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Backing up your music library - a cautionary tale.

danter
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danter Grand Champion

danter

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As my NAS died a while back, I had let my back-up regime fall away (well lets say stop). Backed up my work files to Google Drive, but the rest - primarily photos and my music library (which I had just spent a good deal of time tidying up) were not backed up for well over a year - maybe two.

 

So, I thought, whack in a drive off the dead NAS and back up the main drive to it. All good.

 

Only, I managed to kill the main drive in the process (anit-static would have been a wise move). What's more, I have taken an age to access the NAS drive which has old back-ups of photos (not music) as I have just discovered they use neither FAT nor NTFS. So I have been running a data recovery programme that is doing the job, only you lose all naming of files and folders.

 

As for the music, I have an old backup of messed up files with a heap of ripping now missing.

 

The drive is now in the hands of a Mr Fix-it as hopefully, I have just damaged the PCB, which means the platter and files should be intact. Meanwhile, I am restoring from wherever as best I can.  Waste of time, waste of money, waste of effort.

 

So, the moral of course is if you don't or haven't, put a back up regime in place. Back to the NAS option I think as in Raid 1 you have mirrored drives in addition to the original (I am too lazy for the 'off-site' option for music - maybe for the photos which are of course irreplaceable).

 

And yes, I know all the clichés - 'make two back-ups, keep one off site, do it every week, every day, every hour, on the fly,

 

On a more positive note, was just about to rip and sell off my CDs. At least that work wasn't wasted - and I still have the CDs to rip.  Maybe just back to the CDP.

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Saxon Hall
Saxon Hall

I know you are probably taking the piss but where is the advantage? A lot of people on this site sell their CD's after they have ripped them and I often wonder why? I rip mine but I keep the actual C

Al Leece
Al Leece

Danter, you don't need to know this as you have found out, but others may find it useful.   Backups are vital; how you do them is up to you but there are lots of different methods. The cloud is one

danter
danter

As my NAS died a while back, I had let my back-up regime fall away (well lets say stop). Backed up my work files to Google Drive, but the rest - primarily photos and my music library (which I had just

Al Leece Mentor

Al Leece

Posted
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Danter, you don't need to know this as you have found out, but others may find it useful.

 

Backups are vital; how you do them is up to you but there are lots of different methods. The cloud is one (not one I'd chance, but each to their own). RAID mirroring *and swapping a blank drive in regularly* works well, too. RAID mirroring on its own is simply good for availability, not necessarily security; it helps to know you can read the drives from the mirror without the RAID unit, too.

 

Since 2TB drives are around the $150 price point it is just as easy to buy a couple of those and back up all your files to each one of them. Saves the price of a RAID unit and uses the same file system as your main computer (whatever that might be). The saving on the RAID system could be used to buy a third drive. Too much hassle? Why? Just connect your backup drive and copy overnight. By the time you get up (or maybe come back from work next day) the copy should be complete. Repeat. Data is as important as you make it so your backup strategy needs to match the importance - and decide *what* to back up, too!

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peacewise Veteran

peacewise

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Yeh, nobody want's to rip x hundreds of cd's again.

 

I rip twice to two independent computers with each new purchase.  Reckon that's good enough, can't be bothered to do the off site thing, so if my house burns down I'll loose the lot, cd's too.

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Saxon Hall Grand Master

Saxon Hall

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Hehe - you've just shown me yet another advantage of a vinyl playback system (as well as high quality SQ)! ;)

 

Andy

I know you are probably taking the piss but where is the advantage?

A lot of people on this site sell their CD's after they have ripped them and I often wonder why? I rip mine but I keep the actual CD's as I treat them as a sort of photographic negative, in case something happens to the ripped files. Hard drives fail, software gets corrupted, so it is peace of mind for me. I also know people who wipe their SD cards of photos to reuse them. With the low cost of storage cards, it's crazy stuff. Again it is the equivalent of throwing away your original photo negatives.

