Topic: Backup strategy for an audio collection (Read 18644 times)

negopus · « **on:** July 22, 2006, 09:19:40 am »

Audio files are an important asset for every Media Center user. How do you manage your backups?

Personally I have bought a spare 300 GB hard disk and installed it into my PC.

- I perform a scheduled weekly backup using NTBACKUP. It takes several hours to complete. I have no other ways of checking the backup result than reading the NTBACKUP log file.
- Periodically I back my entire collection up to DVD-R. This is a rather lengthy process, as I have to select individual directories to fit exactly one DVD. I think it could be more appropriate using an archive utility (such as RAR) and have it split archive files into 4.7 GB pieces. I am waiting for Blue Disc burners to come out. Dual-layer ones can hold as much as 50 GB each.

What backup strategy do you use for your media collection?

negopus · « **Reply #1 on:** July 22, 2006, 11:01:15 am »

I am considering buying an external (USB) hard disk in order to make the backup removable, so that I can store it away from the PC.

slipknot · « **Reply #2 on:** July 22, 2006, 12:03:13 pm »

I use Karen's Replicator (freeware - check google) to make exact copies of whole directory structures. It only copies what's changed. There are other replicator programs out there too.

negopus · « **Reply #3 on:** July 22, 2006, 12:32:14 pm »

I think that for backup purposes a single monolithic file is better. It has no fragmentation problems, and can be handled as a single unit.

Krazykanuck · « **Reply #4 on:** July 22, 2006, 12:47:33 pm »

The single monolithic file I think is only better if you are doing a full restore.
I use a replicator program (super flexible).
The advantage is that if you need only a file or two it is easy to search for and get back. You don't need any special program to recover the files since it is simply a copy.
I use APE so the files are already compressed and don't easily compress any further so there is no advantage of using rar, zip etc..

negopus · « **Reply #5 on:** July 22, 2006, 01:19:59 pm »

I would use RAR without compression for archiving purposes only, to split a big (monolithic) backup file into parts each fitting into a DVD-R. I know that standard compression algorithms (RAR, ZIP) have no effect on audio data.

I never used NTBACKUP to actually restore a single file, so I don't know if it can find a single file within an archive. I know it is a very limited program. Probably RAR is better for that purpose.

I am using the monolithic file solution because I'm looking forward to Blue Ray burners. I could then split the monolithic backup file into a few 50 GB parts, each fitting into a BD-R.

hit_ny · « **Reply #6 on:** July 22, 2006, 04:41:22 pm »

First thing, is a way to verify that the audio collection is kosher. For that i use checksums, this means no saving tags back to the files, all changes saved to the library only which gets saved to a different partiton. Run check, (2hrs approx to chomp through 30k files) then proceed to next step if all is good. Any that don't pass get labeled for further inspection.

A way to backup, controller card connected to external HDs, yes, open up the box let the cables dangle, use syncback, all stuff sync'd to the external drives. Never bothered with those external USB drives since they only warranty their kit for a yr, whereas the HD manufacturer's give you a whopping 3 yrs..fancy that.

Once a month.

Done !!

..but, but what if it crashes inside a month..hmm hasn't happened yet...not thought bout that..maybe building a HD enclosure might handle it. But got no USB2 on this rig, has to wait till the next upgrade. till then fingers crossed eh

Galley · « **Reply #7 on:** July 22, 2006, 09:09:56 pm »

I have a 100GB portable that I use to listen to music at work. I bring it home on the weekend and synchronize my music directory using the Folder Sync option in PowerDesk.

NickM · « **Reply #8 on:** July 23, 2006, 01:24:45 am »

I keep my primary storage on a TeraStation 1GB http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=127&categoryid=27. Normally MC has read only access to the music on this drive.

