Backup systems

[Aled Hughes]

I'm getting tied up in knots trying to keep my data safe... what's your setups?

I work from two studios - one at home, and one a short drive away. All my current work is done in OneDrive folders that are synced at both studios. This works well, and all projects are always up to date at both ends. It gives some redundancy - e.g. if one of the studios were to burn down, the data would still be in the cloud and at the other studio. However, the data is still not really 'safe', as all the files are synced, so if a file becomes corrupt or deleted, I assume it will become corrupt at both studios and in the cloud.

So, I bought a Qnap NAS to put in the house, and set it up as a RAID 1 array, but I'm at a loss how to best use it. I can't find a way to sync all my current projects to it, and having thought about it, neither do I want to, as it would still be at risk of file corruption etc. as above. I've tried setting it up do incremental sync to my projects folder once weekly, but it's not willing to sync to folders that are part of a cloud service.

Of course I could always do it manually, but I'm afraid it'll just become a mess. I could move folders over to the NAS when they're finished, but that's no good really, because the critical stuff is the stuff that's not finished!

I am also going to set up an external USB drive at both studios as a backup project path (easily set up in Reaper) so at least all media will be immediately saved on two different drives as well as being uploaded to OneDrive.

What are you all doing? Am I missing something obvious? Perhaps OneDrive already offers easy file restoration, and can let me go back to previous version - I'll look into that now. And in that case the NAS could just be a place to dump old stuff (and be a Plex server)

I don't think I'm being overly cautious here as this is all for work, and I can't be doing with losing files.

[Aled Hughes]

But wait!

The NAS is now set up to copy/update all data from my OneDrive projects folder every friday. I think this is good.

Still interested to hear how you're all doing it though.

[RichardT]

My setup is quite simple.

1) Apple Time Machine continuous back up to a local drive. This gives me the ability to restore individual files or the entire system, onto a new machine if necessary.

2) Real time file copy of music-related files to a remote Google Drive server.

3) Full archiving to Amazon S3 glacier storage when things are complete (project files, renders of each track, midi extracts, project notes etc). I also store a copy of the archives locally.

I’ve recovered files from Time Machine a few times when I’ve accidentally completely deleted them (it’s a great feeling!). And I have also recovered data from the Amazon archive too.

I’ve not used anything from 2) - it’s really to protect music data against a catastrophic loss of the computer and attached drives, such as in a fire or theft.

It’s also important to keep lots of versions of things.

If I completely lost the computer and drives, I would have some work to do to set up a new machine - but luckily these days the virtual instrument vendors make it easy to install everything in one go.

[James Perrett]

In my opinion, the most likely files to become corrupted are the project files. For that reason I update the project name every time I reach a certain stage in the project so that I always have older project files available if I want to go back. Audio is always recorded to a new file.

I use Syncback at regular intervals (at least once per day) to back up the working files to the archive.

[Drew Stephenson]

::: looks at back up drive in the drawer :::


At the moment all I'd lose would be my stuff. Frustrating but ultimately no loss to anyone. I'm hoping to start working on some more stuff for other people though so I am going to have to come up with some better options.

Useful thread.

[RichardT]

In my opinion, the most likely files to become corrupted are the project files. For that reason I update the project name every time I reach a certain stage in the project so that I always have older project files available if I want to go back. Audio is always recorded to a new file.

I use Syncback at regular intervals (at least once per day) to back up the working files to the archive.

I completely agree James. This is, I think, the best thing people can do to avoid losing important data. SSDs are much more reliable than HDDs, so the old mantra of ‘every drive will fail’ is no longer true.

[Nazard]

A NAS is for file syncing and sharing, so strictly speaking, not as a backup and ideally should itself be backed up. Having said that, many people use them as part of their backup routine.

I backup to WD Elements external HDs, using SyncBackPro (V10) and at any one time have three in rotation keeping one offsite. And you could keep one at your home and one at the studio. You can also backup to your NAS using SyncBackPro.

That’s the simple version, in practice I have more than one workstation, in a separate building and more external HDs, but the principle is the same. I find WD elements drives to be fast and reliable, plus I now use 10Tb devices which are larger than any affordable SSD solutions.

[Philbo King]

I use the old Macrium software to back up the boot drive weekly to an internal SSD. I also use a utility from Cockos (the Reaper folks) to back up work in progress by a simple copy to that same drive.

Frankly, if the house burns down, a working copy of Win7 & my music files would be the least of my worries.

The only cloud service I use is Google drive, both to back up certain files (such as a serial number / model number list of my gear) and to trade files back and forth when collaborating.

