Backup your music files

[GOS]

One thing I've learned in sharing mixes in progress with clients and so forth is to avoid any and all special characters in file names! Between the number of people using Windows OS, phones, and so on...
A comma though?!

Yeah, cloud accounts are a great convenience for sharing. Do not under any circumstances trust them for an actual backup!

No arguments at all for getting fancy with NAS, raid configs, and all that!

Simple:
Use USB connected externals for backup volumes.
Keep your drives 1:1 with primary:backup! So you can clone entire volumes. Manual curating leads to missing something and losing something!
Get a cloning app!! (I like Carbon Copy Cloner)
Clone every drive volume to it's backup volume. Especially your system drive! Cloning copies the whole volume including the cryptic OS files.

This also leads to computer screwup and recovery for dummies.
Gonna try something?
First make sure your backup clone for your system drive is current.
OK, install whatever you were after.
Everything is broken now?
Boot from the clone. Clone it back to the primary. Reboot from your primary again. Magic "reset" that takes 3 minutes. (Only new/modified files are copied when you clone.)
You don't actually have to figure out what you did or how to undo it.

Next level:
Use the cloning app to make a disk image file of your system drive. (It's a feature.) Save that image file as a master backup. It's your "installer file" for your personal system if you will. Now you can recover when you accidentally overwrite your backup clone with something bad.

I'm good on the Raid setup with NAS. I also have 2 more drives that duplicate my NAS. And, I have a friend who has a drive that contains all my files. Yeah, as far as the cloud, I'm just playing around with that.

Regarding the comma.....I truly do not know how that got in there. I own the disc, and I might have assumed I did a standard rip via my Oppo. But, doesn't seem likely that the comma was part of the rip.......right?

 

[jimfisheye]

I'm good on the Raid setup with NAS. I also have 2 more drives that duplicate my NAS. And, I have a friend who has a drive that contains all my files. Yeah, as far as the cloud, I'm just playing around with that.

Regarding the comma.....I truly do not know how that got in there. I own the disc, and I might have assumed I did a standard rip via my Oppo. But, doesn't seem likely that the comma was part of the rip.......right?

Well, that's about as 'pro' as it gets!

I've seen lots of commas in album/song titles. I've put lots of commas in album/song titles. Pretty sure I just did it again yesterday even. Hmmm...

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Also, don't some programs or maybe OS put in an underline instead of a comma?

 

[HDave]

Correct JP, ......The symbol underscore ( _ ), also called underline, underdash, low line or low dash, is a character that originally appeared on the typewriter and was primarily used to underline words. One incorrect symbol can cause many hand wringing moments when dealing with operating systems.
It's always good to know someone that's is fluent with new smartphones and all OS today.

 

[gene_stl]

I have just read through this entire thread because I intend to expand my home network and add a NAS.

Some questions I have about NAS are as follows;
Back in the day I had very bad experiences with most "backup and restore" software. Sometimes it just did not work. So if I had large capacity external drives such as Jaz drives or other cartridge drives, I usually just copied files that I wanted back up for using things like diskcopy and file copy.

If you store stuff with a Raid Array, are the files stored and made redundant up in a readable format. Or are they encrypted to the Raid software which if it crashes causes you to lose all your data.
I have just started ripping SACDs and the files are pretty big. But with a good file structure and the fact that its sort of a slow process it is not too difficult to copy each one to several places.

If lightening strikes in the neighborhood and the NAS gets injured can you pull the drives and use your data? or are you scrod?

Do jriver and foobar and kodi have backup features? (local back up)

 

[sukothai]

There are different RAID levels that all involve using multiple drives. The goals for RAID are both for retrieval speed and for data redundancy and the different RAID levels increase speed or redundancy or both. For example, RAID 0 has no redundancy; so if 1 drive fails - all files are lost. RAID 1 mirrors the files with full redundancy. The other RAID levels allow 1 or 2 drives in the array to fail without data loss or stripe the data across multiple drives for retrieval speed. Most people go with RAID 1 for full redundancy or RAID 5 or 6 for 1 or 2 drive failure recovery.