Whenever I make changes the music (additions, tagging, updates), then I copy the entire music folder using SyncBack http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html to an external drive on a media server before the changes. I run this as a manual process so as not to unwittingly copy across any errors that I may have generated.
nick

negopus · « **Reply #9 on:** July 23, 2006, 03:43:02 am »

It must be rather noisy, not suitable for a music listening room. Do you have a separate "server room"? Do you keep the TeraStation on 24h?

benn600 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 23, 2006, 08:24:20 am »

I keep a running computer in my theater room and it has a 500GB drive attached through USB 2.0. This is plenty fast for a 100Mb network. I then have two more of these same drives which I keep in perfect sync with SyncBack. In addition, once a week or so I'll run an export on hMailServer--my family's email server--because we all use IMAP and therefore, it's stored on that computers main C: drive instead of the backup drive. I was smart enough to setup Apache to use my external so that never needs copied to the 1st external.

This setup replaces an old setup of using 40GB, 120GB, & 160GB drives then backing up the most important stuff to a 120GB drive.

I paid $255 ea. for the 3 500GB drives and this week I see them in the Best Buy ad for $200! Don't you hate that? My average backup only takes around 10 minutes or so.

NickM · « **Reply #11 on:** July 23, 2006, 09:04:09 am »

Regarding the TeraStation, yes, yes & yes.

BartMan01 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 23, 2006, 12:02:12 pm »

Quote from: negopus on July 22, 2006, 12:32:14 pm

I think that for backup purposes a single monolithic file is better. It has no fragmentation problems, and can be handled as a single unit.

...and can get corrupted as a single unit. The one downside to using one file is that if it becomes corrupted at all you lose the entire contents.

modelmaker · « **Reply #13 on:** July 23, 2006, 02:28:45 pm »

I just back up to a couple of external HDs using Karens Replicator. I have been doing it this way for 2+ years with no probs.

With the internal db and 2 backups, I have had some HD failures, but no loss of data. The chances of all three HDs failing at once is pretty remote. One of the backups is also the HD (400g) for my carputer and is connected wirelessly when I'm parked in the carport.

I'm just an average user, not a power user, so I don't do any check summing or whatever and I've never had any corruption issues that I have noticed with my 42K mp3s the 3+ years I''ve been using MC.

benn600 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 23, 2006, 08:14:05 pm »

First of all, everyone needs to strongly consider and follow a good offsite backup plan. I purposefully bought 3 drives so I could keep one in use, the 2nd nearly up to date and onsite, and the 3rd will be kept offsite at least a few miles away. If you can afford it, use an online solution far away--but I can't see buying & uploading 400GB.

norms · « **Reply #15 on:** July 23, 2006, 08:19:22 pm »

Hey, whats wrong with Acronis True image? works great for me. Very flexable program.

zirum · « **Reply #16 on:** July 24, 2006, 04:55:39 am »

I am waiting for a Maxtor Share media drive (NAS drive) to use for backup in home, in addition to my 250gb usb drive i usally have on work.

Then i use second copy to syncronise it all. In this i have it setup to sync the last modified file with the others. It also backs up last 1 version of replaced files in a designated folder on the main machine.

Don't like the idea of permanent storage like dvd/cd, since they may have limited lifetime which can be hard to detect...

Image backup i guess creates a lot of out-dated data... I often have updates on tags, and this would give a lot of replication storing, would'nt it?

NickM · « **Reply #17 on:** July 24, 2006, 07:03:13 am »

A thought ( not many these days ) occurred to me. From the APE & MP3 dual library discussion, someone mentioned using an external drive as a portable device within MC and then gettin MC to sync the main library converting on the fly to MP3 to the external drive.

If MC could recognise an external drive, or preferably a NAS, as a portable device, then MC could do its own backups... Just sync its own library in original format.

nick

zirum · « **Reply #18 on:** July 24, 2006, 08:28:42 am »

But this would not take in consideration if the backup has been altered, would it?

