# Do you diligently back up? What’s your method?



## NYC Composer (May 20, 2020)

I’m a disorganized idiot, but I make two backups of my boot drive and my Cubase projects and mixes. I do it for the mixes and projects manually every night, dragging and dropping new files. I back up the boot drive onto a dedicated SSD and a spinning drive once a week. You?


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## emilio_n (May 20, 2020)

I have a couple of SSD to work. One with the samples (4Tb) and one for projects I am working now (2tb). I have a NAS to archive the projects finished and another older NAS where I backup the first one, the two SSDs and a copy of the computer.

Samples drive: Backup every week and manually each time I add a library.
Working SSD: copy every day.
iMac: every day.
NAS to NAS: Each time the NAS detects a change.

Need time to set up, but then is all automatic.


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## purple (May 20, 2020)

Rule of thumb for me is, if it's important, I usually keep two copies in one place and a third somewhere else (usually a cloud service, but could be at another house or at work or something)


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## dzilizzi (May 20, 2020)

Probably not often enough, but I do make a system image before I let Microsoft update my computer. And I put off updates until I verify there are no major problems. I have backups of all my libraries and only need to add new ones or updates. The only thing I haven't really backed up is my latest "experiments" probably not a huge loss if something happens to them. 

You really only need a system image and backups of new stuff. But it really depends on how often you add stuff. And probably how your computer is set up - i.e. I have just programs and VST/AAX files on my music computer main drive. Everything else is on separate drives. Makes it easier to do a system image and back up recent files only.

Edit: I do know how to spell. I just suck at typing.


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## NYC Composer (May 20, 2020)

Right there with you, Lizzi-I’m always editing my posts due to terrible, terrible typing.


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## jononotbono (May 20, 2020)

For Cubase Projects I Save new Version. Then I “Save As” with a new number. Then I back up project in a folder with all the project saves. I then backup the same back up to a separate SSD. Then I will save the finished project in drop box.

Works for me.


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## Sunny Schramm (May 20, 2020)

Never in a big way - maybe because I never had problems since 1995. I have my old files and closed case project-folders on one external 2,5 SSD. thats all. about 500 ideas/demos/songs - but nothing I "really" care. I dont like to hoard things which I know I will never ever get back to and finish them. I´d like to have an good MP3 of these ideas, so I can listen to them from time to time to get nostalgic. I think its not worlds end when I loose them sometime.

But of course - when I worked as a professional composer for audi, bmw, etc. my boss want me to do several backups on several network-hdd´s and a physical copy on dvds for the archive.


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## NYC Composer (May 20, 2020)

jononotbono said:


> For Cubase Projects I Save new Version. Then I “Save As” with a new number. Then I back up project in a folder with all the project saves. I then backup the same back up to a separate SSD. Then I will save the finished project in drop box.
> 
> Works for me.


Hmm. I’ve never seen a need to pay for a subscription to DropBox, but for incremental backup that makes sense.

I had an account for the trial period and it was hacked, but I suppose everything that hasn’t been hacked will be, eventually.


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## Land of Missing Parts (May 20, 2020)

I keep projects on a software-based RAID 5 drive, which can tolerate one drive failure, and will alert me when any errors appear. I also set up Carbon Copy Cloner to run automatic backups onto another drive every night when I go to sleep. (That drive is actually RAID 0, and pooled from old hard drives that I've collected over the years.)


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## Rory (May 20, 2020)

I use my computer strictly as a workspace. I have two copies of my original data and things like music libraries on local external drives, and a copy on external drives kept on different premises. In order to take into account the possibility of a virus or malware, the third copy is three days behind. I have data on cloud servers, but not as part of my backup strategy because I have no interest in the prospect of downloading huge amounts of data from a remote server.


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## jononotbono (May 20, 2020)

If I’m working on one project I will save incremental saves (so the name would be Sonic Dogs Brown 1 01 and then 1 02 and then 1 03 etc) because I learnt long ago the hard way with this. I was a few hours from finishing a band recording and Cubase crashed and it corrupted the CPR file and I had to do all of the recording and mixing again and ended up losing money (and time) on that job.

Once I feel the project has got to a point to save it with a new name (it might already have 20 or 30 incremental save files before getting to this point), I then save with new number (Sonic Dogs Brown 2). And then I’ll incrementally save again using Save New Version so it will now be Sonic Dogs Brown 2 01, Sonic Dogs Brown 2 02 etc).