It would be fairly easy to recover files from a damaged RAID 1 NAS, but would be more difficult from a RAID 5 or 6 NAS because the redundant bits are encoded for statistical recovery. In general, you should not rely on a single RAID for data backup (even a RAID 1 mirror could get totally fried and lose all the files.) The best strategy is to have at least two copies of your data in separate locations; so that a disaster in one location is recoverable from the other. I have two RAID 5 arrays (one automatically backs up the other) and then back up my most important files to 25GB BD-R M-Discs.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

There are different RAID levels that all involve using multiple drives. The goals for RAID are both for retrieval speed and for data redundancy and the different RAID levels increase speed or redundancy or both. For example, RAID 0 has no redundancy; so if 1 drive fails - all files are lost. RAID 1 mirrors the files with full redundancy. The other RAID levels allow 1 or 2 drives in the array to fail without data loss or stripe the data across multiple drives for retrieval speed. Most people go with RAID 1 for full redundancy or RAID 5 or 6 for 1 or 2 drive failure recovery.

It would be fairly easy to recover files from a damaged RAID 1 NAS, but would be more difficult from a RAID 5 or 6 NAS because the redundant bits are encoded for statistical recovery. In general, you should not rely on a single RAID for data backup (even a RAID 1 mirror could get totally fried and lose all the files.) The best strategy is to have at least two copies of your data in separate locations; so that a disaster in one location is recoverable from the other. I have two RAID 5 arrays (one automatically backs up the other) and then back up my most important files to 25GB BD-R M-Discs.

What drive are you using for your M-Discs?

 

[sukothai]

LG WH16NS40 16X Blu-ray - bought it a few years ago; so there might be something better now.

 

[sukothai]

Hmm, looks like 100 GB M-Discs are now available, though they ain't cheap.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

LG WH16NS40 16X Blu-ray - bought it a few years ago; so there might be something better now.

Likewise I also have an LG burner specifically purchased to make use of M Disc. IDK what model number but it's on my big PC downstairs I can't be bothered checking right now cuz the Chiefs just won & the Patriots just lost---again.

Anyway it is flawless on all media & when Exact Audio Copy checks that agaisnt my other internal Pioneer burner it always selects the LG as superior. I use Nero Burning ROM usually & it has a data check option after burning I quit using because it never detected any errors.

Overall I have had very good luck with pressed & recordable media. I've never had a pressed disc go bad & the only home burned disc gone bad are those with stick on labels, as discussed earlier.

There are a lot of factors that go into disc longevity as can be read about at the National Archives website. You will see mention of the M Disc & elsewhere on the site there is info that it is certified as the preferred optical media for generational archiving.

25 GB seems fairly big but not when most of us have TB's worth to protect. So like you I back up the most important files to M Disc. Others are selectively copied in multiples to various internal/external HDD's.

With all the talk about NAS RAID strategies the emphasis is on protecting data on the HDD's. Something I've never seen addressed is the faliure of electronic components in a RAID enclosure going bad. Lightning strike, water leaks, power line surges etc. So what I've always wondered about is the compatibility of good HDD's being transferred to a new enclosure. That is say my disc drives are good but my Buffalo RAID circuit board is cooked. Is there uniform standards that would allow a person to transfer those HDD's to a newer working WD enclosure?

 

[HomerJAU]

If you store stuff with a Raid Array, are the files stored and made redundant up in a readable format. Or are they encrypted to the Raid software which if it crashes causes you to lose all your data.
I have just started ripping SACDs and the files are pretty big. But with a good file structure and the fact that its sort of a slow process it is not too difficult to copy each one to several places.

If lightening strikes in the neighborhood and the NAS gets injured can you pull the drives and use your data? or are you scrod?

Do jriver and foobar and kodi have backup features? (local back up)

You can move a set of RAID drives to a new NAS and they will be recognised in the new NAS, although this may only work if your two NAS are from same manufacturer. NASs typically use Linux. A single disc from a RAID 5 can’t be read as a stand-alone drive, it needs at to be part of the original RAID set. For RAID 5, 2 of the 3 drives must be good (I.e 1 drive can fail and all data can be read ok)

You can backup Kodi and JRiver databases and settings. This is all metadata. You need to make your own backups of your actual media files, artwork etc. That’s pretty easy, just have external USB drives or external hard drives using a USB caddy style drive holder.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

LG WH16NS40 16X Blu-ray - bought it a few years ago; so there might be something better now.

Been looking for an external LG BE16NU50, but rare now- you lucky dog @DuncanS !!!

