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Author Topic: music library backup best practices  (Read 3283 times)

nunisimo

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music library backup best practices
« on: January 12, 2008, 11:14:14 am »

hi.

Could anyone recommend best practices for backing up my music library?  I'm on XP and have about 300 gigs of music and videos and maintain libraries across 2 500 gig external drives.
 
I've tried true image backup software but the backups take forever.

I also just do a complete overwrite onto my backup hard drive.

Does anyone have any other ideas that are more efficient and less time consuming?

thanks in advance!
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rjm

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2008, 12:22:02 pm »

After a lot of research I purchased Super Flexible File Synchronizer (SFFS) http://www.superflexible.com/ and have been happily using it for over 3 years.

Like many other similar programs it compares two directories and copies those files that have changed. What sold me on on SFFS was:

- Can create multiple profiles (folder pairs) giving each a name with unique options. I have about 30 profiles so that I can backup what I want, how I want, when I want.
- Nice visual display to show what it is going to do before it does it. Can over-ride individual actions (for example, you changed a file you did not intend to change and want to copy in the reverse direction to override the change).
- Every conceivable option you would ever want.
- High quality software (no bugs), very fast, light weight.
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nunisimo

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2008, 12:25:33 pm »

thank you.  I"ll give it a shot! 
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rjm

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2008, 12:45:11 pm »

I only commented on the tool. If you are looking for broader advice such as how many backups, how to organize your files, where to put backups, etc. let me know what you are interested in and what you already know so I don't preach to the converted.
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nunisimo

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2008, 01:29:13 pm »

HI.

Thanks.  I would appreciate all your advice.  MY library is a bit of a mess.
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rjm

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2008, 01:55:47 pm »

ok, got some chores to do first, expect response in 12 hours or so
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nunisimo

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2008, 02:24:26 pm »

very kind of you! 
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DarkPenguin

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #7 on: January 12, 2008, 02:52:07 pm »

How about syncback free or syncback se?

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KingSparta

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #8 on: January 12, 2008, 04:09:27 pm »

With SyncBackUp SE You Can Use KeyWords Like

In This Case My FTP Server I Use

Source: C:\Program Files\Gene6 FTP Server\

Destination

I:\BackUp\Gene6 FTP Server\%DAYOFWEEK%-%DAYOFWEEKNAME%\

It Looks Like this:

I:\BackUp\Gene6 FTP Server\1-Mon\
I:\BackUp\Gene6 FTP Server\2-Tue\
I:\BackUp\Gene6 FTP Server\3-Wed\
Etc..

This Way I Have Backups On My Raid Drive Of My FTP Server And All Related Files On The Sub Dirs

There Are Many More Key Words you Can Use.
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benn600

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2008, 09:48:35 pm »

Quote
Source: C:\Program Files\Gene6 FTP Server\

Destination

I:\BackUp\Gene6 FTP Server\%DAYOFWEEK%-%DAYOFWEEKNAME%\

You have got to be kidding me!  I wish I would have known this!  I use the full paid Syncback SE and generally like it.  I feel that the UI is not great but I appreciate that is it not just a bunch of shiny graphics like some backup programs.

My backup procedure is essentially ~3 500GB external drives.  I have about 7 top-level main folders that hold different content (Pictures, Users (documents, profiles, etc.), Backups (email server, mysql server, etc), and several others).  I have a backup profile for each main folder. When I plug in a drive, I open the root .txt file that lists what folders I backup on that drive.  So I just manually backup each folder that drive is supposed to hold.

But the variable terms would be handy.  I'm not great at keeping revisions because in general, we have huge files that can't easily be saved multiple times.

Question: with Syncback SE is there a way to ignore files over 25GB?  I looked for this option and don't recall finding a solution.  I often end up with very large miniDV footage and I can't afford to back it up in many cases.

My source data RAID6 array is 7TB in size.
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nunisimo

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2008, 02:12:28 pm »

hi.

In reference to purhsing synback, I currently have trueimage which is fairly user friendly.  Since I'm not very technical (no command line prompts just point and click) are there truly advantages to using synback?  Would it be faster than trueimage?  The few times I've used it, it takes days to back up 300 gigs even after the first full backup.  I feel like it doesn't look for changes but go through everthing again.

Any insights much appreciated!
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KingSparta

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2008, 02:25:52 pm »

Quote
feel like it doesn't look for changes but go through everthing again.

What Trueimage or syncback

syncback does look for changes, it may depend on your config however

By The Way: Syncback Pro Will be out soon that gives more power to the user, no there is no release date as of yet.
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DarkPenguin

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2008, 03:49:19 pm »

What Trueimage or syncback

syncback does look for changes, it may depend on your config however

By The Way: Syncback Pro Will be out soon that gives more power to the user, no there is no release date as of yet.


Like what are the new features?  I've been using the free version of syncback for so long I decided to buy a copy of SE as thanks.  Should I wait?
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rjm

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2008, 07:54:28 pm »

HI.

Thanks.  I would appreciate all your advice.  MY library is a bit of a mess.

As promised, I just posted a tutorial here http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=44492.0
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mesue

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Re: music library backup best practices
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2008, 01:30:27 pm »

I recently got an HP Mediasmart Server. It backups up selected folders for all the PCs on the network, and automatically duplicates the shared folders containing my media. Easy-peezy. I love it!
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Sue
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