I will back up Sonic Dogs Brown 2as described so I can always feel safe and roll back whenever. Corrupt files and losing all your work is a royal pain in the ass and I will never be caught out again.

Drop box is optional butI only do that with finished projects and I zipped a 5gb folder to about 500mb which was really good so I don’t need to pay any extra for cloud storage yet.


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## Manaberry (May 20, 2020)

Am I the only one having my cloud drive emulated on my computer so all my presets, template and saves are synchronized everytime the footprint of a file changes? 

I cannot afford a NAS yet but for now it has been workly spendidly well with my cloud backup system.


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## El Buhdai (May 20, 2020)

If you destroyed my PC right now, you'd destroy almost everything I've ever created and am creating whether it's music, software, visual art, or otherwise (I don't release a lot of things publicly).

I guess part of me secretly hopes for a reason to quit so I can go back to being a normal person who isn't cursed (like everyone else here) with the impulse to waste hours of every day creating things? Maybe it's for a more superficial, artsy reason like "ohh my art is temporary and fleeting, if it's destroyed physically, it's gone and blah blah blah".

Or maybe the truth is I'm just lazy. 

One day I'll likely be punished for this though. When that time comes, I can't say I wasn't asking for it.


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 20, 2020)

Alternating Time Machine back-ups to two drives + bootable clone and everything else on a drive in my glove compartment.

There's more to it than that, but that's the gist of it.


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## jonathanwright (May 20, 2020)

Daily Time Machine backup for iMac and SSD samples drives.

Dropbox for live projects. iCloud Drive for archived projects.


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## NYC Composer (May 20, 2020)

El Buhdai said:


> If you destroyed my PC right now, you'd destroy almost everything I've ever created and am creating whether it's music, software, visual art, or otherwise (I don't release a lot of things publicly).
> 
> I guess part of me secretly hopes for a reason to quit so I can go back to being a normal person who isn't cursed (like everyone else here) with the impulse to waste hours of every day creating things? Maybe it's for a more superficial, artsy reason like "ohh my art is temporary and fleeting, if it's destroyed physically, it's gone and blah blah blah".
> 
> ...


I....uh....well jeez.....never mind. :::horrified:::


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## NYC Composer (May 20, 2020)

jonathanwright said:


> Daily Time Machine backup for iMac and SSD samples drives.
> 
> Dropbox for live projects. iCloud Drive for archived projects.


Tell me about iCloud Drive saving, please. Do you drag n drop?


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## RobbertZH (May 21, 2020)

NYC Composer said:


> I’m a disorganized idiot, but I make two backups of my boot drive and my Cubase projects and mixes. I do it for the mixes and projects manually every night, dragging and dropping new files. I back up the boot drive onto a dedicated SSD and a spinning drive once a week. You?



I would advise to do the backup automatically.

You have not said if you are working on a Mac or a Windows PC.

I work on a Windows PC and use FastCopy to make a backup automatically through a batch file which runs directly on start or login of windows, copies only those files that have been modified.

As this is started every time that you start or login into windows, you know that the files are not currently being edited and in use at that moment.

The batch file looks like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\File Utilities\FastCopy\FastCopy.exe" /cmd=diff /error_stop /no_ui /auto_close "D:\My Documents" /to="O:\Backup - My Documents"

My Documents includes a subfolder with my cubase projects.

FastCopy is a free tool which copies either through a user interface or you can call it in a batch file like above and has many options to customize the copy process. This copying of my documents (which also includes all my documents, emails, etc) takes about 1 minute.

This tool keeps both the creation date and the last modification date of the source file in the copied file, which I find essential. Most other copy utilities, including manually copying through windows, sets the creation date of the copy to the date and time that you copied. Not what you want. FastCopy sets the creation date of the copy the same as the original file.

I also do a monthly backup to an external drive with similar batch files and then also include folders with sample libraries, photo's, my documents and then after the copying disconnect the external drive.

I also make a partition image of my windows C drive (that contains only windows and programs
(actual data, like My Documents, Cubase Projects, sample libraries and photos are on other drives)
with the free tool Macrium Reflect. I only do that when I have installed new software (including Kontakt libraries that you have to register through the native access application).

https://fastcopy.jp/en/






Reflect Free Edition


Macrium Reflect Free allows you to back up your entire computer and schedule backups. For a free program, you get incredibly powerful software that allows you to create effective backups.




www.macrium.com


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## NYC Composer (May 21, 2020)

@RobbertZH good info for PC users. I’m Mac as stated in my sig.

