Backing Up External HD Data

[Fabulousamelie]

Hello Tek-Tip folks,

The last time I posted, I was having a few teething problems with my external hard-drive. Pleased to say those issues were resolved. However, a new dilemma's presented itself...

After capturing lots of DV footage into an Adobe Premiere project and saving that project on the external hard-drive, I woke up to find the project couldn't be accessed (a window popped up saying "Project Damaged"). Luckily, I salvaged all the clips by just importing them from the main Adobe folder into a new project, but the short edited sequence of clips on the timeline (I'm editing a featur/ette film) was irretrievable.

Obviously, I'd like to safeguard against losing any longer edited sequences, so I was wondering how to go about backing up projects on the drive so as to restore them should anything of the nature arise.

Lacie has some back-up software, yet I'm unsure as to how the back-up and restore process would operate. From choices available, it appears it'll only let me back-up the Adobe Premiere project onto the D drive (the Recovery drive) of my original hard-drive, which only has 1.69 GB of free space and a total capacity of 5.98GB. I'm doubtful this would be enough space to store the project. I tried selecting the E Drive as a back-up destination (hoping to back-up onto a series of blank CDs), but the software wouldn't have it. It seems I'm stuck with the D drive.

I'd be really grateful for any advice. The last thing I'd want, having managed to edit the film glitch-free, would be to turn on the computer, see that dreaded "Project Damaged" window, and have to start again from scratch.

 

[wahnula]

my original hard-drive, which only has 1.69 GB of free space and a total capacity of 5.98GB.

Is this just the recovery partition or the entire drive? You should be able to write to CD-RW's if you have packet-writing software installed, like Nero's InCD, and use CD-RWs.

One recommendation I can offer would be to clone the existing boot drive to a larger drive using Ghost or Acronis, then replace the smaller boot drive. You would then have TWO repositories, one on the main PC and another on the external drive. You should NEVER count on a single drive, especially in this age of super-cheap enormous drives.

Then for backup software, you can use just about anything, like the LaCie program or SyncBack SE. Cloning a drive is super easy and most hard-drive manufacturers have their own free utility to replace the boot drive. You should always save the project first to the resident internal drive and then back it up to the external.

If you keep your present layout, you should get a second external drive for backup.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Fabulousamelie]

Thanks, Tony.

I think it's the recovery partition that only maxes 5.98GB. Mind you, the C drive hasn't much space on it either – hence me getting the external drive recently.

Is Nero's InCD a freeware program? I'd like to try the CDRW approach. I have Sonic Digital Media Home. Would that be any use instead of the Nero one?

Also wondering how restoring a project works. Presuming I'd just put the first CD in the drive and it'd load up a window that says "Where would you like to restore this project?" or something, and then it'd tell me to insert each consecutive CD at intervals until it's restored at the destination I've selected. Is that pretty much the gist?

:>)

 

[Freestone]

How large is one of your typical projects? A CD holds about 700MB each. Will that be sufficient?

 

[wahnula]

From Sonic's website:

Packet Writing Utility: A packet writing utility, such as Sonic’s DLA, allows users to drag-and-drop files from the hard drive to the CD or DVD recorder as easily as they would to a floppy disc. Files can be saved directly to the CD or DVD recorder from within many Windows applications.

From:

http://patches.sonic.com/kbdocs/Glossary.htm

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Fabulousamelie]

The project's currently 2.14 MB. That's just with maybe a third of the clips I intend to capture and no edited sequence. Once editing begins, I'll be backing up the project at regular intervals. Looks like I'll probably be able to do this without using lots of CDs judging by the current 2.14MB/700MB ratio. I'll have a look at functions in the Sonic package and see what's what. Cheers, guys :>)

 

[G0AOZ]

2.14 MB looks pretty small. Do you mean 2.14 GB (Gigabytes)?? Rather than juggle with a few CD's, I'd go for a DVD (assuming you have a DVD drive!) which would give you upto 4.7 GB on one disk...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[Fabulousamelie]

It does seem small. There are 277 AVI clips captured into the project in question; the largest of which being 1.59GB, and yet clicking over the icon for the whole project shows "Size: 2.14MB". The individual clips are often larger than the project containing them all. Can anyone shed any light on this? I was thinking Adobe Premiere might condense clips within a project until they're rendered or something.

Looks like Sonic is of use. I saved a test project via burning it onto a data disc, then erased the original test project from the external drive, and then copied and pasted it back onto the drive using the data disc.

 

[wahnula]

Excellent! Spooling off DVDs periodically is an excellent durable form of backup, and they are easy to store offsite too if need be. Remember the three most important words: BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!!!

Tony

Users helping Users...