Backup/Archiving Strategies

[JES]

Hi All,

Just a question for the computer people. When you're done recording a project, and you want to archive it, how do you do it? Or do you just wipe the masters? I ask because I've been backing stuff up, but now that I'm onto another big project after about a year, I want to archive the first project, wipe the hard drive and start over.

I've got a Mac with a DVD-burner, but even at 4.7 gigs a pop, a CD's worth of song files takes forever. I thought of just buying another hard drive -- 80gigs is like $60 at this point and doing it that way. My question is whether that's a decent archiving strategy, since I have no idea what happens to hard drives if they sit in a cabinet for a year or two.

What do you do?

--JES

[mpedrummer]

First, let me start with a disclaimer - I am a weirdo

I have a server running with over a Terabyte of storage on it. All projects are backed up to mirrored drives in the server during the project, and usually just stay there. Actually, I haven't NEEDED to delete anything yet, so pretty much everything I've done is online for instant access.

I also backup to DRD-R, but I'm not convinced yet. I like the fact that the hard drives can tell you when a failure is immenant, and that a RAID1 can protect you (to a degree) from media failure.

My DAW has a 60GB drive for Audio, which is usually enough for 2 or 3 albums at a time. When I'm done with the project, I do a full backup to the server, and THEN go back and clean house, get rid of useless takes, etc. Only when I'm absolutely sure I didn't trash anything do I go back and backup the trimmed down copy to the server.

I figure hard drives are cheap; studio time isn't.

MPEDrummer

[soundhack]

i''ve been doing duplicate or triplicate cds (and before that dats) for the past 14 years, and so far nothing lost... i am fortunate to have a climate controlled room to keep things in though. everytime the media changes (dat to cd-r, cd-r to dvd-r) i copy everything to new media - i probably should do it more often....

[Cephallus]

I do two DVD-R backup sets for each project. I don't know what you have to use as far as tools on a Mac (I use a PC)...but I first make sure that that the contents are exactly duplicated (with a CRC check), then keep one on my "accessible" shelf and put the other away in a safe, off-site location. As soon as the backups are done, I wipe the project from the HD. It's a way for me to mentally "start fresh" on the next project.

My experience comes from working with backup solutions in the computer/business world; I had a client who insisted in keeping all of his backups in the office safe...and lost his business when there was a small fire and everything was ruined by either fire, smoke, or water - including all of his data backups. Thousands of dollars of data recovery services later he still didn't have enough to rebuild even a small part of his database.

Oh, and part of my policy is that I always give the client a DVD-R of the master tracks as well. So three copies, I guess, is the short answer to your question.

[mpedrummer]

For a while, a buddy and I would FedEx firewire hard drives to each other once every two weeks. We had 4 in rotation, so we'd each be recieving one and have a second on the way.

Insure the SHIT out of it if you do, though.

MPEDrummer

[JES]

Wow. Thanks for all the replies. I can see that this is a real issue and that there's no agreed-upon way to do it. Everyone seems to come up with their own creative solutions. . . .

Anyone else?

Best,
--JES

[JES]

Wow. Thanks for all the replies. I can see that this is a real issue and that there's no agreed-upon way to do it. Everyone seems to come up with their own creative solutions. . . .

Anyone else?

Best,
--JES

[insta-fame]

i keep everything on two internal hds and one external firewire hd at all times. i backup to the 2nd internal drive every break in the session, and the firewire at the end of each day. when a project is finished it goes onto external firewire drives i keep seperate for long term backup-written once and never erased. the client decides whether to further back it up. i try to impress my insecurities about data storage apon them when they make the choice with differing degrees of sucess.

[knobmonkey]

Is anyone archiving to tape (VXA or whatever)? This would be the most effective backup strategy, but expensive at $130+ per tape. Is DVD-R a reliable longterm solution, and if so, do you split the 4.8 GB plus sessions in half and use 2 DVD's?

[strikes]

Okay, here's my take on it, from an angle that seems different, but is exactly the same.
I am an archivist for a mid-sized publishing company, and our entire archive for the last 3 to 4 years is in two cabinets holding about 250 CDs and a handful of DVDs. If you're backing stuff up on CD, here's a few things I've learned:
Don't skimp on media. The cheaper the quality of CDs or DVDs, the better the chance one will crap out on you down the line. I spend plenty of time here reburning old files onto new disks because the older, cheaper disks crap out. Gold CDs, good quality DVDs (we use HP a lot). Then replace them a couple years down the line.
Make several copies. I don't do that at work, but it's also not my music. And don't keep them in the same place. Leave one set of copies at your rehearsal space, at a friend's house, with your momma, in a storage space, etc. That way, your house can burn down and you'll still have masters. On a side note, if you are a renter and you record at home, get renter's insurance. If you don't, do it anyway. It's cheap.
Hard disk is better, though. Then back it up on DVD anyway.
mpedrummer, you are not weird. That's a good way of doing it, though more expensive. That's where my job is headed too. Soon, I will get all of our CDs onto a mega-terabyte server from which I will be able adminster the files.
I guess what I'm saying is if you want to keep stuff on DVD, do everything that Tom and Cephallus do, and you should be fine. Sorry for rehashing eveything they said.