USB Hardrive and Backups

I can relate... geeez.

My backup to the USB drive was useless. I haven't figured out the extensions or something obviously.
Its Saturday, maybe find sometime to waste ...

on the positive note, at least the basic mp3 and all the wave songs are saved, and videos.

its tough being stupid...lol

I have a new pc and need to get it organized, and better understand what each file is in the Reaper folders. Then a routine can be in place instead of "saving files in the dark" method.

I guess every format has their issues, reel to reels needing a bunch of maintenance and upkeep, and pc's needing constant backups and hardrives crashing.
 
I have a method that I work by now which works for me quite well.

When starting recording, create a new folder (Song name usually) Create Reaper project, save project as (Song Name) in that new folder. I create an Audio folder inside that folder as well and change the project settings to save the audio files in that folder. (File>>>Project Settings>>>Path to save media)

Before I record I name the tracks in Reaper, so that adds the name of the track to the audio file rather than just the time and date it was created. If I have a complete track of e.g. Acoustic Guitar from 3-4 takes, I render that track to a mono stem and delete all the files I don't need. You can rename your files individually from Item Properties. (Double Click Take, Right Click>>>Item Properties, F2 Shortcut) Keeping the files in an order that works for you helps maintain your audio folder. Easy deletion of the takes/files that you don't need.

I also have Reaper set to auto-save project every 15 Minutes. (Options>>>Preferences>>>Project) past experience of Reaper crashing on occasion also forces me to CTRL+S in regular intervals while working. It's a great habit to get in to. It takes a second to do and can save a lot of head ache in the event of a crash. (Reaper is a lot more stable now though)

There is a shitload of other stuff I use now that I never used to. Sends for effects, Group Bus's, etc. Anything that basically lightens the load of the CPU and makes the job at hand easier.

But always keep back ups. I have an external drive I work from and another with a copy of everything. When I'm done with a song, it gets burnt to DVD and shelved.

We live and we learn. It's great!
 
when I call up the old stuff all i see in the folders is .............ee00

I'll try it all again later, I do want to learn how to do a good backup and even more important, how to retrieve it back!

Im paying for being unorganized too, its a mess. Its a "must learn" though, Ive already seen the hardrive lose years of stuff...
 
Im going to go to my old pc again and try to save all the Reaper and associated music to my portable USB a second time.

For some reason I have these icons in my file that have a reaper icon, but when I try to load into Reaper it aborts over and over...using search and browse it just aborts.

one thing I noticed is when I load one of these song files that should have all the tracks, it labels it

from a F: drive and I dont have a F-drive on my new pc? and my USB drive isnt F either?

So is this why Reaper is aborting the load?

Any guesse's?

Its a two part question, I know.

The other part is saying f-it...and try to save all my stuff again using drag and drop method instead of the Windows Save TO function, right?
 
mjbphotos said:
I distrust any Windows utilities! I manually drag everything to the USB drive. When I used a backup utility before it took over 14 hours, and I couldn't access anything in the backup file - it was some kind of 'image' file, could not do anything with it.
Click to expand...

Re-reading this thread...
The quoted- was the first response to my help...somehow I didnt get it, did the Windows thing, now reading it again, its funny, this is exactly what Im seeing.

Tim, Mr Clean, mjbphotos were saying dont use the Windows thing...or suggested something else.
gecko, amistice ...thanks for the inputs too.

Luckily the Hardrive on the old pc still spins, so I can go try this "backup" again..dragging and dropping.

Kind of a organizational mess because I'll have duplicate of everything, while some should have data and some will be "ghost image' of nothing...
 
Reaper track files have two components - the basic data file and a 'peaks file', if both are not in the same folder, you can't open them. When you insert a WAV (or other format) sound file into Reaper, it creates a peaks file.
 
I haven't had time to try the backup again.
Thanks for offering info.

All I know is this morning I tried to upload the usb/hd Reaper stuff to listen to it in Reaper. When I clicked on the Reaper Icon, on all the song files, I got the same error and file not found.
The odd thing was all the songs showed to be from F drive, which must be from the old pc, or something. idk...

So when I drag and drop there will be two files for each song I need to put in the same folder?
 
CoolCat said:
I haven't had time to try the backup again.
Thanks for offering info.

All I know is this morning I tried to upload the usb/hd Reaper stuff to listen to it in Reaper. When I clicked on the Reaper Icon, on all the song files, I got the same error and file not found.
The odd thing was all the songs showed to be from F drive, which must be from the old pc, or something. idk...

So when I drag and drop there will be two files for each song I need to put in the same folder?
Click to expand...

Two files for each TRACK. There are also the SONG production files (this is what loads when you click on a song to open it - it then calls for all the track files.)
 
wow... Im starting to comprehend about 15% of this massive software processing and jargon.
thanks.

So let me try to self explain it to myself and correct me, please...

I record 1 Track of a Rythm guitar...Mono.
I decide to save-it and stop recording. Then I render it in 24bit Wav and can play it back on RealPlayer, and I can doa CD burn in Reaper to listen to it in the car. I dont have trouble finding and understannding these two files and locations and backing these up....these work.

But......
where and how many files would be associated to this one track?
You say 2 files are stored (somewhere) and then Audio production files are also part of this track somewhere else?
What do these look like, ex do they have the Reaper icon?, what are the extensions called?
What does each .dll or .jhafkjh do? Whats their purpose?

I think in waves and mp3 files they dont create 2 or 3 more secret files, its just that one, what are these other reaper files consisting of?
 
thanks again...

Ok, the recommended "drag-n-drop" worked and all that was suggested was the way to resolve this.
Thanks for putting up with my lengthy wordy post and ignorance.