I will do changes on all three drives, and want the changes updated all ways... But I cannot perform updates on same file to places, thou. Then i need to sync between first. So a filemerge tools would bee cool. This would also reduce the network load, since it would not be neccecary copy the entire file. I think this gives more hassle then value in the end, so I dropped the idea...

negopus · « **Reply #19 on:** July 24, 2006, 10:40:24 am »

Quote from: BartMan01 on July 23, 2006, 12:02:12 pm

...and can get corrupted as a single unit. The one downside to using one file is that if it becomes corrupted at all you lose the entire contents.

I began performing file-by-file backups using Explorer drag-and-drop, but I found many drawbacks that pushed me to use a monolithic solution (NTBACKUP at the moment, but I think RAR command line is way better). With my backups I want to prevent hardware failures, not logical corruptions after all.

- If Explorer finds any error, it stops and prompts the user for an action. You can’t run the backup unattended. This can be easily overcome using advanced replicator software.
- Before you make a full image backup you have to erase the existing files. It takes a really long time. It is faster to format the drive using quick format. Again, an advanced replicator software could help here.
- You end up having two drives with the same directory structure. They only change for the drive label and the drive letter. You can easily get confused.

Also, the monolithic solutions (NTBACKUP and RAR command line) allow the user to verify the backup after completion. You don't know if any file got corrupted before the backup, though.

None of the two solutions (both monolithic or file-by-file) is ideal, there should be a better way.

jgreen · « **Reply #20 on:** July 24, 2006, 11:03:22 am »

I've used NTBackup to do critical restores for sys drive data (program prefs, etc), and it's come through. The interface is about as dumb as can be, but I've never had a bad file and the compression is helpful.

I do think the interface takes it out of the running for large-scale backups, particularly cannot-fail backups. Synchback is a great little app for scheduled layoffs and I would be more inclined to use that for laying off a music library to detachable drives, which is how I do my library backups, and how I create most of my screwups. Thankfully, I have multiple sets of HD backups, so I more or less get back to where I want to be, after a lot of sweat and cursing.

JRiver could solve all of this with a small upgrade to their "copy disk file" capability. Currently, it won't replicate the file structure, or allow for robust creation of directories, the way their excellent "rename from properties" will (a utility for MOVING but not COPYING). The change is so simple (seemingly) and jriver is being so stubborn about it (IMO) that I have to believe there's some hidden RIAA-related voodoo involved (this last bit is wild speculation, purely).

negopus · « **Reply #21 on:** July 24, 2006, 11:18:20 am »

Quote from: zirum on July 24, 2006, 04:55:39 am

Don't like the idea of permanent storage like dvd/cd, since they may have limited lifetime which can be hard to detect...

I don't completely trust those optical media either. However I have them refreshed every few months, so lifetime should not be an issue.

The only reliable alternatives are enterprise-grade (SMB - Small and Medium Business) backup solutions. They are:
- Ultrium Tape. Very expensive. Comes in 100 GB, 200 GB and 400 GB formats (larger models to come). The removable tape should be reliable enough (1 million passes, 30 years of archival storage, 20000 loads and unloads).
- Iomega REV. More affordable. The backup "removable disks" should last tens of years as well. The current model holds only 35 GB. Their roadmap (2004 35 GB, 2005 90 GB, 2007 180 GB, 2009 360 GB) was not fulfilled at all. Seems that a 70 GB unit has come out recently.

A media collection changes frequently, so I am not sure that an enterprise-grade solution is worth the expense.

hit_ny · « **Reply #22 on:** July 24, 2006, 11:21:21 am »

Why isn't syncback to temp external storage a viable solution ?

..yes its file by file, but thats the point isn't it. A drive dies, you replace with another..(after you sync to the replacement from the backup).

..done ?

negopus · « **Reply #23 on:** July 24, 2006, 11:58:29 am »

Quote from: hit_ny on July 24, 2006, 11:21:21 am

Why isn't syncback to temp external storage a viable solution ?

Who said it isn't? I just pointed out that doing a file-by-file copy to an internal drive is somewhat confusing, as you find the same directory structure twice in your computer. If this replication happens to an external, removable, drive it is just fine.

