Have you done a backup recently?

[firedog]

make copy of all new music files to one backup usb drive on my system- an ongoing incrmental full backup; weekly full clone to an additional USB drive of my main, fully tended music library. That one's kept in "fireproof" box.

[firedog]

1 hour ago, Bob Stern said:

 

A big question with any online backup service is whether they'll still be in business when you need to retrieve your backup.

Sure. Which means you still need to have other alternative backups.

So if you go that route, you have to monitor it and get a new service as soon as the previous one goes belly up. 

The outlay for some of them is modest, so you might lose $50 if one of them goes away. 

[firedog]

2 minutes ago, mordante said:

I rip my CDs to my NAS and have some downloads as well. But I'm not sure what the best way is to make a back-up.  There are cloud storage options. But most are based in the US but I don't trust US based network storage. I'd prefer a Dutch or at least EU facility.

 

But maybe just buying a external HDD and storing it at a friends place is safer and easier compare to web/cloud storage.

I know one person who alternates between drives bi-weekly or monthly. The one not being used is in a bank vault. 

I don't have a nearby bank and am cheap, so I backup weekly and keep the backup drive in a "fireproof" box.

[firedog]

5 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

It may be cheating, but I have TWO drives in my server, each of them are identical and contain identical data. Only one is in use at any given time so if one fails, I can switch to the other one easily and continue listening to music until I get a replacement, then that becomes the #2 drive. Having a good and recent Roon backup helps too.

That's a good idea, but I'd always want to have abackup drive that's not in my server -just in case there is some catastrophy with the server. Ideally off site, but if that isn't possible then in a fireproof safe or some similar place.

[firedog]

5 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Oh boy do I...  Lets see I have the master here in my desktop, that syncs to the two drives in the server and to my NAS, which is both fire and waterproof. That backs up to an identical NAS at my brothers house. The most likely failure is a HDD, that I can recover from in seconds and be back to playing music. The other methods take consecutively more time. If I lose all backups, my music collection will be the least of my problems.

Okay, you got me.

I don't have a nearby bank, but if I did I'd keep a copy in a safe deposit box and switch it with an updated copy once every two weeks or a month.

I'm hoping one of these days cloud based storage is cheap enough that I can put a copy in the cloud. All the relatively reasonable alternatives I've found seem to be quite expensive.