Western Digital My Book Studio 2 - Is It A Good Storage/Backup Option?

[iWonder]

Hi All,

 

I've just got my first music server up and running (iMac/iTunes/Pure Music). As a newbie to computer audio, I need some tips about setting up my storage and backup. I don't want to spend too much at this stage so the Western Digital My Book Studio 2 with Raid capability seems like really good value but is it a good option?

 

I assume that it's best to shift my music from my iMac to the external drive and configure it as a Raid 1 mirrored solution. My 680 cd's are also backed up in Apple Lossless on my iPod Classics and I also have the cd's so I figure all of that is sufficient backup. I welcome any feedback and thanks in advance.

 

[mwheelerk]

I use the WD hard drives and find them to do the job just fine. I house my library on one WD HD and use another to back up that drive and still a third portable WD HD that I use weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on the work I have done on the library and keep it in a firesafe.

 

Having your CDs is certainly a back up but having to re-rip those CDs would be a time consuming pain and early on I had to retrieve a library from my iPod and a lot of information (tags) were lost. I would have not only a back up but a redundant back up solution with external hard drives or other.

 

[desbiss]

I just purchased a WD My Passport Essential 500 GB portable hard drive that will be used as a backup of my music library. My preference is that, whenever I do a periodic backup to this portable drive, only new or changed files will be loaded onto it... then the drive will go back into a firesafe...

 

The drive's packaging indicates that it needs to be reformatted for use with a Mac. What is the best way of formatting this portable drive for the purpose at hand...?

 

I presume it's in my favour to back up more than the actual audio files... IE: my entire iTunes folder...

My hope is that the backup will have all my tag info, playlists, etc in addition to the exact same quality audio files that reside on my Mac mini.

 

Des

 

 

 

[mwheelerk]

Two things. First, I bought the WD drives at The Apple Store and Best Buy already formatted for MAC so I have never had to deal with that. The Apple Store carries more of a selection (obviously) than Best Buy that are pre-formatted and BB did not have the portable version pre-formatted. Second when I reconnect the portable drive and using Time Machine as my back up tool in System Preferences and Time Machine I simply choose to exclude the current primary back up HD (no need to back up the back up) and only back up the main library. Time Machine only backs up the incremental changes since my last back up to the portable drive. I don’t remember having to change any thing for this to occur and I have checked and verified the contents of the drive on several occassions that only the incremental changes have been backed up and it is always the case. It has worked flawlessly for me.

 

[desbiss]

Thanks!

 

Turns out it was ridiculously easy to format the drive for Mac. I used disk utility and had the drive up and running in no time.

 

This drive remains in a fire safe and is only pulled out when an incremental backup is needed. Using Super Duper, all I have to do is plug it in to my mini and a pre-defined backup script is automatically executed. Works real handy.

 

Des