best way to archive/backup projects?
 

I have been using DVD-R to backup all of my projects. THat has been going fine, but recently I had to retrieve a PT session and files and the mac said my DVD was damaged. I was HOSED! The DVD was lovingly stored and had no visible scratches or anything of that sort. I also verified after the burn, which was a few months back. The only thing I did that may have contributed to the problem was put a label on it (the basic paper kind).

I am now doubting this method for archival, so I'd like to know if any of you have other recommendations. I am leaning toward firewire tape backup. Thoughts?

thanks!

cs

Re: best way to archive/backup projects?
 

Whatever method you use.. unless you back up at least in duplicate.. you haven't backed up at all.

I personally use Retrospect and DDS4.. and always make an A and B backup set.

Rail

Re: best way to archive/backup projects?
 

AIT 2, AIT 3 but it's $ very $ is the standard, but many use DDS 4, all work great, most perople use either mezzo or retrospec to back up, both can be bought in a firewire config but SCSI is the faster domain. Unless you have USB2 or Firewire 800. can you say G 5 With the price of firwire IDE drives it is a very inexpincive way to back up files. Buy a 120 gig and partition it into 2 60 and drag and drop. Good Luck [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

Re: best way to archive/backup projects?
 

yeah, I should have mentioned that I do a retrospect nightly to firewire drives, so I have short-term backup solved. But anything more than a few months back is archived. I'm thinking the firewire approach is the way to go, because, as you state, they are quite cheap now. I'll look into DDS though.

Thanks for the tips dudes!

cs

Re: best way to archive/backup projects?
 

DVD-R is fine for backup, but unless you verify it in either Retrospect or Toast, and do a duplicate, the media can be anything and fail.

Re: best way to archive/backup projects?
 

I would continue backing up to your DVD and also get a pair of 100Gig Firewire drives.

When you fill them up, buy 2 more.

Bring the DVD's one of the firewire drives home with you so they are stored in different places.

Buy an extra internal drive and backup there too.

Re: best way to archive/backup projects?
 

well, I've got either really good news or really bad news, depending on the final outcome. I have checked a bunch of my DVD backups and they either won't mount at all, or are extremely sluggish with many errors. Many of these backups I verified. I really think it's a case of a failing superdrive at this point.


thanks again for your ideas.

cs

Re: best way to archive/backup projects?
 

When burning DVDs with Toast, don't choose DVD. Burn it as if you were making a CD. This will result in faster restore times when you need to restore. Perhaps your discs aren't hosed but its taking forever to read the UDF file system?

And whoever said that you don't have a backup unless you have two copies is correct. If you only have one copy, its an archive.