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CONTEST: who has the best, most efficient archiving, backup, and restore/reinstall workflow and would like to share it?
I’m in the midst of a full system reinstall, and just wanted to see if any of you can offer some better efficiency.
Currently, i do regular (daily/weekly) backups/clones of my system drive and media files, so i’m good there. But a question remains: if i’m regularly archiving stuff (this especially regarding system software), if there is a problem or corruption, it’s also copied to the archive, which makes the archive virtually useless, doesn’t it? So if i restored from the archive it seems i wouldn’t be ahead at all…though, of course, it’s always comforting to know i have a second copy of everything (yes, even corrupted files!) : )
So, this time i’m going to do the system software, make sure all the updates are also downloaded, then reinstall FCS3 on that same system drive, get all updates, then clone that drive and put it away for safe keeping. Then all my new utilities and apps i’ll save in my user folder and archive that as well. So in the event of major badness, i’ll just pop in the clone (sounds like a good sci-fi title) and be back on me feeties.
Anyone else?
p.s. i’m using Carbon Copy Cloner exclusively and never use Time Machine.
thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!) -
1 Reply
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I do the same thing and clone my system drive regularly using CCC and store it on a shelf. That way, if I need to, I can just pop the backup drive into the computer, reboot and I’m up and running in minutes. I’ve only lost a system drive once, but it saved the day. I shoot on P2 so I archive all of my contents folders on a separate drive and use that drive to Log and Transfer files for the actual project. I’ll end up with ProRes Quicktime movies for the edit on my RAID and the original contents info stored safely away on the shelf as well. If I need to reopen a project and I don’t have the Quicktime movies available, all I need to do is drop the archive drive into the reader, Log & Transfer the files and then just relink from the original project. Very quick and easy.
I have a low tech method for cataloging the files on the P2 backups. Once the drive is full, I open the drive up on the desktop to see all the files on it and then simply do a screen capture of the desktop. I keep that .tiff file in a folder on my desktop referencing the contents on all my archive drives for quick search if I need to find a file. I also print out the screen grabs and keep those folded up with the individual hard drives on the shelf.
I usually try to simply build the purchase of an archive hard drive into each larger project as part of the expense. Most clients are OK with that. If it’s a smaller project, I just have a drive that I add the files to in a mix ‘n match fashion. Once it’s reasonable full, it goes onto the shelf with the other drives. Those drives are simply looked at as a cost of doing business. Archive drives are very cheap insurance.E=MC2+/-2db
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