www.karenware.com)). It copies everything the first time, but only changed files later on. So once you have tagged your music, very little is going to change. But be aware, every tag change is a file change!
So even if I play a file I would end up backing it up again ?[ as MC tags change every time we play a file].
I'm getting a 250 GB external maxtor drive and have just started thinking about the issues involved in backing up my music files - where the number of files changes gradually but the tags of these files change constantly. How do others manage this?
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Why do MC tags change every time a file is played? Shouldn't this tracking information be kept in the database and not in the file itself? I don't want a bunch of extra junk in my files/tags.
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Every time you play a file it will change the play count in the tag.
However you can opt not to save tag changes in files - but I tend to keep the tag info in the file and in the MC library - just in case I have a problem with the MC library.
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I've kept tag changing on so that tags edited on the fly would be saved in the file, but I guess I'll have to turn if off and only turn it on when I edit tags. A pain.
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Is there some way to turn just the play count off (if thats the only thing changing)?
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Is there some way to turn just the play count off (if thats the only thing changing)?
Good question! Afraid I don't know the answer.
I'm not even 100% sure exactly what changes each time you change a file.
Anyone able to help us out here?
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Actually, I don't think the playcounts and last played date are written to the file tags. If you go to the Action Window, look at File Properties, File Type Info, that lists all the tags present in the file, and there is no value for playcount or last played.
Also, I ran a checksum utility, played a couple of songs, then checked the checksum - no changes.
So MC is doing the sensible thing, and keeping playcounts and last played only in the library.
Any word from the developers on this?
Oh, and to bring things back on topic, I use Filesync from www.fileware.com and it works like a charm.