I think it that in general is better to have at least two backup destination:
- Internal spare hard disk
- Removable drive (if time and resource allow, a remote location -- miles away, different building -- could be considered)
- In addition, short-term optical storage could be added. Replication to optical media can work in parallel with normal operations. You can use your media collection while backing up to optical media. Image files are already written to the spare internal hard disk. So the backup takes place from the internal spare drive to the optical burner. Hopefully, Media Center should not interfere with the burner. Burner support should be optionally disabled. I had some problems backing up to optical media (with another software) while using Media Center.

hit_ny · « **Reply #24 on:** July 24, 2006, 12:11:59 pm »

An internal backup drive is risky, not unheard off for a faulty PSU to take it out as well.

A backup should ideally be separate from the system it mirrors.

negopus · « **Reply #25 on:** July 24, 2006, 12:57:02 pm »

Quote from: hit_ny on July 24, 2006, 12:11:59 pm

An internal backup drive is risky, not unheard off for a faulty PSU to take it out as well.

A backup should ideally be separate from the system it mirrors.

I am not talking about industrial-grade backups. For an home system one should accept some trade-offs. For example, you might wish to use you media library while backing up to optical drive.

A decent schedule could be
- weekly: internal spare hard disk, monolithic file split in 50 GB parts (ready for optical drive)
- weekly (another night): external hard disk, file-by-file (by using replication software)
- monthly: optical drive (BD-R) or Iomega REV from internal spare hard disk

negopus · « **Reply #26 on:** July 24, 2006, 01:03:37 pm »

Here is all the backup software mentioned so far:
- Karen's Replicator Freeware.
- SyncBack $25.00
- Acronis True Image $49.99
Any opinions?

KingSparta · « **Reply #27 on:** July 24, 2006, 02:05:09 pm »

SyncBack Is A Good Program, They Do Also have A Free Version

The Free Version Works Well, After I Used It For About 6 Months I Bought A Copy Of It To Support The Programmer And Feel it Is Well Worth The Money.

I Have Two Maxtor 1 Terabyte Turbo One Touch III's, Two Maxtor 300Gig one touch II's And Two 300 Gig Maxtor One Touch I Drives.

I Recommend the Maxtor One touch III Drives Over Maxtor's Other Drives Because The Maxtor One Touch III Drives Have A Cooling Fan And This Prolongs The Life Of the Drive By Allowing It To Stay Cool.

the Maxtor III Drives Are Also Quite

The Turbo III (1 terabyte Drive) Has A Larger Fan Than the 600 Gig Drive

Maxtor For Some Reason Left This Fact Off there Website but if you Read The White Paper For This Drive It Is Noted In The Document. This Information Is AvalOn Maxtors Website.

hit_ny · « **Reply #28 on:** July 24, 2006, 03:48:52 pm »

how long is the warranty for these maxtors ?

mieko · « **Reply #29 on:** July 24, 2006, 04:50:45 pm »

Well recently i ripped and backed up my 2,500 CD collection to 2 200G Hard Drives and then
triple backed up to Sony DVD-R's in 4-4.3G RAR files. (Mostly beacuse they're mostly Japanese and
it was the only way to retain the japanese text) And then i'll be mirroring those drives again
so i'll be completely covered in case of catstrophic failure/theft/Act of Nature. It took me nearly
a year to rip and archive, so a little reduncancy does'nt hurt.
Any new CD rips, i'll just keep in a separate folder until it hits the 4 gig mark then back it up
to DVD-R and incorporate into the main library file structure.

Fex · « **Reply #30 on:** July 24, 2006, 05:44:46 pm »

Quote from: KingSparta on July 24, 2006, 02:05:09 pm

I Recommend the Maxtor One touch III Drives Over Maxtor's Other Drives Because The Maxtor One Touch III Drives Have A Cooling Fan And This Prolongs The Life Of the Drive By Allowing It To Stay Cool.
the Maxtor III Drives Are Also Quite...