I don’t do automated, but for my boot drive I do use Carbon Copy Cloner which only backs up new files after cloning. Great tool.


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## jonathanwright (May 21, 2020)

NYC Composer said:


> Tell me about iCloud Drive saving, please. Do you drag n drop?



Yep. I basically mirror my Dropbox project folder structure on iCloud. 

When a project is live, it sits in Dropbox. When it's finished, I drag it into the equivalent folder on iCloud and mark is as 'online only' in Dropbox, to save disk space.

So I have 2 online backups.


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## Henu (May 21, 2020)

RobbertZH said:


> The batch file looks like this:
> 
> "C:\Program Files (x86)\File Utilities\FastCopy\FastCopy.exe" /cmd=diff /error_stop /no_ui /auto_close "D:\My Documents" /to="O:\Backup - My Documents"



Or, you can just use Robocopy which comes with Windows for free! This is one of my strings, which backups all Cubase projects (including the folder structure) to a certain Dropbox folder. I've automated it to run once a week at start, but I also have a habit to manually double-click the .bat- file when I'm done for the day.



> robocopy "E:\CLIENT" *.cpr "D:\CLOUD\Dropbox\Backups\Cubase_Client" /MIR /FFT /S



Another .bat I use for complete backup is when I switch on my external backup- hard drive. This I do at the end of the day whenever I have had any new audio files to work with. It mirrors certain folders to the backup- HDD to ensure they're a complete clone of the ones I have in my actual HDD:


> robocopy "E:\CLIENT" "I:\Backups\E\CLIENT" /MIR /FFT


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## MartinH. (May 21, 2020)

I don't back up as often as I should because it's soooooo much stuff that I need to back up, I can't figure out a way that is sustainably easy for me to do it as regularly as I'd want to.
I hedge my bets on hdd failure by using new drives for 3+ months as backup drives, and then for about 2 years as main drive for my important data (and the old one becomes the backup drive again). I took that time frame for less statistical likelyhood of failure from both personal experience and the results of an old google study on hdd lifetime.


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## d.healey (May 21, 2020)

I have an automated backup using a tool called back in time. I've also used Duplicati in the past and I'll be switching back to it soon for remote backups.


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## Vin (May 21, 2020)

I use Google Drive which automatically backs up any folder you choose to Drive. Every time you save/change/add something to the synced folder(s), it immediately updates and adds back up, so you don't have to think about it at all. Much better than manually backing up to another drive (which might die) for me. Plus you can access it from anywhere.


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## TomislavEP (May 21, 2020)

I have a dedicated HDD built into my DAW system for backing up the OS and all my software. I'm using Macrium Reflect for automating this task. I must say though that Windows 10 proved to be extremely stable system for me. I'm using it practically since inception and never had any significant issues, even with that infamous update that caused problems for the majority of users.

I store the projects I'm currently working on a separate internal drive, but I also make regular backups to the external volume and to the cloud. As I work more often with MIDI than with audio, my projects are typically not very large in file size, so the free account on MEGA as well as the other popular cloud solutions is enough for the purpose, at least for the time being.


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## marius_dm (May 21, 2020)

I’m pretty much doing something similar with what Henu is doing. I have a windows scheduled task every 4 hrs that runs a Powershell script based on Robocopy that copies my projects folder(s) to a NAS drive where it gets mirrored to a third drive every half hour or so. 
I don’t really see the need to back up more than my projects folder.


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## BlakStatus (May 21, 2020)

Veeam Agent backing up to an external drive for all my system drives. Backup into the cloud using Backblaze for everything else.


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## NYC Composer (May 21, 2020)

I’m a little surprised by how many are now using cloud backup. 

I have terabytes worth of project files going back over years and years. I definitely like the idea of incremental cloud backup, but did anyone say to themselves “I’m going to take all of my projects from the past ten years and back them up to the cloud twice”?


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## JamieLang (May 21, 2020)

I back up my IP. Both short term as project mirrors to an external drive, but long term to NON PROPRIETARY timestamped WAV of multitrack, mixes, and masters. Folder structure I set up decades back. Long term I don't care about things like session files...MIDI this and that...

