i have to find the best way to establish some form of backup routine so i'd like to hear opinions about this, what are best methods. my music folders are beginning to get a bit large and i am slightly anxious to get it all safe somehow..
i am on windows 7 and 10 on laptop.
cheers : )

 

Google drive ftw...

 

I have 2 external HDDs... 1x1TB... 1x3TB...

Whenever i make a change to any project file/folder, I backup the latest version of that folder to both drives... so, I have2 backups...

You should copy all your session data and folders to a backup drive... Do it now!!!

 

acronis true image, you get it free if you buy a westurn digtal drive, i back up on 3 ext hdd to be safe

 

so i recently built a new pc, i upgraded my old 1 to win 10 from win 7, worked ok, then i built the new pc, everything worked, untill the april 2018 update,booted it up and just had 2 blank screens,was like that 4 hours, so i had an acronis backup from a week before the april update, but that just gave me more errors, backup went through the update backup but when it booted i was greeted with MBR 1 error, restart and got black window saying win failed to start, tried installing fresh from usb media and got errors saying missing drivers, had to remove the ssd and format on another pc, replaced it and reinstalled win 10, this time it worked, i didnt install anything for a few days, started to reinstall live and studio one, so far all ok,made a new backup called win new, installed a few more vst plugins and again all ok, backed up again called win 10 complete, so my ols system had all my music production stuff on, but alot of old programs and 32bit vst plugs, the back up was validated by acronis but the win 10 files must have had errors, so now i have a clean system and only installed what i use and not just to have it, works gr8 pc boots in 10 secs from power to desktop and shuts down in 1 sec, so backup all the time, i have 4 acronis backups now and i know all are good, also i learnt along while ago that to install 1 prog at a time, then you know if you have problems with your pc its that last prog you installed and remove it, so my system is basic in comparison to my old backup but its also faster, the old backup was all carried from when i started using win 7 back in 2010 so alot of junk, i keep all my dl`s on labled ext hdd so i know exactly where certain plugins are, biggest prob i thought was with omni, but i just installed the original .dll then installed the last update and bingo, of course i had my steam folder backed up 2, so backup backup and backup.Also i used that old backup to recover my synth presets and a few hard to find vst plugins, you have to right click the acronis backup and click open, once inside you can copy things back to your new install, but you have to copy them to docs or dl you cant copy from backup c to new install c, all the psp plugs i copied this way pasted into the 64bit plugin folder and just used the R2R keygen to auth them, saves alot of time especially for presets, hope this helps

 

Last edited: May 31, 2018

Hi,

Yes, this is a crucial point for everyone working on projets on computers.

And the key word is redundancy, either it's a RAID setup (where even if a disk fails, the other disk(s) have the same information and you just change the one that crashed) or either a backup HDD in conjunction with Google Drive or Dropbox Redundancy (or other cloud based systems).

I am lucky enough to be able to spend a 99€ a year on a Terabyte from Dropbox and my projets folder is synced with the cloud.

The "cheap" way is to use multiple cloud based systems and depending on your operating system, you can use symbolic links or aliases.
That will allow you to sync your "projects" folder in multiple cloud based systems without needing to move them inside the app directory.

Check here for more info >>https://superuser.com/questions/1020821/how-to-create-a-symbolic-link-on-windows-10

Cheers !
O.

 

You can use...

• True Image 201x + External HDD : x2 to doubling backups like a RAID 1 mode
• BlueRay support
• NAS (RAID 1, mirroring)
• Clouds : you better use very strong encryption but first learn all about laws and data storing on clouds

Your choice depends on how much money you can pay to save your datas.

 

Last edited: May 31, 2018

For your work only

1. Specific folder to put everything that cant be re installed: Fotos, Your work, Presets etc ...
2. Every week, copy this folder to an external drive.
3 Every 3 month copy to another external drive.

Note: If possible use portable programs for important things like emails, reminder and note programs, so you can install them in this folder.

For entire system backup: Acronis

 

It depends on several things :

- The size of your backup and other things you want to save. (the more you save, the more you pay)
- Storage at home or outside ? (HH, NAS, Raid System, Cloud....)
- Your financial resources ?

We all have different configurations
My best choice may not be the best for you

 

SyncBackPro works perfect with ANYTHING. Reliable. I searched this for days and tried a lot of different setups. Whatever (hdd dropbox etc) just set it up with SyncBackPro and forget about it.

 

I've had legit copies of Acronis for Workstation and Servers. Acronis has issues with service and sales at least here in Europe. Over months I wasn't able to update my Acronis server license software though I was willing to pay (a lot of $$$). So I wasn't able to run backups for months when I upgraded servers from Win 2008 R2 because Acronis had a problem in conjunction with MS shadow copy provider. Acronis had an own provider that collides with the OS.
Back then I dropped my Acronis licenses, lost a lot of money and bought licenses for an other solution.
On top I find Acronis way too complicated, CPU consuming even if not backing up and the restore function is a pain sometimes when you need to restore over the network (which is the case when you have backups -> NAS).
So I would encourage everyone NOT to use Acronis. Neither paid nor free.

