We keep our music stored in iTunes and recently had a scare with a computer whose hard drive we thought was fried. Luckily we were able to salvage the hard drive and everything on it, but I'm thinking now might be the time to back up our extensive music collection. What's the best way to do this?
gofar99 Messages: 1950 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
I use external USB drives (a 1 TB drive is now well under $100). I use two per PC and alternate them. I back up about every two weeks. You can use a longer time period....but there is more risk. Not only drive failure, but hacking. Many of the external USB drives come with a version of Acronis. A very good program. I just let it clone the drive. It takes a long time if the drive has lots of stuff on it and I will start the back up at bedtime and let it rip (can be 3-5 hours on occasion). Then if something goes wrong the USB drive can actually be either subbed for the real one or used to make a clone back to the other drive or a new drive. Alternatively you can get an inexpensive external drive dock (about $25) and use bare 2.5 and 3.5 inch SATA drives. The 3.5s are really cheap now. A 1 TB drive is usually about $60. If your main drive gets corrupted or damaged the bare drive can just plug right in the PC in its place.
We have 1 laptop and 3 PCs and there is no way I would not back them all up regularly. Not to do so is like playing Russian Roulette with 5 of the 6 cylinders loaded. It is only a matter of time before something goes wrong with the main drive.
audiophile88 Messages: 30 Registered: September 2014 Location: USA
Baron
I second the vote for an external hard drive. They're a way better deal in the long run than subscription based services, plus you have them in your hands at all times.
Thanks for the advice. I haven't looked at USB drives in a long time so I had no idea you could get them as large as 1 TB. I wouldn't even need that much space; I think my hard drive is only 500 gigs.
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