[adrian_k]

In my opinion, the most likely files to become corrupted are the project files. For that reason I update the project name every time I reach a certain stage in the project so that I always have older project files available if I want to go back. Audio is always recorded to a new file.

I use Syncback at regular intervals (at least once per day) to back up the working files to the archive.

I completely agree James. This is, I think, the best thing people can do to avoid losing important data. SSDs are much more reliable than HDDs, so the old mantra of ‘every drive will fail’ is no longer true.

I had a 500GB SSD fail after 2 years - so I still think every drive will fail.

[Aled Hughes]

Thanks all

A NAS is for file syncing and sharing, so strictly speaking, not as a backup and ideally should itself be backed up.

Quite. The NAS isn't a backup solution in and of itself, it's just one backup destination.

I think I'm fraily safe with current projects now - local copies on the computer on both studios as well as in OneDrive, and the OneDrive is synced to the NAS once weekly. On top of this this I'll set up separate external hard drives as backup recording paths for Reaper at both studios.

I'll look into a separate cloud backup for the NAS too... but that seems expensive !

I have a couple of big hard drives full of old stuff - I'm going to clone these and keep a copy at each studio instead of filling up the NAS and OneDrive with them, as they're all completed anyway.

What I haven't got is any kind of 'system' backup, which I'll look into today. Unless there's something I'm missing though, it doesn't concern me too much as it wouldn't take too long to get running again if the system drive went down - just install Reaper, a few drivers and a few plugin packages!

Aled

[Aled Hughes]

At the moment all I'd lose would be my stuff. Frustrating but ultimately no loss to anyone. I'm hoping to start working on some more stuff for other people though so I am going to have to come up with some better options.

Useful thread.

That's the thing really. If it were just my own stuff I would be (and have been... and am...) much more haphazard, but this is paid work work for other people so I really can't afford to be blasé about it.

[MarkyC]

I'm trying to do the in the cloud and hard drive option but.....

Does no one else have any problems with One Drive not syncing audio files?
I have constant battle with it and still not been able to get it to do a full sync.

My thought is it thinks I'm dong something illegal with file sharing just because of the number of files I'm trying to upload

[Aled Hughes]

I'm trying to do the in the cloud and hard drive option but.....

Does no one else have any problems with One Drive not syncing audio files?
I have constant battle with it and still not been able to get it to do a full sync.

My thought is it thinks I'm dong something illegal with file sharing just because of the number of files I'm trying to upload

I took the time last month to sort my OneDrive and it's been working flawlessly to sync audio and project files between the two studios - I can record at the big studio, drive home and it's already there ready to continue work (provided the home PC was on to download the files, of course!). I haven't had any issues to date.

What problems are you running into?

[MarkyC]

Thanks Aled,

Good to know it can work!

It seems to backup all files except audio, which is kind of not that helpful

[alexis]

I'm getting tied up in knots trying to keep my data safe... what's your setups?

I work from two studios - one at home, and one a short drive away. All my current work is done in OneDrive folders that are synced at both studios. This works well, and all projects are always up to date at both ends. It gives some redundancy - e.g. if one of the studios were to burn down, the data would still be in the cloud and at the other studio. However, the data is still not really 'safe', as all the files are synced, so if a file becomes corrupt or deleted, I assume it will become corrupt at both studios and in the cloud.

So, I bought a Qnap NAS to put in the house, and set it up as a RAID 1 array, but I'm at a loss how to best use it. I can't find a way to sync all my current projects to it, and having thought about it, neither do I want to, as it would still be at risk of file corruption etc. as above. I've tried setting it up do incremental sync to my projects folder once weekly, but it's not willing to sync to folders that are part of a cloud service.

Of course I could always do it manually, but I'm afraid it'll just become a mess. I could move folders over to the NAS when they're finished, but that's no good really, because the critical stuff is the stuff that's not finished!

I am also going to set up an external USB drive at both studios as a backup project path (easily set up in Reaper) so at least all media will be immediately saved on two different drives as well as being uploaded to OneDrive.

What are you all doing? Am I missing something obvious? Perhaps OneDrive already offers easy file restoration, and can let me go back to previous version - I'll look into that now. And in that case the NAS could just be a place to dump old stuff (and be a Plex server)

I don't think I'm being overly cautious here as this is all for work, and I can't be doing with losing files.

Hi Aled,

My back up method also involves OneDrive, as below.

1) OneDrive
2) Back up program to external hard drive (I happen to use AOMEI, auto back up each early AM)
3) Of course each file is saved on creation and with each edit on my local SSD by virtue of my DAW filling system

So three locations, one of which is off site in case of fire, and two of which are external to my DAW computer

I haven't had a chance to read beyond your OP, sorry if this is redundant!