I don't agree at all.
The III Maxtors may stay cool, maybe? (never had any cooling problems with my II's in the last 2 years, they still live, as yours).

But the III's are not acceptable concerning the noise (and just looks ugly). I have both versions and never would by a III Drive anymore. The noise just drives me crazy.

Fex

KingSparta · « **Reply #31 on:** July 24, 2006, 06:19:13 pm »

Quote

never had any cooling problems with my II's in the last 2 years

Nor Have I, But when your drives run all the time and are accessed like mine are (on a server). They do not go into power-saving mode where the drives have a chance to cool down.

Where the I And II's would be perfectly fine for most Users they are not fine to be used 24\7 on a server.

The III's are better suited for long term use.

Quote

The noise just drives me crazy.

I hear no noise from mine, and the Maxtor III's have many great reviews, and awards.

Quote

how long is the warranty for these maxtors ?

It seems most external drives only have one year warranty. I have talked to a professional drive guru. he stated one of the reasons the warranty is 1 year is due to Heat build up. The other reason he gave was User abuse. there maybe more reasons.

Normally in the past IDE drives had a 3 year warranty and SCSI drives had a 5 year warranty. It Really Depends Who Made It.

Besides The III's Can Be Used In Raid 1 Or Raid 0 And The I's And II's Can't And you Want Data Security Raid 1 Is Better Than None.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/singleLevel1-c.html

I happen To use Mine In Raid 0 But I Have Another Maxtor Turbo III As A Backup And It Is Turned off Most Of The Time.

Then Backups Are Made As Needed.

I Did not See A Point In Having Two Drives Running 24\7 At 500 Gigs Each When I Could Have 1 Drive Running At 1 Terabyte. And A Backup That Could Be Put On-line At Anytime Ready To Go.

lalittle · « **Reply #32 on:** July 24, 2006, 09:05:47 pm »

Quote from: negopus on July 24, 2006, 01:03:37 pm

Here is all the backup software mentioned so far:
- Karen's Replicator Freeware.
- SyncBack $25.00
- Acronis True Image $49.99
Any opinions?

I find that a "synching" program (rather than a "backup" program or an "imaging" program) tends to emphasize the features needed for this type of situaiton. Synching programs do not back up the files that have not changed, and you can typically select different ways of how the program checks for differences, such as file name, date, size, or an actual bit by bit comparison (which takes a long time.) I personally use file name, date and time to determine if files have changed, and I run bit by bit comparisons once in a while just to verify exact copies.

Acronis is not a "synching" program, so I don't feel that it suits this applicaiton -- it's more suited to full system backups. Karen's Rep and Syncback are synching programs. I looked at both these programs, but I chose Smartsync Pro instead (www.smartsync.com.)

In my testing, Karen's Rep didn't offer all the features I wanted -- it is a bit too "basic" for my needs. SyncBack is a much more powerful program, but I didn't find it all that intuitive -- i.e. it seemed to require a higher learning curve. Smartsync Pro, in my personal experience, offered all the power and features I needed AND it is a very intuitive program. It's not free, but it's still quite reasonable ($35) and they offer a trial.

Smartsync also offers outstanding tech support. They typically respond to emails quickly and will readily fix issues -- I actually received an updated, fixed version of the program within 24 hours of reporting a bug.

If you're interested, the Smartsync website is www.smartsync.com.

My backup strategy is to backup my entire "media" folder to a removeable drive on the same system, and to do a second backup to a drive on a networked system. This gives me 3 copies (one original and two copies) on 3 different drives in two different systems. Once in a while I also make another copy of the media folder to a removeable drive and take this to my parents house, where I copy it to one of THEIR backup drives. This not kept up to date all that often, so it's more of a "disaster prevention" backup. I manually run Smartsync backups on my systems every day.