My system state backup is...non existent these days. I look at it as a kind of--if I lose a day because I need to reinstall my apps/plug ins...I will come back leaner. And considering, I think I've not had a situation like that in 10 years...ehh...with Win7 I had an image of the OS+Drivers...and a second once the DAW and main plug ins were installed. I always had to go back to the original--else have to update tons of plug ins (which is the same as just installing them)...so, Win10pro installs drivers included in maybe 20min. Why spend the time backing up the state for a few preference files that are outside the Documents folder (which gets backed up)...?

If I were really in a time crunch to deliver...I might invest a little more in imaging design...but, honestly, when things go wrong, it's rarely WIndows or OSX IME--so, you actually then need redundant hardware to be able to put into place...as an image only saves you from SOFTWARE failure...


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## BlakStatus (May 21, 2020)

NYC Composer said:


> I’m a little surprised by how many are now using cloud backup.
> 
> I have terabytes worth of project files going back over years and years. I definitely like the idea of incremental cloud backup, but did anyone say to themselves “I’m going to take all of my projects from the past ten years and back them up to the cloud twice”?



For me personally, I just let Backblaze run in the background. It's basically hands off and painless. Granted, it did take about a month for everything to be backed up for the initial process.


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## NYC Composer (May 21, 2020)

BlakStatus said:


> For me personally, I just let Backblaze run in the background. It's basically hands off and painless. Granted, it did take about a month for everything to be backed up for the initial process.


Do you have a sense of how much data was backed up in that month?


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## BlakStatus (May 21, 2020)

NYC Composer said:


> Do you have a sense of how much data was backed up in that month?



4TB give or take


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## artomatic (May 21, 2020)

I use Time Machine and Backblaze. Both backup a few times/day.
Nothing like having that security, coming from one who's lost crucial files in the past.


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## easyrider (May 21, 2020)

I have two servers...Main and Backup server...all my data is backed up automatically to the main server which has a 20TB storage pool. I use Stablebit Drivepool for pooling my disks into one large virtual disk. ( Makes things so much easier to manage)

The main server is in my studio in a different building...the backup server is in my house in the study.

The directories on this 20TB pool are then Backed up to my Backup server...some folders are mirrored some are backed up . I use syncback for this. My backup server also has a 20Tb storage pool.

I have two 10tb USB external hardrives connected to the backup server that backup the pool and then the pool is backed up to the cloud.

Not everything from the pool is backed up to the cloud, just photos, home videos etc...

For the cloud I use Microsoft 365 Family. I have six accounts that give me 6tb cloud storage. I use Stablebit Clouddrive to create 6 1TB local virtual Disks on the backup server that appear to be physical disks but the data is stored in the cloud.

I then pool these 6 1tb cloud disks into one large 6tb single virtual disk.

I then run automated backups from the backup server pool to the cloud pool using syncback.


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## Anders Wall (May 21, 2020)

NYC Composer said:


> I’m a little surprised by how many are now using cloud backup.


I'm using p-cloud
It's a one off payment, they do do blackfriday and such.
The storage space is 2TB but I do believe you can add another two for every "lifetime" plan you add.
I think I paid roughly $200usd for a lifetime of 2TB, but don't take my word for it I'm too old and my memory sometimes slips.
At the moment my life is roughly 16-17TB of data, but most is shit so I've managed to boil down the most essential to 1,8Tb-ish. I can update this thread when I buy another 2TB.
The BEST and most IMPORTANT feature with p-cloud is that its kind of quick, IE I'm working with a mirrored drive meaning the projects that is live will always be in sync with the cloud.
I've tried other solutions but they took hours to sync, this is instant (to the speed of your network).

Stay Safe, wash hands and keyboards.

/Anders


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## NYC Composer (May 21, 2020)

artomatic said:


> I use Time Machine and Backblaze. Both backup a few times/day.
> Nothing like having that security, coming from one who's lost crucial files in the past.


Yeah, I don’t go around naked anymore. One giant slap in the face was enough. I hope a few people who casually eye this thread suddenly decide to back up. 

I find the large variety of backup solutions to be interesting. Clearly, this isn’t a slice of the industry that’s has been Kontakt-ized.


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 21, 2020)

By the way, I back up diligently. I don't diligently back up.


