How do you back up your music collection?

[admin_exported]

Hi all

I've got all my music ripped from my CDs to my hard drive. Just put in a new hard drive to cope.

I don't want to load all my CDs again if my hard drive fails or my PC gets nicked so I'm wondering what kind of backup setup to have.

What is everyone else doing and why did you decide on that kind of backup system?

Cheers, Andrew

 

[idc]

Back up 1 a WD hard drive, back up 2 the ipod itself, back up 3 Spotify Premium.

 

[PJPro]

After ripping, I backup files onto a second HDD within my PC and to a third HDD hanging off of a WDTV Live media player which I can access across my home network. I have a fourth external HDD which I synchronise at longer intervals. I keep this one at work in a locked cupboard.

 

[professorhat]

I'm in between those two - have two FireWire drives (I use a Mac), one of which is attached to the Mac constantly and backups up regularly protecting me against most things, the other which is stored outside my flat and I bring back occasionally to re-backup everything protecting against theft and fire etc.

 

[Dan Turner]

professorhat:
the other which is stored outside my flat and I bring back occasionally to re-backup everything protecting against theft and fire etc.

I'm using a MacBook and backing up automatically to an Apple Time Capsule - I'm thinking that I should have something stored somewhere else too just in case the worst happens.

 

[kena]

Netgear NAS Duo RAID , with original CD's / Vinyl as worst case backup - USB external on wish list to provide the offside backup aka PJ and the Prof.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think its crucial to have "off site" back up in case your place burns down or gets burgled.

Not sure whether to

(i) do an external hard drive back up every three months or whenever I put a lot of music on PC and put the hard drive it a detached garage at home.

or

(ii) have a wireless NAS in our loft (hidden away) which does a weekly back up. On top of this I'd do a external back up to a hard drive and put in garage in case house burnt down as above.

My gut feeling is option (i).

Cheers, Andrew

 

[PJPro]

The belt and braces approach would be (ii) except, if it was on the network, I'd backup every time I ripped a CD. (i) is the cheaper option and will give you adequate cover. However, given that HDDs are so cheap, I would go for a third option.

(iii) Use an additional HDD which you can backup to at home and then swap it over with the HDD at your offsite store after some interval or significant update.

You can never have enough backups! The day it all goes wrong, you'll be soooo pleased you went to the trouble, especially if it involves irreplaceable files i.e. photos of the kids, etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Totally agree with the above. I have a Western Digital NAS configured RAID 5 to which once a month I connect (via USB) a 1TB WD drive, do a back of all my media files, remove and store seperately. Origonal CD's currently in the loft as I'm not brave enough to dispense with them right now.