Semi OT: Logical File Structure for Backup

[J. Dan]

I'm talking ALL backup, not just music related, and not simply doing a compressed backup of a drive. I've been in the process of pulling drives from multiple computers as well as files of iTunes/iPad/iPhone and wanting to put it all together on a singe external 1TB drive. I have space, that's not an issue. I've found after backing up many times over the years some files exist may times in different folders, backups of USB sticks, saved back onto another drive......lots of cleanup needed.

 

At first, it makes sense to group bay pictures, videos, documents, etc. And then maybe categorize by band, date, work, personal, etc....but many files don't fall into that hierarchy. I have files for programs I don't have anymore but some of the library files would still work - like a video program project file might not work without the program, but the VOB files could still be imported or burned to a DVD. I have Microsoft Visual Studio Projects and well as Adobe Dreamweaver Projects, where the project files themselves might not work, but there are plenty of files like html, js, css, etc that are still good and contain libraries of my work.

 

Struggling to come up with a single hierarchy and combine within that structure while eliminating duplicates, keeping the best version, etc. Ideas? So far it's been extremely tedious and time consuming!

[mate stubb]

My attempts to do this always devolve into:

 

-backups DD-MM-YYYY

--computer 1

----unorganized crap

--computer 2

----more unorganized crap

--computer 3

----I'm never gonna use any of this ever again

 

etc.

[timwat]

On Mac there are applications like Omnidisksweeper and Duplicate File Finder to at least identify candidates for clean up. Surely there must be similar for Windows?

[J. Dan]

So Tim, I'm combining files from 2 different PC's, a MBP, and backups I did of my old iPad and iPhone before I lost my job.

[timwat]

And is your destination Win or Mac?

 

I have the same kinds of issues - a 2TB drive I use for Time Machine, and several HD I've accumulated with data, some of it redundant and duplicated. I ended up consolidating everything onto a single big drive, but just put segregated them into big folders named for the HD they came from. Pretty darn crude and inelegant.

 

I've yet to use the tools to filter through the chaff and duplicates because, well, real life and all.

 

But my first experience was using Dupin to get rid the inevitable iTunes duplicates, and then that led me to Omnidisksweeper to identify oversized files that were candidates for deletion, and then I got bored and distracted by more important things.

 

Bottom line for me is storage got cheap enough so I just put it all in the sock drawer and forget about it. Until I have to wade through the clutter to find that file I need.

[J. Dan]

Destination is Windows.

 

I will back up my phone to my old 2009 MacBook Pro on an ongoing basis as those will also share iCloud - but as I shared on a recent post, my old MBP will not allow me to change my apple ID from my old work email that I don't have to the new one. I went online to try to do it from there and it warned me that it would wipe the contents of my macbook, so I want to make sure it's all backed up on the same external hard drive first and not rely on iCloud in case it goes horribly wrong.

 

So this is a bit of a hybrid situation but the only INTENDED use of the MBP was to run my Presonus digital mixer and record band practice. Everything else is intended to be PC moving forward.

[David Emm]

I wish I could be of more help. At my appointed backups, I always include a folder that's my drop for wallpaper, a few sick videos and numerous graphics far worse than your avatar. Its several generations old and even when I vacuum it out, its still a staggering thing of lite horror. A search for an item requires a cup of coffee; it'll be a while.

 

I also keep my last Mac on hand as a vintage safety vault, because it contains a few old music pieces I'm slowly stemming. Most of the sound data is WAV/SFZ, so I've never been more than a few hours (okay, 3 days) away from my next Mac being musical again. I look on it as a fantastic music studio with a pesky typewriter built-in anyway. I also appreciate how easy its been to upgrade my key 3rd-party instruments, such as M-Tron.

 

Those of you who live in two or more OSs are higher forms of life. I nearly became a clear & present danger to the public when I exited Windows 98 and took up my first PowerMac. The switch from abstract Chaos to actual Order was a revelation. Now, I *almost* feel semi-secure. There's nothing like having 6 backups of Everything on CDs & multi-GB flash drives to help you sleep at night.

[J. Dan]

As I've been going through this tedious process and moving things around and around, I've come to the conclusion that duplicates are unavoidable.

 

Examples:

 

I have a collection of raw wav's from a band rehearsal saved in a folder of band rehearsals by date. When I load them into my DAW and create a project to do a mix down and send out, it creates a folder for the project where it duplicates the wav's in the project folder. Technically, once it's there I could delete the originals, but that's not where I would necessarily look for them, yet if I only keep the original, the project file would't work because the links would be broken.

 

More so with my Web projects whether MS Visual Studio or Adobe Dreamweaver, or just backing up a web server. If I wanted to re-deploy a web site I backed up, file structure matters. So I can't just have pictures in a picture library, and mp3's in an audio library, I have to have the site saved with files in folders referenced to the root, or else it's a bunch of work to reconstruct the whole thing.

 

Photos. Wow. That in and of itself is a chore and I may consider posting something just about this on the photography forum because I wonder what our brethren like KenElevenShadows do with all the pictures they take. For myself, I'm thinking major folders of Band, Kids, Work, Social, Misc. Within band would have a folder for each band I've been in, within each of those would have Live vs Session (unless somebody has a better name - meaning pics we posed for).

 

The same can fall into the audio category for bands. But then it gets confusing between what is or is not in my iTunes library and I tried to backup iTunes from my macbook maintaining file structure in case I had to recover but honestly, I have no idea how it works to recover a total loss in iTunes so I don't even know if what I'm doing is worth anything. I have a ton of other audio including obviously sessions, mix downs, individual tracks, etc...I have to find a way to store that in a meaningful way.

 

I think you guys are hung up on some software backup solution. I'm not asking for that. I'lm trying to figure out a logical way to organize all my files from multiple sources.