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## NYC Composer (May 21, 2020)

Yeah, I know, but when I looked at it and realized it was weird, I just blamed my crappy education. It’s a mystery how I manage to sentence a put together.


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## lux (May 22, 2020)

It's a few years now that i basically have my Cubase projects on Dropbox synced with local drives. So I'm protected against accidental overwrites and I can access projects from whatever place I'm currently in.

I hardly have terabytes-based single projects, so it works great. Usually I just keep video files outside Dropbox for obvious reasons. All my sample libraries (expecially the ones I can't download again from scratch) are backed up once on big physical drives which I never use, but you never know.


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## JohnG (May 22, 2020)

BlakStatus said:


> For me personally, I just let Backblaze run in the background. It's basically hands off and painless. Granted, it did take about a month for everything to be backed up for the initial process.



If everything goes down, can Backblaze send you a drive with all your stuff? So it doesn't take a month to restore?

Personally, I save everything, including samples, to HDDs, and swap mirrored drives out at the bank once in a while so I have an off-site of everything. Daily project backups automatically go to Dropbox and to another local drive.


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 22, 2020)

^ That's a good idea - the bank. Never occurred to me.


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## BlakStatus (May 22, 2020)

JohnG said:


> If everything goes down, can Backblaze send you a drive with all your stuff? So it doesn't take a month to restore?
> 
> Personally, I save everything, including samples, to HDDs, and swap mirrored drives out at the bank once in a while so I have an off-site of everything. Daily project backups automatically go to Dropbox and to another local drive.



Yes, they'll send you a hard drive up to 8TB for $189. Then they'll refund you if you send it back within 30 days.


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## Pietro (May 22, 2020)

I use Crashplan. Online backup saved all my project files once. Took a day to recover around 2TB.

I now also have one internal and one external backup drive. Crashplan handles all of that for me actually. 

- Piotr


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## wst3 (May 22, 2020)

for one that spent part of my adult life as a hotshot IT consultant, specifically on the topics of security and availability, you'd think I'd not only have a plan, but also that I'd follow it. You would be wrong!

There was a time, up until about three years ago, when I was pretty diligent about backups, then life happened, and it all fell by the wayside, not only that, any sense of organization flew out the window at the same time, making backups even more challenging.

As part of the whole stuck at home thing I am trying to fix all that, so I figured I'd share my approach in case it spurs ideas for some.

First level of backup was to a Network Attached appliance (in my case QNap, but they are all pretty solid, and prices have stabilized. If I were starting over I'd take a good look at Drobo.)

Second level of backup was to portable drives, once a month or so I would just copy everything to one of three portable drives. Sadly I have outgrown them, so I need to replace them too. Fortunately they are really cheap.

Third level of backup is to the cloud. In my case I use OneDrive for documents, system installers, and that sort of thing. This means that most of these things also exist on my laptop and my main DAW, which is yet another layer of backups.

I use Dropbox for a lot of my studio stuff, engineering projects, and the like. I'm going to move pretty much everything except studio projects to OneDrive, eventually. I turn dropbox off when I'm actually working as it does seem to get in the way. Which is a pity, since it also provides versioning. I need to work on that one.

I use Box for my "library" - all the documents, manuals, books, scores, etc that I have downloaded over the years. This will probably migrate to one of the other cloud services one of these days because keeping track of three is a bit of a nuisance.

I am on the fence with respect to photos. Amazon has some kind of deal I think, as do Dropbox and OneDrive. I really need to sort that out.

In addition to three different media and three separate locations, I also organize my data carefully.

Category 1: Anything that is easily replaced, the Operating System, most utilities, most applications, even most plugins and libraries. No, I don't want to have to rebuild from scratch, but I could. All of this stuff gets stashed on the portable drive. Only when I think I may not be able to access an installer does it move up a category.

Category 2: This is stuff that can not be replaced, all my documents, all my studio projects, all my photos, and installers that may not be available in the future (always a tricky guess.) All of this gets backed up to the NAS, the external drive, and the cloud.

Category 3: I also keep a copy of my library drives, as installed, on a single external drive. Most of them will work that way, and I keep notes about making the few that won't work again. This would be the easiest way to recover, but I don't hold my breath.

Category 4: I keep images of my OS drive, made with DriveImageXML, on the NAS, on the external drives, and in the cloud. These take up very little space, although they no longer fit on a CD.

