Continued from
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=44492.06.0 How to organize files?6.1 Drive StructureThere are a few basic rules that should be followed when designing your drive structure:
- Your system (usually C) should be in a different partition than your data partitions (usually D+). This facilitates making system image backups (more on this later).
- Backup partitions must be on a different physical drive (as explained above).
- When synchronizing data for use by the same applications on multiple systems, you should keep drive letters the same on all systems. For example, I store my desktop media files on drives F: and G: and back them up to two external drives. When these external drives are plugged into my laptop they map as drives F: and G: which allows me to use the same JRiver library on my desktop and laptop.
6.2 Folder StructureA well organized hierarchy of folders is critical to achieving a good backup system. Hierarchy enables you to backup the subset of data that you worked on that day (rather than everything) which means the backup process will be fast. Fast means you'll be more inclined to use it than avoid it. Hierarchy also makes it easy to backup to other drives that only have sufficient capacity for a subset of the data.
Good folder hierarchy has many other obvious benefits. You know where to put new files. You can find files more easily. You can add a drive to your system and easily move a subset of data to the new drive.
There are many different approaches to organizing folders. Following is an overview of what works for me. In the interest of clarity, I have omitted many details. A key design rule is that all files of similar type are stored under a common root folder.
6.2.1 Root Folders
I use 6 root folders:
Data (documents, databases, email, application data)
Kits (installation files for software applications)
Photo_Home (home photos and home videos)
Photo_Stock (stock photos)
Media (music, movies, books, etc.)
System (system drive backup)
A few comments…
- By keeping my data files separate from the big stuff (photos and media) I can backup Data to one dvd-r disc and my USB flash memory drive.
- I keep my home photos separate from other media because I value them more and this structure makes it easier to maintain extra backup copies.
- Media is very large and is split across multiple drives. Each of these drives has a root folder named Media with a consistent underlying folder design.
6.2.2 Data
Data
Database
Home Inventory
Media Center (JRiver library, backups, cover art, screengrabs)
Movie Collector (movie database)
ThumbsPlus (photo database)
Family Tree (Family Tree Maker files)
Favorites (IE favorites)
Finance
Income Tax
Quicken
Retirement
My Documents
OneNote Notebooks
Outlook (pst file)
Work
A few comments…
- I configure applications to store their data in the Data hierarchy (not where the application defaults) to ensure that all important data is backed up.
- I do not use My Documents for anything important because it is a default dumping ground for most programs and therefore is impossible to keep neat and tidy. I did move My Documents under Data so that it is backed up.
- I moved IE's favorites under Data so that they are backed up.
- Data is synchronized between my desktop and laptop, using the same drive letter D, so that applications on both systems use the same data.
6.2.3 Kits
Kits
Hardware (manuals etc.)
AudioVideo
Camera
Cell Phone
Computer
etc.
Software (application installation files, serial numbers, manuals, etc.)
Adobe
JRiver
Microsoft
etc.
Kits takes some effort to initially create but it is wonderful not having to keep a binder full of installation discs. And I backup Kits to a self-powered 2.5” external drive which I grab when I need to work on a different computer.
6.2.4 Photo_Home
Photo_Home
Photo (home photos)
Photo01
Photo02
Photo03
etc.
Video (home videos)
Video01
Video02
Video03
Video04
etc.
Work In Progress (not yet tagged)
A few comments…
- I intentionally kept the folder structure very simple. I rely on my photo application to organize photos and videos with keywords and other metadata.
- I limit the size of each PhotoXX and VideoXX folder to 4.3GB. This enables a simple one to one mapping to dvd-r archival backups.
- Photo_Home is synchronized with my laptop drive so that my photo application works on both my desktop and laptop with the same database and photos/videos.
6.2.5 Photo_Stock
I store stock photos under this folder.
