Im not very tech savvy so apologies all around if this is basic…
My entire life’s work is on a single lacie drive and lately its been nagging me to finally back it all up.
Unfortunately i have no idea where to start… locally, cloud, or both? Locally sounds convenient but for me but it might defeat the purpose since i live alone and have no network. Cloud is what I’m leaning towards if its a good secure, low cost service that you can recommend. Why would i do one over the other? are there free options?
I have no idea how to even go about setting up my sessions to automatically backup to a local, or cloud based server. In order for my computer(mac) to backup new material every time I’m done with a session, do i need another computer running for that? I’d greatly appreciate your help.
You’re on a mac, so the easiest would be Apple’s Time Machine.
There is also a very good application for OS X called Synchronize Pro X. The advantage of this over Time Machine is that you can better control when it backs up (and avoid times when you’re producing). For Time Machine, you’d have to manually switch it off and on (if you needed it disabled during Cubase use, which you may or may not depending on what you’re doing).
For cloud:
Crashplan.
If you wanna get fancy, use Sync Pro X (or something like Bittorent Sync) to create a “mirror” backup locally on another computer, then backup the backup to Crashplan.
That way, you can have the always-running Crashplan slowing down just your mirrored computer and not your DAW.
Also, it’s considered a best practice to have a local backup and an offsite (online) backup.
I had a horrible experience when two hard drives failed at basically the same time. One was my main audio drive and the other the backup for it. Both were complete losses. Was willing to spend $3000 each to retrieve data but they were toast.
Now I use Carbonite to back up everything nightly. Have to shut that down while recording as it is a big hog when running.
$100 a year for unlimited storage. Seems way more dependable than a second drive that failed for me. And actually cheaper.
Carbonite is good for your offsite backup, but you should really have an onsite backup, too.
That online backup at Carbonite is only as good as your “account” is good and its settings, now, or ever, don’t cause an overwrite of some kind.
For example, I’m learning the hard way right now that all my Crashplan backups are at risk of being blown away during an “adoption process” to a new machine. It will probably be okay, but if a certain “key” is pasted in wrong, it’s bye bye everything (and there is no warning or undo for it). It’s kind of a terrible little gottcha over at Crashplan (love the service otherwise and do recommend it).
The point being, is that online backups have fine print and pitfalls, too.
I would seriously consider a local backup, as well (even after your recent failure of one).
The old military survival saying of “two is one and one is none.” definitely applies to backups.
