Hi friends,
So after learning the hard way i decided to start making more freuqent backups of my projects.
Question is…
Do i just have to copy/paste the “Cubase Projects” folder and the “Cubase6 Document” file? will that be enough?
What about that “Backup Project” tool? never used that.
Im mostly using audio in my projects…only a few midi.
thanks in advance fellow cubasers
I learned the hard way a few years ago.
I keep all projects in individually named folders on my audio hard drive and each night I backup to an external drive by copying the folders of the projects that have changed. For this to work you need to be careful about making sure that all the elements of a project are in the folder. Read up on ‘Prepare Archive’ which will help. Also set Preferences>Audio to copy files to working directory - or else you can be using files from anywhere on your system and they won’t be stored in the project folder.
‘Backup Project’ is great. Read up on that too, it gives you the ability to duplicate your open project, but by setting the dialogues, you can ditch all unwanted takes and end up with a much smaller neater project folder. Note! Close and re-open the project from the original source - or you’ll be working on the safety copy.
P
Hi Parrot,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
so i have decided to start using this process…correct me where im wrong 
Every night when im done i will “Prepare Archive” and use SyncToy to copy for example “Track 1” project folder to my external HD. (Does this mean that i will no longer have to copy the full “Cubase Projects” file found in My documents?)
When i see that im done with my track i will “Remove Unused Media” - “Empty Trash” - “Prepare Archive” - “Backup Project”
Now i have an issue here that when i load again the project from the archives(external hd) it loads perfectly but when i load it from the original project(internal hd) it gives me missing files…like /edits etc
I don’t delete unused data or anything like that until I am finished with the project. I just copy the project files and contents to a second drive. ‘Prepare Archive’ just copies any files into the project folder that maybe stored elsewhere. That should be done if you haven’t set your preference to copy files on import to project.
Then I work on daily with the original project folder and repeat at the end of each day, replacing the folder on the backup drive
Before archiving the finished project, I either:
Prepare Archive, Remove Unused Media, Empty Trash (in that order)
or:
Backup Project
These processes minimise the project size by deleting unused and unreferenced files
Also be careful to note that some VSTi s reference their samples to a specific location (Battery for example). In order to make your project completely reliable for the future, you may have to save those samples to within your project folder, or, on re-opening (on a different system for example) those samples would be missing. Each VSTi has it’s own way of doing this.
I guess it’s best if you use a test project and work out a routine that works best for you.
P
ps. My hard lesson was learned when my main audio drive failed one morning - disappeared from Windows and Bios forever. I lost six current album projects and a lot of sleep. Finally the contents of the drive were recovered by a specialist company. It cost over £700, but worth it as losing all that data in front of clients would have been just too awful. Now, I take the time to backup!!
Yes i am only planning to delete the unused data after im done with the project.
so you are saying that if you “copy files on import to project” you dont really have to Prepare Archive because everything is already in the Audio Folder of the specified Project Folder…right?
ps - my hard lesson was that before i never copied files on import or archived or anything so when one of the drives flipped out i was screwed because without me even knowing the “Cubase Projects” file which had all my audio wasnt stored on my “D: Projects” which i used to backup. on installation cubase automatically placed the “Cubase Projects” files on “C:My Documents”. unlike you i never managed to save my 4-tracker ep 
I am very strict in setting each song project to its own folder and each set of song folders to its album folder etc. Always, I set up project parameters, bit depth, preset VSTi s and so on to a template. So that each song and album’s basics are ‘designed’ before-hand. It saves masses of time and helps keep things consistent across a whole project
It’s safe to ‘Prepare Archive’ anyway at any time, but shouldn’t be necessary if all audio has been copied correctly. It doesn’t delete anything.
Since my disaster, I have had one drive issue, which caused me to lose data - it was a faulty S-ATA connection. Once fixed, I just pulled the backup folders into my system and went on without any delay or loss.
P
I do “copy files on import to project” but I tend to start my project as Untitled so cubase will copy any imported audio to the “Cubase Projects”…therefore all the audio in my pool is directed to for example Cubase Projects > Untitled-01. What i do then is that when i start building something which i am happy with i Prepare Archive and Save the Project under a new name.
Do you think this is a bad idea and suggest that i should “Set a Project Folder” with a new project name from the beginning?
Yes without doubt.
New Project > Prompt for project location > select template > Continue
Follow through normal windows screens to select suitable project folder location. Once set, audio will record automatically to that folder, all edits, freezes, saves and autosaves and other stuff will all be together.
With past and existing projects you could use Project Backup to create a new copy, all tidied up. All files onscreen will be kept even if muted, but unreferenced or deleted files can be left out depending on how you set the tickboxes on the backup Project Option menu.
Hope this helps get you into a good routine!
P
Thanks bud for your constant kind help…will let you know how things go.
ps - new project name > Parrot :-p
Bare in mind that I deal with a lot of audio here due to clientele and such.
Here I have separate backup drives and I use Acronis true image to keep everything backed up. You can set it to manage your files and do full or incremental backups. I do full backups once a month and incremental backups weekly or more frequently depending on projects. I presonally have 1 working copy and 2 backup copies of everything. Last I checked I had 8 backup drives! I had one fail the other day, but I had 2 other copies so, no big deal. That felt really good! 
Oh, you can use trueimage to backup your OS too. So, you install something on your computer and it screws everything up. Restore the backup image of your OS drive. Whammo! Back in business in 15 minutes! That has saved my rear quite a few times after I updated something and all heck broke loose after.
Hi there P…I was happy to see your info here as it seemed to be an answer to a problem I was having…I’m having files directed to older version audio folders so I tried your set up in preferences. I, however then opened a project in which I knew files for stored in 2 different places and recorded a bogus track to experiment…the result was that the track was still being sent to the older project folder. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? B
An existing project always refers to the directory it was started with, that’s why it’s so important in Cubase to start with a blank template that needs a new directory assigned or created. For older projects, like Parrotspain wrote, you can use ‘Backup Project’ to set it on its own again with all files associated with it in (and copied to) the new backup’s ‘Audio’ directory.
thanks man…I did use back up project, but still find newly recorded files being directed to the original project audio folder. I then used the prepare archive function which did draw the files into the new project location but it continues to place newly recorded stuff in the original location…any ideas? B
Arjan…just to let you know, I received an email from tech support and was directed to an update 7.0.3 which fixed the problem. I now see the files being placed in the current media pool.
Your info was correct but my app version was not performing as it should. B
Thanks for getting back - I wasn’t aware of the problem in C7, I’m still on 6.5. All good then.
Every once in a while a completely awesome thread pops up … this is one of them - thanks!