Larry

hit_ny · « **Reply #33 on:** July 24, 2006, 10:09:02 pm »

Quote from: KingSparta on July 24, 2006, 06:19:13 pm

It seems most external drives only have one year warranty. I have talked to a professional drive guru. he stated one of the reasons the warranty is 1 year is due to Heat build up. The other reason he gave was User abuse. there maybe more reasons.

Normally in the past IDE drives had a 3 year warranty and SCSI drives had a 5 year warranty. It Really Depends Who Made It.

Right so if you build them with an enclosure you will have 3-yr warranty instead. Of course portability isn't assumed here.

I bet you look treat your drives with a lot of respect

If heat buildup is an issue that's really not a selling point at all for a backup is it

Now they have got cooler in the previous yrs but that warranty is still at a yr. They are selling like hotcakes cos ppl cant be bothered to look under the hood.

Quote from: KingSparta on July 24, 2006, 06:19:13 pm

I Did not See A Point In Having Two Drives Running 24\7 At 500 Gigs Each When I Could Have 1 Drive Running At 1 Terabyte. And A Backup That Could Be Put On-line At Anytime Ready To Go.

750GB HDs are the biggest available as yet AFAIK. So i'm quite surprised to hear this, are you sure there are not 2HDs in there with some RAID config.

Deivit · « **Reply #34 on:** July 25, 2006, 03:30:45 am »

Quote from: hit_ny on July 24, 2006, 10:09:02 pm

750GB HDs are the biggest available as yet AFAIK. So i'm quite surprised to hear this, are you sure there are not 2HDs in there with some RAID config.

Actually, it well may be 4x250. I think LaCie, for quite a long time, and lately Iomega are doing so.

My whole library of music files (300,000+) occupies currently over 1,5 Tb spreaded accross 6 external firewire drives, from 250 Gb to 500 Gb. all Maxtor but the last one (500 GB Seagate). Last week the oldest Maxtor Firewire (160 GB, first generation, always on) died, but I've seen 2 other Maxtor firewires dying on me only this year. Both were replaced under guarantee.

Still trying to figure out what would be the best way to handle such a huge amount of data. Backing it up would requiere at least having circa 4 TB available, 2 for the files and 2 for the backups.

hit_ny · « **Reply #35 on:** July 25, 2006, 05:05:53 am »

Exactly, i think i misinterpreted what King was saying, he meant instead of running 2 units x 500GB , he would rather run just a 1TB one.

A unit conisisting of x drives, for all intents & purposes acting like one big drive.

KingSparta · « **Reply #36 on:** July 25, 2006, 05:35:55 am »

Quote from: hit_ny on July 25, 2006, 05:05:53 am

Exactly, i think i misinterpreted what King was saying, he meant instead of running 2 units x 500GB , he would rather run just a 1TB one.

A unit conisisting of x drives, for all intents & purposes acting like one big drive.

Correct.

I did find some information under warranty's

Depending on how the drive is sold they may be on the "gray market" and those drives do not come with a warranty. Normally they would come from Gateway, Dell etc... since they buy drives directly from the drive company Bulk the warranty is removed and Lu of a price brake on the drives. But they company it's self if you pay for it will warranty the drive and the computer.

I think Seagate has a better warranty than Maxtor, and if i am not mistaken Maxtor still owns Seagate. Western digital also has a better warranty on some drives.

I looked last night so the warranty really depends on what the company is willing to offer.

NickM · « **Reply #37 on:** July 25, 2006, 05:40:20 am »

The Maxtor Turbo III 1Tb is Two SATA 500Gb drives.

nick

zirum · « **Reply #38 on:** July 25, 2006, 05:41:04 am »

Quote from: hit_ny on July 25, 2006, 05:05:53 am

A unit conisisting of x drives, for all intents & purposes acting like one big drive.

Exept, when drives beeing run with striping, it has statisticly a shorter time untill it crashes. And that we don't want, do we...

Quote from: KingSparta on July 25, 2006, 05:35:55 am

I think Seagate has a better warranty than Maxtor, and if i am not mistaken Maxtor still owns Seagate. Western digital also has a better warranty on some drives.