 

[DuncanS]

Been looking for an external LG BE16NU50, but rare now- you lucky dog @DuncanS !!!

Woof Woof!

 

[Marplot]

Yep, can't have too many copies.
I have a backup of all my music and audio books on external USB drives.
A copy of music, audio books, and video on SATA drives that are offline. (not too worried if I lost video, easy enough to extract from the source which is of course another backup)
An offline copy of my music stored at a remote site

I also have some perl scripts to auto generate the structures that match the target so it is easy for me to stage data and move in batches.

And, since media degrades, I annually add a new drive to each offline method and shuffle everything so it gets reads and writes; reducing the risk of bad sectors causing data loss.

Am I crazy? Yeah, probably but who wants to re-rip all their music .. again? (I did it once before flac existed, now usless lossy files in my book)

 

[HomerJAU]

Am I crazy?

No. Or maybe I’m crazy too?

 

[Stupy]

Hi All,

A few notes on my particular evolutionary path with digital storage that might be useful for someone; or perhaps merely contribute to the vast Internet wastelands.

No shortage of amusement here that we seem to be dealing in similar volumes of data. In my case about 15TB total.

Prior to 2008, I used 256kbps mp3 and DVDR backups. There were 24 or so DVD's. I'm embarrassed to say that mp3 part now and will blame my relative youth for it. Anyway, then two things changed everything. Hard drives got cheap and a good friend was telling me about his audio nut brother insisting on WAV for his audio files. I reckoned that was a bit silly given flac and started the hard drive path and flac. This predated my discovery of multichannel! Thankfully this path extended magnificently into the multichannel world.

My brother uses NAS like a lot of you. I have held back because of concerns that it could fall over from electrical issues (we have lots of storms), theft, fire or just bad luck.

I run large local external hard drives and keep an identical offsite backup. This is maintained using a slightly older but highly reliable copy of the program FreeFileSync, which I like because of the flexibility of options (I always want an accurate mirror of one drive onto another), the filters and the ability to save settings files. I notice many people here have already found their own favourite program for the same purpose

The vexed possible issue of data corruption is omnipresent. There are two paths here:

1. I do occasional backups of some files to 25GB BD-R discs (Sukothai beat me to this!). If I have busted several hours meticulously digitising and cleaning up a piece of vinyl, I ain't keen on losing it! In each folder backed up I put an text file that tells me the date of the BD-R backup that it is on.

2. Md5 checksums in each folder that should show up data corruption if it occurs. How this is being done is weirder. I made this Java program that creates m3u playlists of each folder. It also checks each folder and if there is no md5 checksum in it, it creates one from the music files. The program also tells me which folders do not have dynamic range information calculated; yes, it's tailored. I am happy to share this program along with it's code if anyone ever might find it useful. The md5 files have not shown up anything of concern in the years I have been using them but I need to run an md5 check over more of the files.

Technology wise, I'm currently slowly considering on two hypothetical matters:
- digitisation of atmos tracks (not that I can actually use them, but everything else stores amazingly in FLAC. This object based stuff seems to be a curveball.)
- I'm wondering how one would get access to their full collection in the car (car has USB but limitations on number of files and not flac; has 3.5mm input; etc). Cloud solutions are unlikely to work due to mobile reception issues and poor upload speeds.

All the best everyone. May you all rock out for New Years!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Woof Woof!

Ha- that’s me- I only ride ‘em, I don’t know how they work

 

[atrocity]

That worked! Geez. So odd that Foobar can play it just fine, but when uploading/downloading from Amazon Cloud, the comma trips it up. Hmmm

I recently encountered a similar annoying situation using rclone to back up to Jottacloud. In that case it was semicolons causing problems. Fortunately, updating rclone fixed the issue. Now I have to get off my whatchamacallit and shorten some absurdly long file names that Jottacloud doesn't like.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I recently encountered a similar annoying situation using rclone to back up to Jottacloud. In that case it was semicolons causing problems. Fortunately, updating rclone fixed the issue. Now I have to get off my whatchamacallit and shorten some absurdly long file names that Jottacloud doesn't like.

Just all sounds like some far off obscure foreign language to me

 

[DuncanS]

Just all sounds like some far off obscure foreign language to me

01001110 01001111 00100000 01010111 01000001 01011001 00100001