Category 5: stuff I do not need to backup - temp files, swap files, email (already backed up by the mail service provider), music downloads, and those silly joke videos people send me all the time.

So that's how I look at (or looked at) backups. I really need to fix this!!


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## ed buller (May 22, 2020)

GOOD SYNC..three copies..morning and night

best

ed


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## jblongz (Sep 11, 2022)

Backup software comparison - SyncBackPro, SyncBackSE and SyncBackFree


Backup software comparison: SyncBackPro, SyncBackSE and SyncBackFree.




www.2brightsparks.com





I have to give high complements to SyncBackPro software (specifically the Windows version). I just haven't seen anything like it. It's so good I can shed a tear of joy.


Here's some highlights:
- Can setup profiles for each kind of backup you want so that its just two mouse clicks to get it going. Can also schedule them if you want no mouse clicks.
- Run multiple backups profiles in one shot. 
- Different types of backup (Sync, Mirror, and other intelligent or less intelligent features for your choosing)
- Backup to cloud and servers (NAS. S3, Azure, custom, etc)
- Simulate backups: quickly know what will happen before pulling the trigger.

Backup simulation is a *significant feature* for me. It's quite fast and will report how it would have modified your files. There may be situations where you're not sure what is going to happen could save a lot of stress and procrastination.

It also has a "turn-key" solution for Linux, MacOS, and android syncing controlled through the Windows license. 

Still the best money I've spent on utilities since Paragon Software.


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## Marcus Millfield (Sep 11, 2022)

I have 3 back-ups:

1. Automatic, on-the-fly sync of all my project files, stems, renders, settings, custom presets etc. to Microsoft OneDrive. I have a Office 365 plan which includes 1 TB online storage.

2. Scripted backup using PowerShell and robocopy of the same set as #1 to an external harddisk which I keep in my house. This back-up is daily.

3. Same as #2 but another harddisk which I keep in a locker at work, which is 140 km from my home. I take the disk home on Tuesday, make this back-up once a week on Wednesday and will put it back in the locker on Thursday. Not ideal, but that's what you get with the new post-COVID workbalance.


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## dzilizzi (Sep 11, 2022)

I have recently been backing up all my drives. I get an 8TB backup drive and a second drive that varies to back up all my 1 and 2 TB sample drives. I can get 4 or 5 drives on each. This turned out to be really good when one of the 1TB Samsung drives recently decided to go RAW. I used EASUS to verify my backup had everything, formatted it, checked it, and copied everything back. 

Because I don't really trust it, I will not add anything else to it and be ready to replace it when necessary. I could actually move everything to other drives if needed. EASUS did not have a problem locating any of the folders. and the files looked to be all there, so I'm thinking the SSD FAT equivalent got damaged. 

I also have been making spreadsheets of everything and saving it to my Google Drive. Trying to figure out what is missing has also been fun. But I can do that in a place that is not my very hot studio. 

As a note, one of my 8TB drives did die. I can't blame Seagate, since my foot got tangled in the cord under the desk and caused it to drop. Fortunately, there was a copy.


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## jononotbono (Sep 11, 2022)

dzilizzi said:


> I have recently been backing up all my drives.


Why?
🤣


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## Luzebel (Sep 12, 2022)

I don't. If my project gets corrupted I punch my screen and go on a rant about how much my DAW sucks.


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## bosone (Sep 12, 2022)

always remember that the right time to do a backup was yesterday... 

what do you suggest to make a clone of the OS disk?

I also use syncback to regurarly bakcup my files to an external dedicated HDD.


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## jtnyc (Sep 12, 2022)

bosone said:


> always remember that the right time to do a backup was yesterday...
> 
> what do you suggest to make a clone of the OS disk?
> 
> I also use syncback to regurarly bakcup my files to an external dedicated HDD.


I use Carbon Copy Cloner for all my backup and clone tasks


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## thaeo (Sep 12, 2022)

Backblaze lets you back up unlimited external drives. Currently have about 18TB backed up. Hope I never have to actually restore any of it, but the offsite insurance of cloud storage is worth the cost, IMO.


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## dzilizzi (Sep 12, 2022)

jononotbono said:


> Why?
> 🤣


I lost a computer to a non-planned Windows Update. Then the wrong drive got overwritten on another computer when I reinstalled windows. It was a big mess. And I couldn't find the most recent back up.

