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If you're serious about making music in the digital age then you need to be equally serious about backup. For most people it takes the loss of an important file to find the resolve to implement a proper backup strategy but hopefully after reading this you'll be an instant convert.
If you are new to backup then you're potentially in a better position to set up a system that is going to work for you now and in the future without any of the baggage that goes with an approach that has evolved over time. So lets look at Why you should backup your data? How to back it up? and When to do it?
Why is backing up important?
If you think of digital files not really existing until there is at least one copy then you'll be well on the way to entering the backing up mindset. With only one version of that great mix or precious photo there are any number of potential mishaps that could reduce that to zero versions, here are just a few:
1. Accidental deletion or over-writing: probably one of the most common forms of data loss, simply human error.
2. Physical loss or theft: fire, flood, and good old burglary can all swipe away our data without any chance of recovery.
3. Drive failure: every drive however well maintained will eventually fail, some will degrade slowly over time exhibiting worsening performance as a clue before they finally give up but often drive failure can be sudden and complete. Bad batches and design oversights mean that even modern drives can potentially fail within months rather than years of purchase.
4. File corruption or virus infection: Many of today's viruses and malware are almost impossible to remove without reformatting a system and copying off important files can't always be done safely. Files can also corrupt making them unreadable either as a result of a software bug or unexpected shutdown of the program / computer while the file was being written to.
Tip 22 : A Guide to Project Backup
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We all have files that are important or precious to us be it photos, music or work and their survival rests on none of the above happening and the chances are that for the most part we'd get away with it. But just as we wear seatbelts in cars as a sensible precaution your backup is your safety net in case of an accident.
How should I backup?
The theory behind backup is pretty simple, by making regular copies you can protect yourself against one or even multiple misfortunes as described above. The complicated bit is scheduling and maintaining those copies in a way that is both effective and practical, so lets see how.
The original: Before thinking about making a copy there's something you can do to improve the chances of your original file remaining intact. Drive failure is a pretty common way to loose data either through wear and tear over time or an accidental bump. Redundant storage technologies such as RAID use multiple drives configured to look like one drive to your machine to spread data around, the theory being that if one drive fails your data will remain intact.
How should I backup?
The theory behind backup is pretty simple, by making regular copies you can protect yourself against one or even multiple misfortunes as described above. The complicated bit is scheduling and maintaining those copies in a way that is both effective and practical, so lets see how.
The original: Before thinking about making a copy there's something you can do to improve the chances of your original file remaining intact. Drive failure is a pretty common way to loose data either through wear and tear over time or an accidental bump. Redundant storage technologies such as RAID use multiple drives configured to look like one drive to your machine to spread data around, the theory being that if one drive fails your data will remain intact.
RAID: the poplar protocol for managing the distribution of data across multiple drives. RAID which uses two drives to maintain mirrored copies is perhaps the most popular and accessible to consumers. Use two drives in your PC in conjunction with a RAID controller or get a dedicated external unit.
Onsite backup:
Your local or onsite backup should be to a second, preferably external drive which you keep connected to your computer. If you have multiple computers to back up then a network-attached solution is even better.
Most drives now come bundled with backup software allowing you to do what are called incremental as well as full backups. Rather than blindly copying all the files from your computer each time an incremental backup will only transfer the files that are new or have been modified since the last backup was carried out. This greatly reduces backup time making it more practical as a day to day operation.
If you're using OS X Leopard or later then Time Machine is a great solution for this local backup allowing you to also travel back in time to retrieve files you accidentally deleted or changed.
Offsite backup:
Sitting next to your computer your local backup is a good precaution against drive failure, file corruption or accidental deletion, but isn't much good against fire and theft. This is why most people will include an offsite backup too. Offsite could be a garage or shed, but better still a family member or friend's house or your desk at work.
This copy would be updated less regularly than your local copy perhaps once a week or once a month. As you won't always be around to keep an eye on this offsite copy it makes sense to encrypt the drive's contents so that a password is needed to access the data on it. In fact it's not a bad idea to do this with your local backup too. There are various free options for creating locked drive volumes on the PC, Windows 7 includes a tool called BitLocker for doing just that. On the Mac you can use Disk Utility to create an encrypted volume. Watch ChannelFlip's excellent video guide here: http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/13462394/-42-Encrypting-data-on-USB-sticks/
In the Cloud . . .
