Backup And Archiving...

At the request of the Da Dog, lets discuss the hardware and activity of backup/archiving?

At one time it was simple. The analog multitrack tapes and the 2-track master tapes were put in a box and stored on a shelf or in the closet along with with the track sheets and mabe a few other notes. I don't remember ever really worrying or doing safety copies until DAT machines and then with ADAT tapes. Now it is a whole other ball game and a very time consuming process of backup/archiving in multiformats is a necessary chore to be done.

I myself, pretty much now rely on several safety copies of CD-R (in PCM or data or both) and use DAT for a temp storage that I recycle after the client has blessed and paid off the bill/invoice. I don't believe or trust hard disks as being a long term proper backup and storage format. I also don't have much faith in CD-R either, but it is the most easy and cheapest way to do both data and real time playable backup/archive and if I make half a dozen copies it takes most of the worry away for the short and mid term. As for responsability, unless I'm paid a specific and separate archiving and storage fee, once I'm paid I am no longer responsable. And if you bring me back something for rework and I have to restore it back to my hard disks or tapes, there is a separate fee to do that.

So let everybody chime in on how and what your doing for backup/archiving as well as the formats and hardware your using to do so. We might as also discuss who is responsable and what they are responsable for as well.

 

OK

Almost the same here. When the work is in progress on a project I do a backup copy of all of the files on a secon hard disk, just because you would be nuts not doing it; I also do a copy of each Pro Tools session I've worked on that day, and keep it on a separate drive (having multiple drives attached is a bonus in this case). If I have tapes to work with I do a backup copy of the session tape (mostly DAT, but they're not many nowdays, they used to be more when I was working with analog desk and mixing down to DAT).

Once the work is finished and I have delivered the PMCD (and I got paid) I just keep a backup copy of the PMCD, a copy of the 24 bit mixes, and a copy of the Pro Tools sessions (with files consolidated for each track); all of the other not used files and bounced temporary mixes get trashed. All of this usually stays on a few CD roms that I store in my archive. I'm considering a DVD-R so that I could spend less time doing backups (which is non billable time and I just do for myself, since no clients apart one have ever asked me to deliver the backups or to reopen some files for additional work (and in that cases it would cost additional fees).

Cheers

L.G.

 

I guess with hard drives it's more the mechanics,
motor, bearings etc. that won't hold up long term.
What is the projected life expectancy of DVD and CD back up's?

 

Being a mastering studio we do backups a bit differently.

We save all the client's work on CDR or DVD for a period of 6 months from the completion of their sessions with us. (one month on the hard drive) After that time they can pay us a fee ($35) and we will keep the stuff archived for an additional year. If they want it archived after that it is an additional $35.00 per year. We have been in business almost 9 years and in that time I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times clients have asked for a save past the 6 months.

FWIW

 

AG, I worked at a studio in Boston 25 years ago, and twice in one year a certain parcel delivery service lost 24 track masters being sent to NYC. We had protection copies (whew!). I currently track on a hard disk machine, do one copy to an external drive, one to CD or DVD depending on the volume of material. Java, some of the newer ATA drives ie: Maxtor Diamond and certain Seagates have liquid bearings for extended life. The spec for drive life is incredibly high, it's usually an environmental factor like overheating or OS failure that causes the drive to go down. My computer has twin drives and all audio files are on the D drive once transferred from my HD 24 track. I've heard that CD's can be prone to mold developing in the pores burned into them, don't know if the manufacturors have addressed this or not....

 

I have a USB-connected 200GB Hard Drive attached to my system, and after each session, I back up the day's work to that.

At the end of a project, I back up everything to CD-ROM (I can get about 1 song per CD) for archival purposes, and then clear those tracks from the HD.

It cost me about US$200 for the HD, and was just "plug-n'play" as far as installation goes...duck soup!

 

Ditto...I use a redundant backup routine...USB2 drives and FW drives for ongoing projects; once everything has been tracked I use Samplitude's backup routines as well...I now keep everything in track form on USB drive for one year...after that its just the Samp b/u discs...

All it takes is ONE embarassing buttchewing from a client because everything was lost to make sure it doesn't happen again...