Backing up session

[gallinger]

I am trying to figure out how to make pro tools automaticly do back ups to a external hard drive, but keep origional files on internal hard drive. so then ill have my files on 2 hard drives incase one hard drive crashes. any idea how to do so? thank you so much

[Paul Cavins]

Actually, it is best that you record to your external drive, assuming that it is capable (FW 7200rpm 911 Oxford bridge). It is not so good to record to the drive on which your operating system is located.

As for backing up, I'm not aware of any Pro Tools capability in that regard. I would suggest investing in a back up program. I use Data Backup by Prosoft, which I think is simple and works well. I think it costs about $60, but I don't really remember.

IT IS VERY MUCH WORTH IT IF NOT MANDATORY TO PUT SERIOUS INVESTMENT INTO A GOOD BACK-UP PLAN.

If your work is important, it is worth doing data backup in a serious fashion.

Maybe you could configure your setup so that you record to the external drive and then backup to the internal drive.

Anyhoo, you will probably get advice from more knowledgeable people than me.

PC

[req06]

I use retrospect lite by dantz, its an excellent piece of software and once you set it up is really easy to perform incremental backups, like at lucnhbreaks, tea breaks, end of session etc, it'll just update what you haven't backed up to the backup folder.

As the last reply said its well worth investing in backup strategy and also go about naming your tracks properly as two months/years down the line you may have to revisit sessions. I sometimes make use of the comments boxes to make notes of some level rides i was thinking of, lyrics, ideas etc.

Also I support the last post. Get yourself and external fw800 drive, record to that and backup to your internal drive, ideally get another external drive again to copy your backups to that as well, so you'll have the bkps in 2 places.

cheers

[Keniko]

If your computer has a DVD drive, I reccommend backing up your sessions on RW-DVD's. This works great for me and is cost effective. Also, the cost of external hard drives are to a point were you can have your recording drive and say, a 250gig Drive(or smaller) just for back up.

I agree, "HAVING A BACK UP PLAN IS ESSENTIAL AND MANDATORY. PREIOD !!!!"