Storage and Backup Media

[TapeOpHillary]

how should i format my drive?
do i need the Oxford chip?
let's talk about media storage and backup options...

[kcrusher]

THIS IS A REMINDER!

BACKUP! BACKUP! BACKUP!

BACK YOUR SHIT UP RIGHT NOW! TODAY! DON'T DELAY!

iT'S BEEN WEEKS, OR MONTHS (or god forbid, NEVER!) SINCE YOU LAST BACKED UP! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? DOES DISASTER HAVE TO STRIKE FIRST BEFORE YOU SAY "I SHOULD HAVE BACKED UP!!"?

DON'T REGRET NOT BACKING UP!! DO IT TODAY!!

Over and out...

[DJDM]

I back everything up to DVD once a month or so... It's a great format for that!

[Mr. Dipity]

I back everything up to DVD once a month or so... It's a great format for that!

Yeah - dual dVD r/ws, verified each time. I don't think there are much safer methods.

For an alternative, search ebay for

'four bay drive enclosure' or
'eight bay drive enclosure'

For $150 or $250, you can buy a multi-bay firewire drive enclosure, to be filled with IDE drives of your choice. Really great, and really cheap if you need to store somethinng massive to which you need quick access - like a ginormous sample collection, or would like to schedule a batched, routine duplication of all the hard drives in multiple machines. With drive space at around 2 gig/$1, can you afford >not< to back everything up?

[todd aschoff]

Ok, after all the stories of lost data etc, I went and bought an external fW drive, but, I believe mistakenly, moved my Pro Tools App to the drive, and now work from the external. Are there problems with this (Digi 002 is FW 400, LaCie drive FW 800 - both into powerbook)? Should I rearrange my set up to only operate on my powerbook 1ghz , or leave as is? I suppose i fear migrating sessions back over to my powerbook and loosing odd files. I have gotten some error messages when bouncing - concerning FW drives. I'll get that error #!

[midiot]

I back everything up to DVD once a month or so... It's a great format for that!

Yeah - dual dVD r/ws, verified each time. I don't think there are much safer methods.

For an alternative, search ebay for

'four bay drive enclosure' or
'eight bay drive enclosure'

For $150 or $250, you can buy a multi-bay firewire drive enclosure, to be filled with IDE drives of your choice. Really great, and really cheap if you need to store somethinng massive to which you need quick access - like a ginormous sample collection, or would like to schedule a batched, routine duplication of all the hard drives in multiple machines. With drive space at around 2 gig/$1, can you afford >not< to back everything up?

We've recently started backing up to DVD's. What are these dual DVD's I have heard about? Is it true you can burn on both sides?? I know I can google this, but asking someone who is currently doing it may have better results.

[midiot]

ANyone have any specific brands they like to go with as far as backing up to DVD?

I have tried Verbatim and had like 3 out of 10, bad.

[soundhack]

i'm using fujifilm.. they have been pretty reliable (burning with a powerbook).

[nlmd311]

quick question before I get a new hard drive. I might be getting one for someone for the holidays and don't know which would be better, internal... or external FireWire? Does it really make a difference other than price? The only thing I can figure is that the FW is obviously alot more portable, but would it be able to be used more easily with other computers than an internal?
Sorry if this is a trivial question. I don't know enough about this stuff and am trying to learn.

best wishes

-Darrill

[rolandk]

quick question before I get a new hard drive. I might be getting one for someone for the holidays and don't know which would be better, internal... or external FireWire? Does it really make a difference other than price? The only thing I can figure is that the FW is obviously alot more portable, but would it be able to be used more easily with other computers than an internal?
Sorry if this is a trivial question. I don't know enough about this stuff and am trying to learn.

best wishes

-Darrill

An external FW drive is the way to go if you plan on taking your work to another studio, just hook it up and go. My computer dosen't have firewire (yet) and we are doing some additional tracking/mixing in another studio and its a major PITA to burn cdr's for the studio, then they will have to burn cdr's of what they did to get it back in my computer.

[nlmd311]

Thanks rolandk!
I was hoping that would be the answer. Will they work across different OS's?
Say I am working on a project at home on a Windows based pc, and want to load up a project later on a computer running OS X. Would there be any compatibility problems, or issues with the drive reading differently across the two computers? Not at all able to read?

thanks

-Darrill

[Tim Casey]

Macs will read PC drives and files as is. To get a PC to read Mac drives and files, you'll need some kind of software.

[nlmd311]

Macs will read PC drives and files as is. To get a PC to read Mac drives and files, you'll need some kind of software.

Thanks Tim Casey.
Anyone know about this, or what kind of programs/software would be necessary to get some reading or writing happening?

thanks

-Darrill

[rolandk]

I have Windows PTLE6.4 and went to a studio with a Mac TDM HD3 and it was no problem. BTW, I just ordered a firewire PCI card and an external firewire enclosure that you can pop a regular IDE drive into. Hope it works!

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 001&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 339&depa=0

[nlmd311]

I have Windows PTLE6.4 and went to a studio with a Mac TDM HD3 and it was no problem. BTW, I just ordered a firewire PCI card and an external firewire enclosure that you can pop a regular IDE drive into. Hope it works!

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 001&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 339&depa=0

thanks for the links....
does this mean that with the/an external firewire enclosure you can run a (otherwise internal) hard drive externally? Am I reading this completely wrong?

-Darrill