VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[mcm]

I have put this off long enough. What do you do to minimise the risks to your computer recording system in the event of crashes? For the last two days my computer will not shut down properly and has to be unplugged, and I know it is past time to prepare for a crash. Begging the question of what is wrong with my computer, I would love to hear how people have configured their systems to make sure they are always able to stay in business-- 2nd hard drive on which all the recording software and files go, &c.

Thanks in advance!

Mary

[Andy]

Might not be so much a Win OS problem as Malware. Some spyware programs affect the shutdown of your computer. Do you have anti-spyware programs to detect problems?

[Deirdre]

I had a major-league issue earlier this year with a Mac OS update on my PowerBook that did not play nice with USB or its own sleep habits.

I got ahold of a big-ass firewire drive, offloaded the entire PB, then wiped out the PB drive. Re-partitioned the drive and re-loaded all software. I don't do ANY software updates on the PowerBook now. I'm running Mac OS 10.3.4 and PT LE 6.7.

It works.
Period.

The new OS, Tiger, looks cool but I'm not even thinking of it for the PowerBook.
Maybe for the video machine in Mission Control, but I haven't had the time to take the risk yet.
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DBCooperVO.com

[Bruce]

On a regular* basis I take completed session files for a client and burn them onto CD or DVD, and use the sitting-around time to web search or read. I dump the files off the hard disc once they're transferred. I take current sessions and all my other save-worthy files and copy them to a separate hard drive once a week*.

Of course discs in my closet and hard drives sitting on my computer don't help in case of fire or other disaster. There are some companies out there that offer off-site hard disc space and software that instructs your computer to back up files automatically to their drive whenever you're off duty. Swapdrive is one, and Mac.com also offers the service.

Bruce

* A big fat lie. I get around to it when I think of it. Shameful.

[Deirdre]

Oh, backups, eh?

I have a way of condensing sessions by naming decent takes and blowing out the rest of the raw stuff-- somtimes labeling great cuts to be considered for future demos.
Burn to DVD and get rid of the disc file on the PowerBook.
I use Disk Tracker to keep an archive list of saved files.

I don't do this as often as I should, either.
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DBCooperVO.com

[Charlie Channel]

It's interesting you should ask.

I have been running "naked" for about 2 years now. I recently purchased a Maxtor USB 2.0 external drive for backup. 160 gig's. It came with backup application software.

I backed up the entire o/s and application drive, and the data drive. So, restore points have been created. In the event of a catastrophe, everything can be restored.

The application that came with the Maxtor drive is called "One Touch". It works as advertised. I can restore individual files or directories.

I've also burned some important production files to a DVD, and also CD's.

I have one stand-by computer, that's rather old and slow. However, it should work in the event I need to get something done.

To summmarize best practices: Keep you data on a separate drive from the O/S and Pro Tools application/plug-ins. The idea is to have no single point of failure, meaning that if your O/S and application die, you've still got content on a data drive, and vice versa.

Backup each drive using the utility that comes with your O/S and create restore points. Lastly, on a periodic basis, back up to create "new" restore points.

How long you wait to create restore points depends on how much time you can expend recreating what has been lost. Weekly or monthly or quarterly backups may serve you well.

I do it on about a yearly basis. Yea, I know ... I should probably do more, but ... like most I put it off thinking it -- the monster crash -- won't happen. But, like death and taxes, I know it will.

The cost of hard drives with a lot of capacity is fairly inexpensive. Think of how much it would cost to get a technician out to rebuild or repair a machine, not to mention the time it's going to take, versus $250 for an external hard drive on which you can archive your O/S and data, and you got the picture.

CC

CC

[kgenus]

My workstation has 3 drives broken out in the following order:

Drive 1: 40g Operating system
Drive 2: 40g Session drive
Drive 3: 250g Temp. storage drive

On Drive 1, the os, as and plugins are installed. I've got this drive Ghosted so I can quickly restore it (15 min) in the event of a failure. I keep a spare 40g drive in case the failure is hardware related. That's the only drive I backup. Sessions are backed up one by one to CD as needed, but I do go through a weekly cleanup on the Session Drive, moving things to temporary storage.

While hardware failures can not necessarily be tested but you can go through your recovery procedures to ensure they're adequate for your needs. You'll feel a whole lot better if you ever "HAVE" to go to through the process.

Kevin
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Genus

[kgenus]

Also, to follow on Charlie's words....

NexStar makes a 2.5" drive enclosures for laptop drives which costs $19. These enclosures work on USB power and support USB 2.0 and 1.1. Combined with a large drive (80g+), you can put together an excellent portable HD solution.
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Genus

[Philip Banks]

At 4am every Monday morning (as opposed to the other 4am) an armed SWAT team from the Portknockie Girl Scouts storm my house and drain off the contents of my hard drive, using a USB hose, into a white enamel bucket. They cycle off in the direction of Spey Bay to hide my archives in a secret location behind Dougie Hay's hen house.