Some stuff has been lost forever. And? I probably won't miss it.


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## HCMarkus (Sep 12, 2022)

dzilizzi said:


> Some stuff has been lost forever. And? I probably won't miss it.


Not a problem as long as a _client_ won't miss it! But, yes, once the milk has been spilled, no sense crying over it.

I work on a lot of projects for others, a few of whom like to resurrect old projects from time to time; this largely explains much of my attention to a robust backup system. Along with the wildfire that took out my studio in 2003.

Been on this subject in another recent thread. My RX: Manual backups of project files at the end of every session. Time Machine local. Occasional clones of system drive. BackBlaze in the cloud for all data. Rest easy.


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## dzilizzi (Sep 12, 2022)

HCMarkus said:


> Not a problem as long as a _client_ won't miss it! But, yes, once the milk has been spilled, no sense crying over it.
> 
> I work on a lot of projects for others, a few of whom like to resurrect old projects from time to time; this largely explains much of my attention to a robust backup system. Along with the wildfire that took out my studio in 2003.
> 
> Been on this subject in another recent thread. My RX: Manual backups of project files at the end of every session. Time Machine local. Occasional clones of system drive. BackBlaze in the cloud for all data. Rest easy.


These were mostly personal documents. For example, I had downloaded a bunch of Udemy classes I owned while Udeler still worked. Fortunately, I did find the back up to those. But I lost the Due Piano download and can't find it anywhere. There were some other things I remembered at the time, like bank and credit card statements, but I was able to redownload most of them. I also am planning on retiring in a few years and I lost my most current spreadsheet and documents. I can recreate this but it takes a while. Things like that. The biggest problem was that there was a partition that I had some back up stuff on - all older, but I have no idea what it was or if I ever backed it up. A lot of times, all I need are the file names, and I'm okay. But when I don't know what is missing, it bothers me forever.


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## Per Boysen (Sep 12, 2022)

Double numbers of SSD drives. Each drive I work with has a clone where I drop daily updates for backup.


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## DoubleTap (Sep 12, 2022)

DAW project files (and pics and other important stuff) are saved in a OneDrive folder which copies to the cloud automatically. Not a back up exactly, more an archive. I did set up a backup of the OneDrive folder to a local NAS but haven’t checked recently if it’s still working. These are the irreplaceable files so I’m trying to cover all bases. 

Using Carbon Copy Cloner:
Libraries are on two SSDs backed up to an HDD. The HDD is occasionally backed up to another local HDD. It’s too much data to back up to a cloud service IMO. 
Laptop with DAW and music software is backed up to a NAS.


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## LatinXCombo (Sep 18, 2022)

Depends how much you need to backup. If it's small (1TB or less) then, really, an attached external drive (HDD or SDD, your choice/budget) would work. They're not that expensive when it comes right down to it. Make sure it's ONLY for backup not a "I back up stuff and sometimes I just shove extra stuff there when I feel like it" solution. It should just take a snapshot of your working drive(s) and that's it.

Once you start getting a bit beyond that, look at network attached storag solutions. (Speaking of, have you looked into TRUE NAS or UNRAID? After a certain point, your own server that can scale up in capacity without being wedded to someone else's proprietary system might make sense, and something like UNRAID can be simple and cost-effective, build a low-powered PC and you can have dozens of TB's of storage space ready to go.)

If you're doing belt-and-suspenders, buy some more storage and backup your backup! The time consuming part is doing it the first time if you already have (say) 10 TB stored, but after that it's just 'topping it off' so to speak.

This is all local storage I'm talking about, the proverbial 'server in the bathroom closet' setup, not intended to be accessed while on the road, but just fine when you're at your home studio. Once you have that taken care if, if you want an off-site solution for true disaster recovery (and don't mind transmitting your data through the internets) you can always sign on to a service like Backblaze.

I also like Carbon Copy Cloner to schedule/manage the copying as @DoubleTap mentioned.

And yes, I came to the large-scale backup solution after a tragic accident when my precious recorded copies of _Schickele Mix_ were lost forever. The right to to start backing up was yesterday, indeed!


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## Daren Audio (Tuesday at 1:22 PM)

thaeo said:


> Backblaze lets you back up unlimited external drives. Currently have about 18TB backed up. Hope I never have to actually restore any of it, but the offsite insurance of cloud storage is worth the cost, IMO.