Western has 3 years warranty on the special edition disks. 2 years on other. At least it was untill a couple of years ago.

hit_ny · « **Reply #39 on:** July 25, 2006, 08:45:02 am »

Quote from: NickM on July 25, 2006, 05:40:20 am

The Maxtor Turbo III 1Tb is Two SATA 500Gb drives.

Quote from: zirum on July 25, 2006, 05:41:04 am

Exept, when drives beeing run with striping, it has statisticly a shorter time untill it crashes. And that we don't want, do we...

Right, so if there are 2 x500GB HDs, the only way i'm aware of to make it look like a 1TB drive is to use RAID-0. Now that makes things work faster since stuff is striped across 2 drives but the major downside is if any one drive malfunctions , you lose everything. That's actually worse than a plain 2 bunch of 500GB HDs.

Quote from: KingSparta on July 25, 2006, 05:35:55 am

But they company it's self if you pay for it will warranty the drive and the computer.

I think Seagate has a better warranty than Maxtor, and if i am not mistaken Maxtor still owns Seagate. Western digital also has a better warranty on some drives.

I looked last night so the warranty really depends on what the company is willing to offer.

It sounds like some sort of store warranty, i guess that's an option.

If i recall correctly, it was Seagate that bought Maxtor. They made a big splash with 5-yr warranties but i notice its really a 3-yr warranty and am not clear what the extra 2 yrs is.

Since we are all in the market for big drives rather than fast drives, i'm guessing these would be 7200RPM, 500GB or more, which i think both western & seagate do 3 yr warranties for.

KingSparta · « **Reply #40 on:** July 25, 2006, 09:44:37 am »

Quote

SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF MAXTOR CORPORATION

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.—22 May 2006—Integration to be Substantially Completed by Early Calendar 2007

Quote

Right, so if there are 2 x500GB HDs, the only way i'm aware of to make it look like a 1TB drive is to use RAID-0. Now that makes things work faster since stuff is striped across 2 drives but the major downside is if any one drive malfunctions , you lose everything.

Not if you back it up on another similar configuration. Like I Said You Are Not Running Your BackUp Drive So Your Saving It Until You Really Need it.

Also The III's Come With The New 800 Fire-wire So That's Faster Also.

My System Drive Is Also Raid 1, two 100 Gig Drives

avpman · « **Reply #41 on:** July 25, 2006, 10:04:26 am »

I use a Maxtor One-Touch 250 gig USB drive. The supplied software lets you pic the directories to backup. The software schedules a full backup once a week. If you've made substantial changes before then, You just hit the button on the drive to do an "Incremental" backup and it will only backup the files that have changed in the directories you've already picked. I do this if I've recently ripped any CD's.

It's fairly inexpensive and works great. By the way, I removed the original 200 gig drive from the One-Touch and replaced it with non-Maxtor 250 Gig and it still works great. So in my experience, it's self-upgradable.

runemail · « **Reply #42 on:** July 25, 2006, 12:13:20 pm »

For audio I run 2x250gb in software raid on my server and back up to a 500gb lacie usb drive.

Im running out of space so I have to uppgrade soon

Ill just buy 2x500gb drives to replace the original drives inside the lacie, and move the leftovers to the server. 1TB should last a couple of years.

I do backups when I feel the need, sometimes when im importing a lot into the library i have to back up every week or too much work is lost. And sometimes there can be months between backups.

gappie · « **Reply #43 on:** July 26, 2006, 05:40:45 am »

after loosing all my ripped cd's after a crash, im now backing them up on two 250 gb usb drives. made a custom field in the library called backup, i fill in the number of which i putted the backup. easy to see which albums i have not backedup yet.
i make the backup by just copying the maps within windows.
the library is backed up on several places.

benn600 · « **Reply #44 on:** July 26, 2006, 09:45:31 am »

One issue with the reliability factor is that larger drives are more likely to fail than smaller drives--just as a RAID 0 configuration because of its more chances of failing.