Apart from a little spillage on the way, my stuff is fairly safe.

[Frank F]

I guess I am just a simple kind of old fogey... I have my "Studio/Recording" PC which has just under a terrabyte now - (I do video too, that's why the large amound of storage), my "connect to the net" and play PC, and I have my office/accounting/everything else PC.

Each has several HD's (external firewire/USB). The main PC HD is for programs, one external drive is for storage, and another is for additional storage when necessary - and downloads, etc. Each PC is connected via "sneaker net" (I know it's "old school", but it keeps my PC claen and working) not by a hardline infranet.

Yes, I often back up my files to DVD. Other than that... I do not have any special way to keep things working.

Frank F

[mcm]

My shut-down problem was easily cured, for the moment (I ran Spy-bot, Ad-Aware, and a System restore - don't know which one did the trick), but hope to get on the Empire Protection Plan rather than fall victim to the Arkansas Traveler Syndrome ("my roof never leaks when it doesn't rain").

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

[mcm]

I did fall prey to the Arkansas Traveller Syndrome, as it happens. My computer crashed yesterday, and after an hour on the phone with Dell I ended up taking the machine to the college computer store where I bought it. It was not a big deal at all, just a Windows blip and although I had not been able to boot from a CD, the tech could, and gave me a copy of the disk he used to do it. I lost no data

Even though, at the time I started this thread here, I bought myself a nice big external hard drive, and use it for running Audition, I STILL was not backed up. But I just learned that Windows XP has its own backup utility, which is really swell. You can back up in a number of ways, and you can even schedule the backups. So now I will mend my evil ways.

And, I bought a second computer so I will never be dead-in-the-water like I was for an entire 20 hours. And I won't ever have to kick the kids off of Empire Central again, because they won't be going near it again

[Frank F]

Empire Central and your second computer should do the trick - - for the most part. Consider this (now that you have "MCM 2) - Use the second computer as your internet computer. It is the only one which will EVER be hooked up to the internet.

"Sneaker-net" files from Empire Central to MCM 2 - i.e.: put files on a CD or other removable disc and walk over to Empire Central and plug it into the box... From Empire Central record files to a disc (they are so-o-o cheap these days) walk it over to MCM 2 and send files to your Client.

Warning: this may cause wear and tear on your carpet, shoes and feet - but your Empire Central will be protected from 90% of all internet invaders. :shock:

Good Luck with Empire Central...

Frank F

[mcm]

Frank, thanks for the suggestions! I will give that some thought.

There's a post script to all the above... my computer crashed again this afternoon - and I still had not backed up!!! Can you believe that? Another hour on the phone with the Dell tech and no success. I even unplugged my external HD to see if that was the problem. He ended up ordering me a new hard drive, with a technician to go with it (and the possibility of keeping the technician he said, when I asked about that :wink: )

Then after I hung up - Doh! - my son's iPod was looking me in the eye, still plugged in to one of the USB ports. I unplugged it, turned the computer on, and bingo. It was the freaking iPod the whole time!!!! It had been plugged in when this happened yesterday too. Its battery had completely run down and it was unresponsive too, and although I don't know exactly what evil it was wreaking on my system, it was definitely the culprit.

And, this Arkansas Traveler immediately backed up her entire hard drive, and lived happily ever after.

Until the next crisis

[allensco]

My system is used for internet and recording so I'm extra careful with what is installed on it. I use a plain-text email program that doesn't automatically open attachments, but rather stores them in a place I determine (the program is Eudora Pro v6). I use Firefox for my browser and am careful as to where it surfs. My wife and I are the only one's who use this system so it stays very clean. AVG anti-virus (free!) for keeping the bugs out. I honestly can't remember the last time this machine saw a virus of any kind. I don't run any programs that have hidden "piggy-back" programs (malware, etc). Only what I need to have is loaded.

Custom built computer: AMD Athlon 1.4 ghz / 1 gig RAM / 64 mb nVidia video card / Echo Mia-Midi audio card / Sony DVD/CD burner / 18' Microtek flat panel display.

OS=Windows 2000 SP4
Drive 1 = 80 gig with C and D partion. Partition C holds the OS and programs. Partition D holds the audio files. I keep audio backed up on DVD/RW when I think about it. If drive fails, I still have some, if not most of my files backed up. If OS partition get's hosed, I just reload the OS and proggies from cd's.
Drive 2 = 80 gig with Fedora Core 3 Linux installed.

** NOT a dual-boot setup. Had a bad experience with that a few years ago and keep the drives seperated because of it.