6.2.6 Media
Media
Book
Audio (audiobooks)
Image (jpg maps)
Text (pdf and chm books)
Video (documentaries)
Comedy
Audio (standup comedy albums)
Image (cartoons)
Video (standup comedy videos and clips)
Movie (XviD and h264 movie rips)
[Album] – [Date(year)].avi
Music
$Artist Info (mht and txt files with info on artists)
[Artist] - [Album] (for single-artist albums)
[track #] - [Name].mp3
Various Artists - [Album] (for multi-artist albums)
[track #] - [Artist] - [Name].mp3
Podcast
CBC Ideas
Hardcore History
Security Now
etc.
Work In Progress (not yet tagged)
A few comments…
- I have not shown another level of hierarchy I use in Books for organizing them by sub-genres such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, Computer, Cookbooks, etc. This extra hierarchy is particularly important for text books because tags are not stored inside text files, and therefore if I ever need to rebuild the sub-genre tag I can extract it from the folder name.
- I kept the Movie folder flat because movies almost always have more than one artist and genre and therefore I cannot think of a clean or useful way of organizing subfolders. I rely on my movie database application for finding what I am looking for with meta-data.
- The Artist Info folder is prefixed with $ so the folder sorts to the top.
- As mentioned above, Media is synchronized to several external drives that when plugged into my laptop uses the same drive letters as Media on my desktop. This enables me to use the same JRiver library on my desktop and laptop.
6.2.7 System
This folder stores backups of my C system drive.
7.0 What backup applications?I am not a backup technology expert so please excuse any incorrect terminology that I use.
In my mind there are 3 classes of backup applications:
7.1 Black BoxThese are sophisticated applications that use proprietary databases and complex folder/file structures to backup multiple versions of files in every way you can possibly imagine. I do not need these features and I do not want to open an application to access my backup files. I like simplicity and want the structure and content of my backups to exactly mirror the original. I therefore do not use Black Box backup applications.
7.2 Folder SynchronizationThese applications compare a source folder with a destination folder and update anything that has changed within the folder hierarchy. I rely on Folder Synchronization for all of my backup needs except system drive backups (see below).
Characteristics of a good folder synchronization application include:
- Is fast at scanning the folder hierarchy for changes; and is fast at copying changes.
- Offers various comparison method options. Usually it is best to only compare file date/times and sizes because this is fast. Occasionally you may wish to do a full binary comparison to confirm your drive health, and because some nasty applications like Excel modify file content without changing the file date/time.
- Offers various options on what it should do when it finds a difference. Sometimes you want changes to be copied bi-directionally, such as when you make changes on two different systems with synchronized data. Sometimes you want the destination folder to exactly mirror the source folder, such as when you delete files on the source and want the same files deleted on the destination.
- Offers an option to view what it proposes to do before it does it. This is useful for detecting any user mistakes you may have made. It is also useful for detecting if an application like JRiver has modified any files that it should not have.
- Offers an option to override the proposed action. This is useful, for example, when you identify a file you did not intend to modify and want to overwrite the change with the older copy from the destination folder.
- Allows you to define multiple synchronization profiles and to run any combination of these profiles (each profile being a named folder pair with unique options). This feature is critical for taking advantage of the folder hierarchy discussed above. For example, today you only worked on music so you only need to synchronize the Music folder. Profiles are also critical for accommodating backup locations on network and external drives that are not currently accessible.
- Allows you to easily backup its configuration data. You may initially invest many hours designing your profiles and therefore may want to backup this effort, or use it on another system.
There are many inexpensive applications to choose from. My preferred application is Super Flexible File Synchronizer.
7.3 ImagingThese applications take one or more folders (including a complete drive) and compress all of the files into one backup file. Think of them as fancy Zip applications. The better applications offer an incremental option that only backs up new or changed files from the last time you made a backup, thus conserving backup space.
Imaging is the best choice when you want to backup a bunch of files but don’t really care what files have changed and will rarely need to access individual files within the backup.
The classic and most common use of imaging is to backup the Windows system drive. If and when you need to restore your system to a previous state you can select one of your system backups and completely restore Windows in a few minutes.
There are many imaging applications to choose from, including a free version included with Vista. My preferred application is Acronis True Image Home.
Author
Topic: backup tutorial (part 2) (Read 1203 times)