Just make sure everything is kept in at least 2 good places at all times--ideally 3 (or more).

Also remember that running more drives takes more power. This is not a huge issue but something to consider. Also, don't keep all backup drives plugged in at all times in case there is an electrical storm which could destroy the drives--especially if an entire house's electrical system gets struck.

Be safe. BACKUP AWARENESS MONTH -- July. Maxtor & Seagate sponsore BAM and it's not surprise because it just means they sell more drives and have fewer ANGRY, SAD, UPSET calls to their offices.

I've lost many a GB in my day and remember one distinct instance where I was moving my entire data structure from one drive to another (totaling around 100GB) and part way through, something went terribly wrong. The computer stopped and said the directory was corrupt. A restart ran a scandisk which did fix the directory, but DELETED every file, too. For some reason, I had truly been lucky because I had part of my data backed up to another 40GB drive and I basically only lost the part that I had backed up.

Hard to explain but that day will go down in history with me as a very lucky day.

BACKUP NOW.

GHammer · « **Reply #45 on:** July 26, 2006, 12:08:20 pm »

I use SureSync because it is very flexible and runs as a service so as long as the system is on the jobs are run.

Having had a bad USB drive in the past I'm kinda anal about backups now.

The music backup runs once a month (manually if I add music to the system).

Before the backup, I use FSum from within the job to compare the last 'known good' MD5 hashes to the live music directory. If it fails, the backup is not run because you don't want to overwrite good with bad of course. Once I investigate the differences, I run the job manually.

After the job is complete the MD5 hashes are compared to the backup directories. When that matches the job is complete.

A pain? To be sure. Do I worry about corrupt files? Nope, kinda hard to slip one through.

I think some smart person should come up with a lossless format that is error-correcting. Not just error-detecting. An additional 2-3% for correction isn't much when you are at the size of a lossless file. Even if I had to recompress the file after noticing that is had been damaged, it would save the time of ripping again.

hit_ny · « **Reply #46 on:** July 26, 2006, 01:11:10 pm »

Quote from: GHammer on July 26, 2006, 12:08:20 pm

I think some smart person should come up with a lossless format that is error-correcting. Not just error-detecting. An additional 2-3% for correction isn't much when you are at the size of a lossless file. Even if I had to recompress the file after noticing that is had been damaged, it would save the time of ripping again.

Thought you already used PAR files, or RAR files with 10-20% redundancy and this method will protect any media. Somehow i feel this is a neater way than encumbering the media with self-correcting data. You are never certain whether it will work at all, statistically yeah, your chances are 1 in 5, but if you already have a known good backup then its 100% certain of recovery.

So I did not feel the need for redundancy data as yet since checksums do the job for me, if not as you say look to the previous backup which should be correct.

It's defnitely a pain to use checksums, but at the end you know your stuff is bit perfect. It protects against the inisidious HD slowly going bad.

benn600 · « **Reply #47 on:** July 27, 2006, 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. When I run SyncBack, I always make sure that the differences seem reasonable and that I recall making the changes (or at least most of them).

park · « **Reply #48 on:** July 27, 2006, 11:42:04 am »

I've found Allway Synch to be pretty good.

dje06 · « **Reply #49 on:** July 27, 2006, 12:07:38 pm »

I keep my main collection, which gets updated (tagged, moved around, etc) on the laptop, which is what I mostly use to listen to music.

Then, once in a while, when I feel like I've changed a lot of things, I mirror the laptop to an external 2.5" 120gb hard drive. I then copy that onto my desktop computer at home and from there onto another external drive connected to it...

I haven't used any programs except deleting the old files and drag+drop the new ones in. I will look into Karen's Replicator since it'll likely save me some time and I won't have to utilize the hard drives so much every time..

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Author Topic: Backup strategy for an audio collection (Read 18644 times)

gappie