Hey, I just got back from a gig yesterday, where my laptop was misplaced for 12 hours and I almost accepted the fact that it is stolen.
During that time I already had thought about where I could get a new laptop, where I could get back my music (I had some backups done months ago, but definitely not everything I need) - basically I got a life lesson and a serious one.
Now, when I got my laptop back, I decided that, even though I hope this kind of thing never happens before, I need to be prepared.
Tomorrow I’m buying a 3.5"" external 2TB hard-drive to keep always on my computer and have it be a 1-on-1 replica of my laptops HDD.
This is my question - suggest me good Shadow Copy programs, that stay in the background, don’t use much resource and are easy to use. I want to plug my HDD in my computer maybe once a week, to make a copy of it, but I want it to be automatic
Acronis is a pretty nice backup package, if you want to be cheap you can alw always do copy and paste or drag and drop. Thanks for reminding me I need to do my own backup of my Tracktor files and backup my music. Also keep a copy of your backup off site.
I use Windows. I use Acrinos True Image to backup, and Rich Copy to sync.
I have a modest C: drive with the OS & all applications. I think it’s 20GB with Win7. This gets backed up only when I update or install something new. I typically backup the C: partition every couple of months. I keep the backup on a USB drive, and with a bootable CD I can restore the C: drive to the backup’d state in about 15 minutes. It’s great in case you happen to get a virus.
The bulk of the space is on the D: drive. That is where the music (and other stuff) sits. It took some doing to get Traktor, Ableton, etc to keep “all” their files on the remote drive. This gets sync’d to an external drive whenever I do something “interesting.” I will sync every week or so, and let it go overnight. The sync takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours, depending on how much stuff has changed, and if I am just doing a “copy and replace” instead of an “update.”
I have two “identical” laptops. I actually tested the “restore the C:” at a gig. I went to boot the laptop at my normal spot in the setup, and instead restored it from the media. I was able to DJ off that laptop without any hickups. I think I had to re-do the audio routing, and that was it.
Assumming you are on Windows +1 for Acronis, never had any weird blue screen or licensing issues when transferring backups between differently spec’d machines, however you will want the premium edition in the case you need to restore to a new computer.