"NO WINDOWS UTILITIES" = Success! :guitar:
 
Ok, you got everything working?
Best bet is to manage your files as you go along, tell Reaper where to store the track files, song production files, etc. It defaults to 'Reaper Media' folder in your documents folder.
 
mjbphotos said:
Best bet is to manage your files as you go along, tell Reaper where to store the track files, song production files, etc. It defaults to 'Reaper Media' folder in your documents folder.
Click to expand...

+1 for this ^^^^

I record to an external drive, keeps stuff tidy. I back up to another external drive, just to be sure :thumbs up:

Easiest way to do it is start a new project in Reaper and File>>>Save Project As - Create a folder where-ever you want and save the project before you start. All files will be in that folder from then on instead of the default My Documents>>>Reaper Media.

If you want you can set a specific folder for your audio files via File>>>Project Settings>>>Media Tab. I save my audio files in a separate folder because I find it easier to manage files in different folder. Plus I have Reaper set to auto-save every 5 minutes and the project files mount up.
 
I've tried a couple of different "back up" programs, & the files almost always need to be opened by the exact same program - making thing proprietry in the Mac/Apple way.
Recent 2TB back up drives have had a back up process that just copies any files changed or nominated as they are with no stuffing about - I did athat a couple of times but I always go back to copy & paste/drop & drag. I used to cut & paste but sometimes that can go horribly wrong.
I have reaper set up to sve files to a project folder named for the current project etc and it's happy thing. ON TOP OF THAT I copy my latest project or two to a 32gig thumb drive which I can run it from if needed but also JUST BECAUSE I'm paranoid.
 
I'm not lazy, really, but yesterday I finally got around to doing a full backup. Hadn't done one since July 28 last year! :facepalm: I had backed up a lot of my music files to DVD-R, but not to my external drive. For some reason I was thinking it was full, but in fact half of it was the stupid 'image file' I got when I tried to used the backup software.
Yeah, now I know I should pick up a 2nd external drive and be redundant about backing up, but one thing at a time!
 
the USB hardrive seems the easiest for me. I dont know why....

my brain doesnt do software really well, i struggle...and even being organized, gotten only 10% better.

I do SAVE AS and RENDER everything to 1 specific title, but even then sometimes I end with a few folders of the same tune and not sure which file is which. ??

the MP3 and Wave stuff is easy to recognize- got that.

Reaper Software is still boggling my mind what its doing ...the data and all the reaper storage nomenclature /names is foggy.

Question- example:
If I did a recording. One mono Track...mic and acoustic for example....I press record and Reaper records 2minutes of guitar. I hit stop. I press playback it plays....
I figure Ill add a Bass track some other day.... Ill call the song A HIGH NOTE
I want to save it.

How would you guys go about organizing it? and what is really being stored and which file is which? I figure some files are the mixer settings, project settings while other files stored are the tracks/wave files but do you label each of the tracks too with the song name??
 
jimmys69 said:
Yeah, I have no love for backup software. A cheap hard drive, and manual backup, seems the best for me.

Hey, you want my US 1800 for $100?
Click to expand...

US1800 for $100? you getting a new interface I assume....$100 , its crazy to think my first tascam cassette was over a $$$$$grand for 4 hard tracks...and a mess of cassettes sitting around, overdubbing was not so easy...

What are you getting next?
 
mjbphotos said:
Ok, you got everything working?
Best bet is to manage your files as you go along, tell Reaper where to store the track files, song production files, etc. It defaults to 'Reaper Media' folder in your documents folder.
Click to expand...
Mr Clean said:
+1 for this ^^^^

I record to an external drive, keeps stuff tidy. I back up to another external drive, just to be sure :thumbs up:

Easiest way to do it is start a new project in Reaper and File>>>Save Project As - Create a folder where-ever you want and save the project before you start. All files will be in that folder from then on instead of the default My Documents>>>Reaper Media.

If you want you can set a specific folder for your audio files via File>>>Project Settings>>>Media Tab. I save my audio files in a separate folder because I find it easier to manage files in different folder. Plus I have Reaper set to auto-save every 5 minutes and the project files mount up.
Click to expand...

this is good info.. the auto save is a cool idea.

"Save the Project before you start"....the default is My Docs Reaper Media....thats one of the things that confused me too. I alwasy had this Reaper Media and Reaper Save File and then some Repaer files were data, some other extensions were something else.

I still dont think Im getting the backup stuff right, but being organized first seems to be the general consensus pre-backup.
 
CoolCat said:
US1800 for $100? you getting a new interface I assume....$100 , its crazy to think my first tascam cassette was over a $$$$$grand for 4 hard tracks...and a mess of cassettes sitting around, overdubbing was not so easy...

What are you getting next?
Click to expand...

Actually two new interfaces. Steinberg UR824's. They can link via ADAT, even with USB connection. I'm all giddy a s**t. Coming Monday.

I had an AKAI 4 track back in '89 or so. I think it was $1800 or so. Got Mom to buy it for me. lol!
 
Oh sure, Jimmy - first you sell me a US800 for under $100 .... :o Great deal for someone, but I don't need (or anticipate ever needing) more than the 800 .

CoolCat - save your new project (new name) when you start it. If you go into the project again and add some tracks or plugins, save it to the same name but with a new date (first: Song123, next time Song123 6-10-13, etc) When I render a song, I will put the date in the render title.
When you finish a song, you can delete all/some of the previous versions (projects and renders) if you have space considerations.

Some folks may say 'you don't need to do that' as in Reaper you can always revert to previous versions, but I'm anal that way. :rolleyes:
 
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