Backup using SonicStage or something else?

[johnobuttons]

We all know we should back-up our important audio files in some way or another.

There are lots and lots of posts here about losing stuff saved by SonicStage.

Even Sony tells us to use the backup utility in SonicStage before doing anything much on our computer.

I recently transferred a whole bunch of live recordings from old regular MD's into WAV files using WinNMD and an old NetMD machine. I then loaded all of this onto a Hi-MD disk using ATRAC3Plus Hi-LP in order to have it all available for listening on my Hi-MD machine. So far so good.

The question is how best to back up this music. I definitely don't want to have to do the transfer using WinNMD in real time again!! I don't trust or understand the backup facility in Sonicstage. It seems like it's useful only if you want to backup EVERYTHING you have in Sonicstage onto some huge backup volume.

I thought to myself, "why not make an ATRAC CD?". Sony's ATRAC3PLUS is known to be a very high quality compression format. Besides, I though I would be able to move stuff from the ATRAC CD to the Hi-MD in the future. I made the ATRAC CD but it apparently the stuff on the ATRAC CD cannot be moved back into the computer or onto Hi-MD using Sonicstage or anyother software! Is that true?????

In the end I just said "Sonicstage SUCKS big" and ripped the files into MP3 and burned them onto CD's. At least I KNOW I can recover the music if it is lost. I don't have to worry about Sony changing their formats and losing the music sometime in the future. MP3 will stay around for sure. Even my DVD player can play the MP3 disks.

What do you all have to say about this backup issue?

Thanks,

John

PS Don't get me wrong, I love minidisc, especially Hi-MD. I'm just frustrated with Sonicstage (even 3.2)

[The Low Volta]

are we talking backup as some sort of archiving or just as a temporary safekeeping while installing something?

- if the latter, I would suggest throwing all that's easily rippable from the library and using the SS backup tool, as it will do what it says, but it will require quite a lot of space if you do your entire library

- if the former, I would advise against every form of lossy compression, even atrac3+... you have spent quite some time transferring all those older recordings to PC... why allow any of that info to be removed for future use? Now it may seem that wav/pcm takes up way too much room for any use on portable players, but we've evolved from 256mb -> 60gb players and to 1gb discs fairly rapid... chances are in a couple of years we reckon HiSP or even 320kbps MP3 just isn't good enough as storage space becomes cheaper and cheaper... would you be willing to transfer everything again?

just buy yourself a DVD-writer (if you haven't got one already... lots of ppl do and just do not use them) and archive all essential stuff as FLAC or another lossless codec (WMA lossless, monkey audio,...)

we are talking about once on a lifetime recordings perhaps... I personally could never only keep lossy versions of these myself...so if you have any access to the equipment needed (CDR/DVDR) just say no to lossy encoding for backup!

just my humble opinion... feel free to differ

[tommypeters]

Yes, and since a DVD-R cost about twice as much as a CD-R and holds six to seven times the data and only needs the same storage space as one CD-R I recommend DVD-R. Just don't trust them too much, burn with "Verify Data" on and make duplicates of the most precious recordings. Store one copy at home and one somewhere else, DVD-R's are that cheap.

[1kyle]

Disk Imaging Software -- a number of options out there but these 3 seem to be the basic contenders

1) Acrinis True Image

2) Powerquest 2002 (Now longer available but you might find an old copy)

3) Norton Ghost.

These make actual "Mirror" Images of your Disk partition(s).

I find it very useful if I have to restore say Windows without having to re-install everything --but if you have your Music Library on another partition than your Windows partition then you have to Image BOTH partitions -- they will restore without problems -- but ensure the partition containing the library and the one containing the OS (Windows) are restored together.

In any case it's always best to keep your OS (Windows) separate from your data etc in any case.

Much quicker than SS backup -- a whole Windows partition can be copied / restored in around 10 Mins ( dependsing on the size of course).

Acronis True image is probably the easiest

http://www.acronis.com

Cheers

-K

Edited August 22, 2005 by 1kyle

[Syrius]

If your music is already in OMG format in SS, do the re-conversion trick using SS 3.2, and make sure the DRM is removed in the options. Then you can back up your OMA files on regular DVD and restore them anywhere.

[1kyle]

If your music is already in OMG format in SS, do the re-conversion trick using SS 3.2, and make sure the DRM is removed in the options. Then you can back up your OMA files on regular DVD and restore them anywhere.

←

D/L disks work fine as well (8 GB) and DVD-RAM 9.4 GB per double sided discs are also OK --Nero

I'd still move the library to it's own Disk partition (you can use Partition Magic or whatever to make a Logical Partition) and then use "Disk Imaging" software to back up that partition --oodles quicker than any other method.

You can even remount the backup image if you use NERO or some other "Imaging Software" such as Acronis True Image without having to restore to Disk -- great Idea if it's on a DVD as you can ensure you won't lose it as the DVD will generally be READ ONLY.

In fact a good Idea is to split your music up into several manageable Chunks and before importing change the Import Directory so you add it to the relevant "Library"

SS 3.2 still treats the whole kybosh as 1 Library but it doesn't really matter as you can just double click in Windows explorer on the appropriate file to Open with SS, Play or do whatever you want with.

Finally decent "Drag 'n Drop --but always remember this doesn't work for DRM protected and Purchased Music stuff.

Cheers

-K

Edited August 23, 2005 by 1kyle