How to Backup Pro Tools to save all Settings and Plugins

[Dolphineas]

Hello all,

I had a computer catastrophe in December. I did a Windows Update and the update wiped out my computer. I thought the hard drive was dead, but it turned out to be ok. In any case, I had backups of all my session files and audio, but no backups of plugins, Pro tools settings, any of my favorites in Amplitube, and so forth. It would've been nice to have all of that stuff, but it was all gone.

My question: How does one back everything up so that, if the hard drive dies, everything can just be reinstalled? Is this just as simple as making a backup system image? Or is there something else that I need to do?

Thank you.

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by Dolphineas

Is this just as simple as making a backup system image?

That's about the best way I can think of recovering everything without having to reinstall it all.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by cwsand

That's about the best way I can think of recovering everything without having to reinstall it all.

Yes, that.

[The Weed]

On Windows I use Macrium Reflect. It's worth every penny of its cost. I do a full image of my OS drive and Audio drive nightly, keeping a rolling 3 images. In Macrium Reflect you can make a backup description and place an icon on the Taskbar to start the backup. My Audio drive backup deletes the oldest Audio Drive image, then creates a new image and sends me an email about success or failure. My OS backup deletes the oldest OS image, creates a new image, and sends me an email about success or failure, then shuts the computer down. In the paid version of Macrium Reflect I really appreciate Image Guardian, which locks the image against Ransomware.

I've successfully installed new OS and Audio drives simply by replacing a drive, booting into the Macrium Recovery screen (opens before Windows) and restoring an image to the drive.

The only things lost when restoring an image is anything done after the last image. Also, you can "time travel" with any image, because you can mount an image as a drive, search it and copy off files and folders that you may have deleted, but want back.

Macrium Reflect is not the only imaging and cloning program available, but, back when I wanted to replace Acronis, which had been dumbed down so much I found it not too useful, Macrium was the best I found at the time I was researching a backup replacement.

Of course you can also just copy sessions to a backup drive or do a "Save Copy In" checking the parameters you want to keep, to a back up drive or zip either of the foregoing and upload the zip to a cloud storage. However, no backup is secure unless it's in 3 separate places, preferably far apart.

As always, YMMV.

[Dolphineas]

Thanks so much for all of this everyone. Really helpful!