Acronis True Image Backup Practices-Need Advice

[JCWarrior]

When you back up your Protools sessions drive do you create a full backup the first time and then an incremental backup each time after?

Do you ever delete any of the prior backups?

I save my Protools sessions drive backups to another drive I keep my Reason files on along with other items like MP3’s. I assume when I backup this drive the Protools backups that were saved on this drive get backed up as well. How do you prevent this?

I save my system drive backups to the Protools sessions drive.

I’m noticing my drives getting large due to the backup files and I want to make sure I manage my backups the best way.

[spkguitar]

This is how I manage session files and backups on my studio rig:

Every session that gets worked on gets saved not only to the session drive, but to an external firewire drive when I close the session. That way I have immediate access to any sessions that I've been working on.

I have another external USB drive that I use specifically for backups. Each hard drive is backed up there initially, and then incremental backups are done weekly. Every time a backup is made, initial or incremental, backups are also made to DVD as well. Those DVD backups are taken offsite (I store mine at a relative's house)

Once every two months, new full backups are made to the external drive, and the old ones are discarded.

So in short:

DAILY: straight "Save Copy In" to external drive
WEEKLY: incremental true image backup to USB drive, full true image DVD backup for offsite storage
BI-MONTHLY: full true image backup to USB drive, full true image DVD backup for offsite storage

It's a little anal, and takes some time, but has saved my skin on more than one occasion.

For my laptop rig, sessions are done on the same firewire external as above, and then copied to the studio rig when moved back into the studio. This is the weak link in my backup chain. If I'm on the road away from the studio for any length of time, backups of the firewire drive are made to DVD.

My methods certainly won't work for everybody, but I would definitely recommend a regular backup schedule in one form or another for EVERYBODY. Disk images of a working system drive are VITAL. Backups to CD or DVD are recommended (especially in your case where you are running out of disk space).

There is a very old saying in computer circles that applies in this case; if it doesn't exist in at least 3 places, then it doesn't exist.

I also highly recommend verifying the true image backups on creation.

[WilliamDC]

This is what I do...

Now, they say that it's not truly backed up unless the data is saved in 3 places. Now, all of the sessions that I do are recorded on an internal audio drive or an external firewire drive that I have. I have a separate machine that acts as a server and it has 2 x 250gb hard drives for data. Every time I work on something, it gets copied to one of those hard drives. The 2nd hard drive in that machine is a backup of the first (I have it set to automatically back it up at periodic times). When project is done, I usually move the data to DVDs and put them in storage.

Eventually my setup is going to change since I recently acquired a very high quality blade server that has raid functionality and hot swappable drives. For me, this kind of set up is the quickest way to keep your data backed up. Also, it gives you the ability to access your backups at a moments notice without having to plug in an external drive or pop in a CD/DVD.

[JCWarrior]

This is how I manage session files and backups on my studio rig:

Every session that gets worked on gets saved not only to the session drive, but to an external firewire drive when I close the session. That way I have immediate access to any sessions that I've been working on.

I have another external USB drive that I use specifically for backups. Each hard drive is backed up there initially, and then incremental backups are done weekly. Every time a backup is made, initial or incremental, backups are also made to DVD as well. Those DVD backups are taken offsite (I store mine at a relative's house)

When you do these backups do you delete any of the old incrementals or do they need to remain until the next full backup?

Once every two months, new full backups are made to the external drive, and the old ones are discarded.

So in short:

DAILY: straight "Save Copy In" to external drive
WEEKLY: incremental true image backup to USB drive, full true image DVD backup for offsite storage
BI-MONTHLY: full true image backup to USB drive, full true image DVD backup for offsite storage

It's a little anal, and takes some time, but has saved my skin on more than one occasion.

For my laptop rig, sessions are done on the same firewire external as above, and then copied to the studio rig when moved back into the studio. This is the weak link in my backup chain. If I'm on the road away from the studio for any length of time, backups of the firewire drive are made to DVD.

My methods certainly won't work for everybody, but I would definitely recommend a regular backup schedule in one form or another for EVERYBODY. Disk images of a working system drive are VITAL. Backups to CD or DVD are recommended (especially in your case where you are running out of disk space).

There is a very old saying in computer circles that applies in this case; if it doesn't exist in at least 3 places, then it doesn't exist.

I also highly recommend verifying the true image backups on creation.

Can I ask how you verify the true image backups?

To be honest, I wasn't sure what I would do if my system had an issue and I ghad to use my backups to restore it. I'm so green at this.

[hoodbro1]

Can I ask how you verify the true image backups?

Jeff,
You will find the verify setting in the options list, along with compression, etc...I advice to have it on!

good luck,
hb

[spkguitar]

When you do these backups do you delete any of the old incrementals or do they need to remain until the next full backup?

The definition of incremental, pretty much says it all. It only backs up what has changed since the last backup; in increments. If you delete any of the increments, then that piece would be missing from the whole entire backup, understand? So to answer your question; all incrementals need to remain unless and untill you do another full backup.

Can I ask how you verify the true image backups?

Its an option on the tools menu; "Check Archive".

[hoodbro1]

haha.beat my cowboy bro thiz time
greeting from russia

rezpekt
hb

[spkguitar]

Also, as "hidden" Andrew mentioned ( ), you can set it to "Check created backup archive file when its creation is complete". This is what I was referring to, but you should check all the old ones like I mentioned above if they weren't checked on creation.

[JCWarrior]

I see. This would eliminate the need for a boot disk wouldn't it?

May I impose on you a little longer and ask what the procedure would be if a disk had problems and/or you had to use a your back up?

[hoodbro1]

Jeff,
what the procedure would be if a disk had problems and/or you had to use a your back up?
> The sad and unfortunate truth is..that is a valid possibility. It has happened to me before
OK, the important thing is to have your "secure zone" on a completely different drive. Because..if the backed up volume fails that is usually the end of the data on it. You wouldn't want the backup on that very same drive.
Get the drive replaced, and restore the original image from the secure zone. It will allow you to format, and set up a a primary and active boot partition again.
Scary it sounds, but easy and painless. In my case it was done in about 12 minutes.

best of luck,
hb