Gentle Reminder to Back-up your Files

[cassmcentee]

Last night there was a wonderful Electric Storm here in the mountains.
Even though I have a power conditioner to protect my electronics, I was still nervous.
Everything is fine, conditioner did it's job.
To belay any fears I'm doing double backups today.
Figured it never hurts to remind y'all to stay current on your Backups!!!
Cheers,
Cass

[ttully]

Hey Cass,

You are correct!!!!

A few months ago my C drive failed.... no problem, I have a backup.
Well...the backup didn't work!
I ended up having to reinstall Protools and a ton of libraries and plugins.
It took over a week to get it running again...

Then a few days later, my ilok failed...I had the zero downtime protection and they sent me a replacement, but it failed in 1 day and I got another one...but it took about a week to get that running
Then the next day.... my Vienna Key failed ( the authorization USB key for Vienna instruments)… I didn't have the insurance for it.... and it cost me about $700 to replace 1 of the libraries.
My other Vienna libraries were not effected...but again, I had to download a bunch of stuff and it took several days.

Now I have zero down time insurance on both my ilok and Vienna keys.
I also have exact duplicates of all 3 of my SSD's and I use Acronis to clone the drives and then make sure the cloned drives work as the primary drives.
I also have a 2 USB drives that I just backup my tracks on as well.

I do not want to go thru that again!!!!

Tim

[cassmcentee]

8 hours vs 80 hours
I'll take the 8!
Thanks for sharing Tim!

[VanderBoegh]

Let me share my own horror story from last Fall...

My computer started acting erratic and running really really slow. Thinking a few good restarts and resetting the p-ram would fix it right up, I commenced restarting.... only to watch as my iMac got stuck on the "Apple" loading screen. What used to take 20 seconds from hitting "restart' to being full operational started taking upwards of five minutes.

So I took it into the Apple Store, only to find out that the hard drive had failed. And at that point, I hadn't backed up ANYTHING from the internal hard drive. But no worries, I thought. I'll get that drive restored, and at least I've still got my main external hard drive where I keep all my Pro Tools sessions, loops, sound banks, etc.

BUT.... as I was transporting my iMac to my car, I'd forgotten that the external hard drive was still plugged into a USB slot, and as I walked across the hardwood floor, the drive disconnected from the USB cable and fell on the floor.... RIP hard drive. It was dead as a doornail from that second on.

So, I had to take TWO hard drives to a data restoration shop, while my iMac got outfitted with a new internal hard drive.

Turns out the fly-by-night data restoration service here in Boise was a total crock of *%^&. They shipped my drives off to some clean lab in California, and it was a nightmare to get them back. Constant phone calls from me, stressing about my files, etc... It took them THREE AND A HALF MONTHS to get the external drive repaired. And they couldn't do anything with the internal drive.

Which meant that I went 3.5 months (basically all of last Fall) without my files. I did have my iMac back, and it was fully functional again, but I didn't have all my files, so I couldn't send out tracks that had been accepted by libraries, because I didn't even have them anymore.

Fast forward to now: I'm back up and running at 99%, but there are still some virtual instruments and stuff I'd purchased through the years that I don't have anymore.

MORAL OF THE STORY: if I would have backed up my files, none of this would have been a devastating problem!

~~Matt

[ResonantTone]

Man, if the purpose of this thread is to scare me into backing up all my music files on multiple platforms.. I think it’s working.

Andrew

[cassmcentee]

Hah!
Look what you've gone an' did MattV!
Struck fear into the hearts of the professionals! (good job)
Thanks for sharing your story
Equal to a Pro Baseball Player fracturing their Throwing Arm

[sherrylynnlee]

Let me share my own horror story from last Fall...

My computer started acting erratic and running really really slow. Thinking a few good restarts and resetting the p-ram would fix it right up, I commenced restarting.... only to watch as my iMac got stuck on the "Apple" loading screen. What used to take 20 seconds from hitting "restart' to being full operational started taking upwards of five minutes.

So I took it into the Apple Store, only to find out that the hard drive had failed. And at that point, I hadn't backed up ANYTHING from the internal hard drive. But no worries, I thought. I'll get that drive restored, and at least I've still got my main external hard drive where I keep all my Pro Tools sessions, loops, sound banks, etc.

BUT.... as I was transporting my iMac to my car, I'd forgotten that the external hard drive was still plugged into a USB slot, and as I walked across the hardwood floor, the drive disconnected from the USB cable and fell on the floor.... RIP hard drive. It was dead as a doornail from that second on.

So, I had to take TWO hard drives to a data restoration shop, while my iMac got outfitted with a new internal hard drive.

Turns out the fly-by-night data restoration service here in Boise was a total crock of *%^&. They shipped my drives off to some clean lab in California, and it was a nightmare to get them back. Constant phone calls from me, stressing about my files, etc... It took them THREE AND A HALF MONTHS to get the external drive repaired. And they couldn't do anything with the internal drive.

Which meant that I went 3.5 months (basically all of last Fall) without my files. I did have my iMac back, and it was fully functional again, but I didn't have all my files, so I couldn't send out tracks that had been accepted by libraries, because I didn't even have them anymore.

Fast forward to now: I'm back up and running at 99%, but there are still some virtual instruments and stuff I'd purchased through the years that I don't have anymore.

MORAL OF THE STORY: if I would have backed up my files, none of this would have been a devastating problem!

~~Matt

Wow, what an awful way to learn a lesson! Sorry you had to go through that!
I actually wrote a blog on backups and would love your input if you have anything to add. This is what I've done based on info I've gathered from various producer/songwriter friends:
https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/w ... 2378442bef

[lesmac]

Matt and Tim those a classics. You got me laughing nervously while praying it never happens to me.
You lived to to tell the tale.
Lesser mortals may have committed hari-kari.

[ttully]

You are correct Lesmac!!!

I can't describe the terrible feeling when it all goes bad!!!
Especially when you are trying to get tracks to a library.. like Matt said.

Now I have backups of my backups backup!!! I THINK!

Tim