For home and small business I tested a lot of backup utilities.
In the end I found Macrium Reflect to be the most powerful, cost effective and easy to use package for workstation and server (I did not test server plus).
You can automate backup tasks, so you set it and forget it (I did that for my wife who never starts a backup by herself )
The Restore function is for dummies. You start a Windows PE console from an USB stick, choose a backup date and that's it.

A thouroughly tested backup strategy:
(lost some data due to my prior laziness)
Firstly I try to install all programs on C: and hold all data on d: so the amount of data to be backed up for the system backup is not that much.
1. System backups I do every time before I install programs or updates --> NAS (Macrium Reflect). I don't use incremental backups but some full backups.
2. For the data (D: drive) I copy the files on the fly when files are changed with a sync utility running in background as a service -> NAS (goodsync). So most of the time only quite small amounts of data are needed to be copied.
3. Data on my laptop is stored on an external SSD. Every time I connect it to my network it's synced with the data on the NAS (from 2). This way I stay synced between workstation and laptop.

With this strategy I reduce the overall amount of data to be stored and have daily backups of every file on any machine.

Sync means files are copied to and from backup media. There should be a little time gap (say 30 minutes) between changing data and syncing because if I set it to instantaneously, my deletions by error are synced in the moment I made the mistake.

Instead of NAS you can use a bigger HDD as well (I prefer NAS with smaller HDDs because with RAID 5 you can change one (or more) defective drive(s) on the fly without losing data)

Free software:
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.goodsync.com/

 

Last edited: May 31, 2018

i save my project folder , samples on a external harddrive

i think it makes no sense to make images because a windows system is always changing, always updates are coming etc viruses etc, then u save ur viruses too, if a image is defect ur data is lost and it takes years till a image is done

 

Macrium Reflect would be my second choice. SyncBackPro can stay at the taskbar like dropbox and u can just check if it syncing.

 

1) external HDD (NOT SSD !)
2) home NAS (something like Synology DS918+ with SHR, RAID5 or 6)
3) online storage (mega.nz, uloz.to)
4) secondary internal HDD

 

You're right. The actual backup tool is a question of taste.
In my case my wife would never click on "backup" ever, so the backup media would be free of backups
More important than the tool is one HAS a strategy to backing up data

 

For system backups on Win I use Macrium Reflect non incremental before every install- (For Mac its Timemachine)

I keep data always on a separate recording disk, and every day after work I would backup the project folder ( I always have different folders for every project) to an internal backup disk manually.
Then I use a foldersync programm (syncfolders on mac, there are similar apps on Win) for backup to an external disk and after the project is finished I'll do a copy to a second external backup disk that is usually not connected to power or computer and not stored in the studio but in my private house.
I know it sounds a bit paranoid, but that way there is always a copy in a safe place but not in the cloud (I don't trust those)

I wouldn't recommend 2 ore more disk in one case like NAS or raid-systems because they use the same power supply, and if that dies it could destroy both disks. This really happened to me and everything was gone. Since then always different cases with separate supplies.

 

Oh, sorry to hear that.
Fire is a danger, no doubt, and as there is data on my HDDs I won't get back in case of fire, I have a second NAS of same size placed in another building and sync them every two days.

But at the end: There is no such thing as "absolute security".

Even Amazon's expensive S3/AWS service had smoked up servers resulting in data loss for clients some years ago. They claimed clients had to make backups themselves.

 

Last edited: May 31, 2018

I just recently did some testing here on backup programs (Macrium Reflect, and Acronis True Image). I personally use Clonezilla which is free (maybe not as pretty) but rock solid. The results... Macrium is very detailed but I found its restore process took twice as long as both Acronis True Image and Clonezilla. Acronis True Image seemed to do the job but I'm not real trusting when it comes to it. Acronis years ago was a very solid product but in the last couple of years has been on and off again with reliability. Clonezilla is free and is the fastest of all 3. It will do Windows, Mac, and Linux. All testing was done backing up an SSD with Windows 10 r1803 and various third party programs installed.

 

There is no diffenece between Macrium and Acronis here. I just get plain maximum transfer rate of the HDD (using always standard(low) compression wich my computer (and most others) handles realtime).
May it be you compressed with one program while the other is saving uncompressed? Also there are different switches in the apps e.g. byte-by-byte-copy ... making the process more complex.

As said before, the tool is a matter of taste. Every solution will backup and restore. Only with Acronis I've got real problems due to their bad customer care.

 

Most has been said by this point, already, but I'll add my bits. I'm on Mac, but this applies to any platform – it's all just data.

• Redundancy – more than one copy; one of which is in a geospatial location separate from the main one. For example, I have files resident on my computer's data drive (separate from the OS drive); I back them up to an external HDD. Monthly (which could be more frequent), I back that HDD (cloning it) to another HDD, which I put in my safe-deposit box at the bank, and only then consider it "safe" to delete the files from my computer's data drive. Ideally, I'd have more than two redundant examples of my files, but (fill in practical excuse here).
• Do not count upon Cloud storage, because data can be lost due to human, material or environmental factors. Anything in the Cloud should not be "the only other" copy.
• Budget/plan for upgrading and augmenting storage annally. Not only will a productive person require more storage capacity, hard drives wear out eventually. Working older hard drives can be repurposed for less-critical or transitory storage.
• Use drive-cloning software rather than manually transferring files.