Bootable clone
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- zen recordist
- Posts: 8876
- Joined: Mon May 19, 2003 12:10 pm
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Bootable clone
Just because I never mention it...
One of the absolute BEST ways to ensure a zero downtime situation with a protools rig, or any DAW setup, is to get a small FW800 (or whatever you need for your computer) drive, like a 160 gig, 7500 rpm, nice one, but not TOO nice... like the lower end OWC drives.... anyway,
get one of those, and use something like superduper or carbon copy cloner to make a bootable clone of your currently working internal system drive.
if that drive craps out, or even if you are having weird issues like corrupted prefs or permissions or ANYTHING, you just plug in the clone and not only are you up and running again immediately, you can then use the utility programs on that bootable drive to diagnose and/or repair the internal drive. Worst case scenario, you could let the cloner overwrite what is on the internal drive with the exact, albeit working, clone on the outboard drive that you have now started up from and worked off of to finish out your day.
Really, because you even have the same plugins and everything living on the clone, and there is usually no issue these days because the "anchored bit" security schemes are all but gone due to the ilok, so you are rocking as quickly as you can restart, hold down the "option" key [mac] and choose the clone on the FW drive as your startup, then unmount the internal drive and keep recording.
Anyway,
its worth mentioning.
Happy recording.
If I had actually listened to my own advice last week in africa, I would not have lost a day of recording because of a crapped out internal drive on my laptop due to 987 degree heat, rain, dust, humidity, and constant use in a HUT and otherwise.
I didnt have the clone with me.
duh.
but at a studio, you have the space to keep the clone on the shelf and breathe a little easier.
One of the absolute BEST ways to ensure a zero downtime situation with a protools rig, or any DAW setup, is to get a small FW800 (or whatever you need for your computer) drive, like a 160 gig, 7500 rpm, nice one, but not TOO nice... like the lower end OWC drives.... anyway,
get one of those, and use something like superduper or carbon copy cloner to make a bootable clone of your currently working internal system drive.
if that drive craps out, or even if you are having weird issues like corrupted prefs or permissions or ANYTHING, you just plug in the clone and not only are you up and running again immediately, you can then use the utility programs on that bootable drive to diagnose and/or repair the internal drive. Worst case scenario, you could let the cloner overwrite what is on the internal drive with the exact, albeit working, clone on the outboard drive that you have now started up from and worked off of to finish out your day.
Really, because you even have the same plugins and everything living on the clone, and there is usually no issue these days because the "anchored bit" security schemes are all but gone due to the ilok, so you are rocking as quickly as you can restart, hold down the "option" key [mac] and choose the clone on the FW drive as your startup, then unmount the internal drive and keep recording.
Anyway,
its worth mentioning.
Happy recording.
If I had actually listened to my own advice last week in africa, I would not have lost a day of recording because of a crapped out internal drive on my laptop due to 987 degree heat, rain, dust, humidity, and constant use in a HUT and otherwise.
I didnt have the clone with me.
duh.
but at a studio, you have the space to keep the clone on the shelf and breathe a little easier.
- Marc Alan Goodman
- george martin
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- ott0bot
- dead but not forgotten
- Posts: 2023
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:54 pm
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I just partitioned an external drive and downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner and got is set up yesterday. Also a dash of Applejack, and a final cleanup with OynX. My iMac is running better than ever.
Thanks for reminding me to do this. Doing a session soon, and would hate to waste time like this if a crash happens.[/url]
Thanks for reminding me to do this. Doing a session soon, and would hate to waste time like this if a crash happens.[/url]
- kingmetal
- buyin' gear
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Is the image backed up incrementally or does it have to do a full-reimage every time? I wish Time Machine or Windows Home Server backups were bootable -- as it stands, a full restore from WHS would probably take about an hour on my new system which would be enough to totally kill the vibe of a session (or the session entirely, since I tend to do 3 hour sessions) but I know that the backup is at most 24 hours old since WHS wakes my machine up (from a full power-off) and backs it up every day while I'm at work.
To keep my system zero downtime I've got a laptop with the same software loadout as my desktop and I'm moving all my session files over to a server store. Just swap some cables and my laptop becomes my desktop and I should be good to go -- the Zoom H4n comes in when all else fails.
The first session I had with one of my artists this year went like this: 3 days before the session my PSU exploded in my desktop
18 hours before the session the hard drive in my laptop died. First session I've ever called off due to technical issues...
To keep my system zero downtime I've got a laptop with the same software loadout as my desktop and I'm moving all my session files over to a server store. Just swap some cables and my laptop becomes my desktop and I should be good to go -- the Zoom H4n comes in when all else fails.
The first session I had with one of my artists this year went like this: 3 days before the session my PSU exploded in my desktop
18 hours before the session the hard drive in my laptop died. First session I've ever called off due to technical issues...
Little Ship Studios
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Little Ship is proud to announce Bill Wild's EP Phone Number
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Little Ship is proud to announce Bill Wild's EP Phone Number
- Brett Siler
- moves faders with mind
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Sticky please!
My musical endeavors!
My Music: http://www.brettsiler.bandcamp.com/
StudioMother Brain Sound Infrastructure
My Music: http://www.brettsiler.bandcamp.com/
StudioMother Brain Sound Infrastructure
I use a backup program called Data Backup and I found that I am able to incrementally back up my HD clone drive, and it is still bootable.
At first I thought that I would have to back up the whole deal every time to get a bootable backup, but happily with Data Backup (and others, I'm sure) that is not the case.
I love backing up my iMac's drive knowing that I'm covered if something bad happens.
I got into the cloning thing because of the hassle involved when my earlier iMac died.
PC
At first I thought that I would have to back up the whole deal every time to get a bootable backup, but happily with Data Backup (and others, I'm sure) that is not the case.
I love backing up my iMac's drive knowing that I'm covered if something bad happens.
I got into the cloning thing because of the hassle involved when my earlier iMac died.
PC
I don't know karate but I know ka-razy!
Doesn't Apple's disk utility offer this? Under the "restore" option. Clones whatever drive you have selected. Now, if you could schedule it like bootcamp, that'd be ideal.
-Chris
http://www.ctmsound.com
http://www.ctmsound.com
- Marc Alan Goodman
- george martin
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- re-cappin' neve
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If you use Time Machine as your backup, you can restore from your Time Machine disk to a new Mac.ctmsound wrote:Doesn't Apple's disk utility offer this? Under the "restore" option. Clones whatever drive you have selected. Now, if you could schedule it like bootcamp, that'd be ideal.
I'm not sure you really want to have any kind of incremental backup tool running while you're using your DAW, but let it do its thing during downtime. (You probably don't want to use Time Machine to back up your audio work drives, either. ) So when the inevitable disk crash happens, you'll have an image of your machine ready to be restored.
Why this doesn't exist for Windows is beyond me.
-a
"On the internet, nobody can hear you mix a band."
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