Adding online storage (increasingly referred to as 'cloud storage') to your backup mix is what you might call the belt and suspenders approach. At the moment the cloud solution is simply too slow and too expensive to replace a traditional offsite backup, but as an extra security net for that handful of files that you simply can't afford to loose it works just great - with the added benefit that you can now access those files from anywhere you can get online.
At the time of writing if you sign up for a Mircosoft Live account you'll get 25GB of complementary online storage. There are some limitations, such as a 50MB cap on the size of individual files, but for documents and photos that's no problem. Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are also launching their own online storage services to be bundled with broadband packages offering anywhere between 5 and 50GB. If you're using a Mac then Apple's MobileMe service is a logical choice giving you 20GB of storage which you can add to as your needs grow. In addition to the usual web interface there's also nice integration into the OS allowing automatic mounting and drag and drop transfer of files.
In your pocket: Don't fancy going down either the offsite or cloud route? One very cheap solution is the USB Flash Drive giving you up to 64GB of storage you can attach to your keyring and carry with you everywhere you go.
Bootable backup: If the cloud solution was belt and suspenders then a bootable backup is a second pair of trousers. For those of you for whom any downtime is a disaster the bootable backup allows you to be up and running again in minutes. It's essentially a clone of your computer's main drive that can be used to boot the computer from in the event that that main drive fails. Rather than just copying all your files across you need to create what's called a bootable image, but there is plenty of free software out there to make this easy.
Choosing a drive:
Choosing the right drives is crucial if your backup strategy is going to be effective and future-proof. I would always recommend buying drives that are bigger than your current need as it will leave you some room for growth and end up saving you money in the long run. The good news is that storage is getting pretty cheap and you can now easily pick up a terabyte drive (1000 GB) for under £90 which should be enough for any non-enterprise needs. Quality is also less of an issue because if a backup fails it can be replaced without any drama, unlike your original copy.
One of the big factors in making backup practical is the speed at which you can move files around. This depends on a number of factors, but the connection type is perhaps the principal one. The cheapest drives tend to be those which only have a USB 2.0 connection and this is fine for day to day incremental backups, but for really blasting data across on that monthly or weekly offsite copy a Firewire 800 or eSATA connection will really save you time. Whereas you might get a max transfer rate of 30MB/s over USB 2.0 the same drive could deliver more like 110MB/s over eSATA. So before you buy a drive it's worth looking at the specs, in particular the Transfer Rate / Maximum Drive Speed.
When?
In general your backup schedule should match the pace at which essential files are created of modified. Or in other words how many days / weeks work could you stand loosing. In the business environment this might be measured in hours, but if you often go days or weeks without creating or modifying important files then this is probably a bit excessive.
The key is keep your schedule realistic and not to try and maintain it 100% manually. If you can leave your day to day backup to dedicated software then you only need to worry about the offsite copy once a week/month.
So lets look at a good solution for the typical home musician that balances data protection with cost-effectiveness:
Local Copy: incremental once-a-day backup to an external drive managed by software utility. All you have to do is keep the drive attached to your computer and turn it on once a day. Once a month you would wipe this backup and create a fresh one
In the cloud / in your pocket: your favourite photos, that latest mix and other essential documents such as all your email could be synced to online storage or a USB Flash Drive (make sure this is encrypted!) not necessarily once a day.
Offsite: Once a month is probably reasonable: you might loose some of your more recent files if your house has burnt to the ground and taken out your local copy, but hopefully all the really essential stuff is in the cloud or on that thumb drive.
The total cost of this is probably no more than £200 and the time investment somewhere between 5 to 10 hours a month, most of which will be unattended file copying. So backup doesn't need to be expensive and it doesn't need to take over your life, but it is an essential part of living in an increasingly digital world.
MobileMe: Online storage accessible through your broswer or integrated into the OS X Finder