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Well, it happened with me, one of my HH of my DAW, or as they call it “music server”, went down. It does not recognize by BIOS anymore, suck, it would be costly to recover data from there. Partially the most important files from there were backed but not the recent files. Anyhow, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about allocation of the files on music file server and the backup strategy.

I have a machine that I custom built with 3GHz, 4G memory, 4 IDE and 6 SATA terminals, external fanless PS and fanless cooling. The machine runs Lynx 16 interface to my external DACs and ADCs. It is Windows XP/II. The box has ONLY my recording and conversion software installed and the Windows serviced are optimized do not do a lot of other tasks. It is a simple mashie but it does the job very well. I decided do not go for RAID arrays or NAS drives in past, primary because the cost, having an ability to pile up 9 HH in the computer box I figures it would be enough. Right I was or wrong it hard to say…

I have 8 HH installed in the DAW - 3 IDE and 3 SATA. All of them regular 7800RPM. The files hold 99% of my own WAV and .64 files, mostly FM recordings. I have only 2 CD copied to my DAW. After many different configurations I found a partition strategy that makes the drivers to be filled with more or less similar speed – the key was how to slice the larger orchestral drive

1)      System Drive of 70G – just operation system and support -20% filled
2)      Chamber Drive 500G  – 50% filled
3)      Recording Drive 100G – the drive to which I record and it has a lot of files that did not save yet or will not save – 40% filled
4)      Orchestral Drive 750G - 99% filled
5)      Second Orchestral Drive 1T – a new drive -5% filled
6)      Opera Drive 1T - 60% filled
7)      Concerto Drive 1T – this is a extract from Orchestral  drive - 60% filled
8)      Best Recordings Drive 750G – best recording from all drive or… backup -70% filled

Since there was a lot of drivers in my PC to shutdown the power to the drives while they are not used. I think this did screw up one of my dives that went down – I presume the driver does not want to start and stop…

So, having around 3T of musk I wonder how can I back up my drivers in order to keep the backup comfortable and cost effective? A tape might be a solution but it sound like obsolete solution.  I might get NAS array and dump files in there but it sound to me a bit too self-obsessed. I have a few extra mashies to which I can install a few large drives and to copy the files to and then show down the machines… I do not know it sound to me also as “too big” solution that also doubles the recourses allocated to DAW. Are any alternatives?

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