Sorry if I have wandered OT

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emesbee Grand Master

emesbee

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Hehe - you've just shown me yet another advantage of a vinyl playback system (as well as high quality SQ)! ;)

 

Andy

 

Advantage? So I take it you buy at least two copies of all your vinyl records, and store one copy off site (in case you get burgled).

High SQ? Moot point.

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andyr Life Member

andyr

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I know you are probably taking the piss but where is the advantage?

A lot of people on this site sell their CD's after they have ripped them and I often wonder why? I rip mine but I keep the actual CD's as I treat them as a sort of photographic negative, in case something happens to the ripped files. Hard drives fail, software gets corrupted, so it is peace of mind for me. I also know people who wipe their SD cards of photos to reuse them. With the low cost of storage cards, it's crazy stuff. Again it is the equivalent of throwing away your original photo negatives.

Sorry if I have wandered OT

 

No, IMO you haven't wandered off topic - absolutely I keep any CDs I have copied (to use in my car or my beach house system).

 

Regards,

 

Andy

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andyr Life Member

andyr

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Don't LPs deteriorate with each play? Warp... and burn too?

 

Weeeell, yes, they may, peacewise.  I say 'may' bcoz I have LPs that are 40 years old and I would suspect you wouldn't be able to tell that. ;)

 

Do they warp with time - no, unless I am stupid enough to leave them in my car on a hot summer's day.

 

Do they 'burn' - not sure what you mean here but, theoretically, the HF squiggles get worn away with repeated playing ... so you might call that 'burning'.

 

How are LPs backed up?

 

So far, all I have done (for the last 10 or so years) is feed the output from LPs - naturally, from the phono stage - to my CDR ... so I record some of my LPs to CD.  This is so I can play these LPs in other places.

 

But this is degrading the LP sound to redbook ... but today, we have the technology to take copies at a far higher sample rate - so the copy, when played back through appropriate equipment is, I suspect, indistinguishable from the LP.  So that is my retirement job - to use the appropriate devices & software to transfer my LPs to hard drive.

 

But:

  1. I will take copies of the disk(s) that hold this music, and
  2. I won't be selling my LPs. ;)

 

Regards,

 

Andy

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Chill3 Veteran

Chill3

Posted
Posted

Best feature of OS is Time machine in my view, no idea why there is not the same system for MS almost criminal that there's not !

So simple, I have a 4tb time machine permanently connected to the main computer and it backs up all my files including attached music/ movie and photo drives every 15 min

So simple , works and takes virtually no set up

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andyr Life Member

andyr

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Advantage? So I take it you buy at least two copies of all your vinyl records, and store one copy off site (in case you get burgled).

 

No, I don't.  So, yes, I am risking getting disappointed one day, if the crack addicts strike ... or if the place burns down.

 

High SQ? Moot point.

 

We belong to different sects, emesbee.  Luckily - in Oz, anyway - we are free to believe whatever we like. :P

 

 

Regards,

 

Andy

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Saxon Hall Grand Master

Saxon Hall

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until they go up in a "blaze" or vanish overnight with your money and data...

Slightly OT

That happened with Bebo. All the photos that had been uploaded all disappeared when Bebo went belly up. So for years they just got mouldy(metaphorically) on some inactive servers and were forgotten about. And now that Bebo has risen like a Phoenix the incriminating photos of a drunken, dissolute misspent youth have returned from the dead to haunt their owners. (fortunately not "moi")

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LogicprObe Life Member

LogicprObe

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I have Vinyl back up

Called insurance

 

They will only pay out what they deem them to be worth unless you have them listed under special items.

They will class them as outdated technology and you'd be lucky to get $1 a record...............if anything at all.

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danter Grand Champion

danter

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Poor bugger.

I have all the files in my main computer now.........Win 8 shuts down the drives after a time and you have to wait a few seconds while it spins them up.

I only use my NAS as a back up these days.

I was talking to a mate yesterday who commented that repeated starting and stopping of the drive reduces its life span so just as good to leave running. Someone tech savvy confirm or deny?

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