Saving

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
hey, what are you guys saving your song files and projects to? if i keep it up, i'll run out of space in a year or so ;) should I get one of those external hard drives? or maybe an online storage spot? anything work well, nice, and easy for you? My DAW saves .song (for mixes) and .wav (for masters)
 
My PC now only has a relatively small (100GB) SSD C: drive. Nothing gets saved on that.

I have two external 1TB drives, and that's where everything is stored. I use Reaper, and create a new folder for each song, into which Reaper stores the song project file and WAV files.

Online storage is worth thinking about, but you need speed and bandwidth for it. WAV files get pretty big.
 
I run three 350GB drives internally. One for OS and apps...and the other two for files, which I still like to break them up into three partitions each. So I have Work 1/Backup 1, Work 2/Backup 2, Finish/Backup 3.
Besides that, I also back up my audio files to two 500GB external drives, and my app/stuff to a third external 500GB drive.
One of the external audio drive backups and the one external app drive backup I always take with me so as to have a complete backup to everything, outside of and away from the studio (in case of the worst scenario).
These are thin/compact external drives, so I can fit two of them in a small zip-up case, and that goes in my laptop bag, which I carry with me to work every day, and back.

A bit anal...?...maybe....but I don't lose files. :)
 
I'm dealing with this soon too. I like having all my files organized on a single drive on ny home pc, synced to my laptop. Then I have a couple of external drive with everything backed up that I keep at work and rotate them every few weeks. But the size of my music files has gotten out of hand.
 
I'm paranoid enough to have several separate HDDs and make copies of all important projects to at least two of them. I try to keep my internal drives as clear as possible and generally only have stuff I'm currently working on on them...it's rare they get more than about 50% full.
 
My music files take very little room compared to photos and videos. I back up to 3 USB drives (2 solid state, 1 hard drive).
 
I record to an internal HDD separate from my OS SSD. Then I backup to another internal HDD at the end of sessions. Once a week I back that up to an external drive.

May seem overkill but I had two hard drives fail at the same time about a year ago. :(

I am still catching up rerecording two big projects that I lost then.

Restarting a project really sucks! Drives are cheap by comparison.
 
Robus said:
But the size of my music files has gotten out of hand.
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it's really eating up space on my laptop. i bought this thing for music only, and it's been used that way. but the amount of crap on there for a year of recording and mixing is getting a little nutty. i think i'll go with an external drive or two. i'm assuming it's really easy to transport files back and forth between the two... no need to answer that if so.

anything to look out for or be wary of when selecting an external drive? not a computer guy...will just any new ones work?
 
I have a 2.5 TB drive in my computer that is solely for backup. Then I have a NAS unit with 3TB mirrored RAID thingamabobby where my archived projects gets backed up again.
 
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andrushkiwt said:
it's really eating up space on my laptop. i bought this thing for music only, and it's been used that way. but the amount of crap on there for a year of recording and mixing is getting a little nutty. i think i'll go with an external drive or two. i'm assuming it's really easy to transport files back and forth between the two... no need to answer that if so.

anything to look out for or be wary of when selecting an external drive? not a computer guy...will just any new ones work?
Click to expand...
It is easy to transport files between the two. I've got 2 glyph drives, both 1TB, on USB3 ports, one holds all my sample libraries and one holds all my project files. Never had any issues, even when working with projects running multiple VSTi's. I was slightly concerned when going this route (my PC didn't have any room for a second internal HDD!) but have never had any issues with it. I've also got 2 x 2TB Western Digital MyBook drives for backing up. Each one is identical and I backup to both on about the same schedule as Jimmy - once a week, once every two weeks at most.

When I was looking for my backup drives, I just went with the cheapest - got a student discount with WD so that won over any specs. The drives for my samples and song files were recommended by a few and had solid reviews as well.
 
Since I use a desktop computer, I have a couple of 1TB internal drives that I use to work on. 1 for sample libraries, 1 for audio projects. Then I have a WD MyCloud NAS that I use as a central backup location for all of my computers at home.

I think that a pretty run-of-the-mill USB external HDD would do the trick for you. If you have any USB3 ports, then definitely go for a USB3 drive. Basically I think that you'd archive old projects on your external HDDs and keep current projects on your internal. That should give you enough space to play with. External USB HDDs are pretty affordable right now, and getting cheaper all the time.
 
Had a couple of external USB drive die on me (well one at least was killed when son dropped it!).
I now have a NAS drive in another room but on a 100meg copper network it is a bit slow, much slower than USB 3.0.

If I were starting from scratch and wanted to "do cheap" I would buy an oldish PC desktop and kit it out with 2 extra 2TB internal drives they are about £60 here, $10 stateside?

The PC could probably still be XP and thus VERY cheap. Fit a USB 3.0 PCIe card (peanuts). Even if you don't have USB 3.0 on the laptop now it is good future proofing and you could get an external USB 3.0 drive as an extra backup which will be a fast dump then put it away safely, preff in another location, in the car say?

Dave.
 
One hint on buying external drives...every time a bigger one comes out, the next one down gets incredibly cheap. I bought a 1TB Seagate for about $70 when they came out with a 1.5TB unit...then a 2TB drive for about the same when they were pushing 2.5TB drives.

The other thing I'll say is that my 2TB drive is USB3 and it IS noticeably faster when copying audio and video files.
 
While projects are on the go I have at least 2 copies on 2 different hard drives, sometimes 3 drives. When the project is finished I save to another hard drive (archive) when this drive is full it gets put away in the archive cupboard and a new one is started. Thinking back to the start of digital I used to save files to CDR's then DVD's used to spend half my time saving stuff LOL. With the cost of drives now just use them tell full then put them away. Another thing I have started doing is saving all the files for particular client projects to USB sticks, then I give the client the stick with that copy of all project files, then if something happens to my copy they have theirs, if they have lost theirs well it's gone.


Alan.
 
Hmmm...may have to steal the USB stick idea. It's another layer of back up plus it plants the idea with the client that they have to take some responsibility.
 
Bobbsy said:
plus it plants the idea with the client that they have to take some responsibility.
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Exactly, I am still wondering what the hell I am going to do with the 1/2 ton of reel to reel tapes that everyone left with me to look after :facepalm:
 
witzendoz said:
Exactly, I am still wondering what the hell I am going to do with the 1/2 ton of reel to reel tapes that everyone left with me to look after :facepalm:
Click to expand...

Seriously? I would email and use every other social media to announce that "Chez Witz" is having a clearout because ....

1) Tapes do not last forever especially if you don't have the proper storage conditions.
2) You need the space but not the responsibility!

As and when old clients contact you, you can inform them of the cost of digitizing and/or shipping.

Keep the information up for say one year after which you dispose of the tapes (is there a "green" way to get rid of tapes? I know VHS tapes are a problem).

Re USB sticks: A few month ago I tried to get some prices for bulk orders, you know, the price breaks you get on components if you buy 10. 100, 1000.....? No one wanted to know! Sure IF you asked for a quote for a specific design/printed logo, in other words almost an order, they would give you a quantity price but I did not want to get lumbered with 1000 sticks or the bill!

Dave.
 
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