Question: 

Does BackBlaze give the option to download parts/chunks for a specifc external drive that failed or do you have to download the entire backup (in its entirety) to restore?


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## kgdrum (Tuesday at 1:51 PM)

I am not diligent when it comes to backing stuff up.
A very good friend of mine is an IT guy whose company has closed their offices so he is actually gifting me a 24TB Pegasus2 R8 RAID array & a MBP Retina to run it.
I’m trying to figure out a network backup routine to utilize this fully.
But I suspect this will be a really good way to keep things backed up.


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## SonicMojo (Tuesday at 2:32 PM)

NYC Composer said:


> I’m a disorganized idiot, but I make two backups of my boot drive and my Cubase projects and mixes. I do it for the mixes and projects manually every night, dragging and dropping new files. I back up the boot drive onto a dedicated SSD and a spinning drive once a week. You?


My backup strategy has two parts:

1. OS Drives

The OS drive on all machines - contain NO user data (OS and Apps only). Every DAW has a copy of Macrium Reflect rolling along that takes a full backup on Sunday mornings and 12 hour incrementals the other 6 days of the week. Any machine can be brought back online in less than 10 minutes. ALL full and incremental images are saved to specific location (per machine) on the network file server.

2. Data Drives - where it's the classic 3,2,1 strategy - which states:

_"Every file must exist in *3* places, *2* of which are local but on different mediums (read: devices), and at least *1* copy offsite._

All machines have a Data drive (D for all user created files - regardless of what they are. Be it Studio One sessions, photos, documents etc etc - everything created by everyone - goes to their D Drive (local copy 1)

All PC's run their own copy of Syncback Pro 10 - which takes all the user data off of each D drive and copies it to my network file server backup location for each PC (Local copy 2) using a multitude of different backup profiles.

Finally - the file server itself is running a copy of CrashPlan - which runs 24/7/365 taking all user data from all PC backup locations and sending it to the Crashplan Cloud. (Offsite Copy 1)

This satisfies the three copies for everything rule.

Leave nothing to chance is my mantra. I have been caught in two minor data loss positions in the last 5 years. Each one tends to teach me something else about being prepared.

Cheers!

Sonic


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## pcohen12 (Tuesday at 6:29 PM)

Daren Audio said:


> Question:
> 
> Does BackBlaze give the option to download parts/chunks for a specifc external drive that failed or do you have to download the entire backup (in its entirety) to restore?


In the web restore interface, you can select whatever folders/files you want to restore! (See "Selecting Files for Restore" here: https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us...o-Create-a-Restore-from-Your-Backblaze-Backup)


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## Daren Audio (Tuesday at 8:09 PM)

pcohen12 said:


> In the web restore interface, you can select whatever folders/files you want to restore! (See "Selecting Files for Restore" here: https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us...o-Create-a-Restore-from-Your-Backblaze-Backup)


@pcohen12 Thanks! 
Going to add BackBlaze to the mix! 

My external drive and its backup failed both at the same time. Luckily, I was able to repair the main external drive but that was too close for comfort.


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## HCMarkus (Tuesday at 8:22 PM)

Daren Audio said:


> @pcohen12 Thanks!
> Going to add BackBlaze to the mix!
> 
> My external drive and its backup failed both at the same time. Luckily, I was able to repair the main external drive but that was too close for comfort.


Whew! Glad it's not too late!


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## GtrString (Wednesday at 12:07 AM)

I have two main drives, which I backup on two other drives (yes, I backup the backup). My backup drives are on a switch, so they can’t be accessed in case of any ransomware hacking attempts. So they are not just backups, but secure backups.

I like to backup manually, so the maintenance tasks are present in my mind. It makes me feel better.


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## darrenwonnacott (Wednesday at 4:27 AM)

I found these really helpful with Andrew Scheps  

https://puremix.com/library/tutoria...workflows/session-backup-strategies-workflows

and there is an updated one to watch after:
https://puremix.com/library/tutorials/interviews/backup-strategies-update/backup-strategies-update


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## LatinXCombo (Wednesday at 6:01 AM)

kgdrum said:


> A very good friend of mine is an IT guy whose company has closed their offices so he is actually gifting me a 24TB Pegasus2 R8 RAID array & a MBP Retina to run it.


Always be friends with the receptionist, the secretary, the plumber, the girl who answers the phone at the bank, and the guys from IT.


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