BACKUP YOUR FILES! (A Gruesome Tale Of Loss)

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#12

this.

Not to make anyone gassy, but I just recently picked up the RME UCX II, which features DuRec. For those who aren’t acquainted, it lets me plug-in a USB drive directly into the audio interface and record any or all inputs or outputs into separate files, standalone or not. I just stared using it as such while I sound design, compose, jam etc. It’s been pretty great!

The files are named after whatever you’ve named the tracks in TotalMix FX (RME’s software mixer). I suppose it can get kind of messy if careless, but having some recordings can be preferable to having nothing after all.

Edit: since I have Expert Sleepers ES-8 connected via ADAT, I suppose I could even make recordings of the CV from my Eurorack. I haven’t tried that yet though.

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#13

yep, just as simple as copying and pasting to your computer.

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#14

This :point_up_2:Then hopefully there is still a chance to recover some of the projects…. :crossed_fingers:

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#15

Another one, save your parts and projects often. I wasted a whole night by accidentally slightly slipping off the FUNC button and onto the Cue button (which then reloaded the part back to the beginning of the project) :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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#16

Are parts saved when the project is saved, or do you have to save them separately?

#17

I’m really not sure. Save both to be on the safe side

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#18

https://bvckup2.com/ is a great software for automatic backups with regular computer drives, if you’ve got a lot of them.

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#19

Yes, if the file tables have just been overwritten it is potentially possible to recover using off the shelf software.

https://www.r-undelete.com/

I’ve used R-Studio in the past for recovery and bought a license, seems that their FAT32 restoration may be free!

Edit: May be obvious but ensure you’re not copying the recovered files to the same drive :wink:

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#20

wise werds I learned MANY MANY moons ago using 3DSMax 2.0 [buggy as fuck]…

“SAVE SMART, SAVE OFTEN”
max had the uncanny ability to corrupt files, AND ten of the files in your recently opened cue. it was truly amazing, thanks to a conflict with autosave and the license dongle. [yes dongle]

its extra easy when you can do it via USB as well. SO DO IT! :slight_smile: [re: OT]

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#21

oh man this one kills me… i have crashed and burned at numerous shows due to this!

Edit: i think my approach to prevent this will be to actually use this function! it’s a nice feature and can be really useful… but i rarely use it which is why i make this mistake - it’s not in the forefront of my mind…

although now that i compulsively save parts every 2 minutes it should be an easy transition!

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#22

I lost a couple years of work due to a hardrive failure as well. It was fairly new and I was using it to transfer and backup stuff and it just died. It was a long time ago.

Since then I back up stuff to a separate hard drive and make sure it’s in 2 places at all times.

I also started exporting audio stems of everything near the end of track. I burn all files and any related data to a DVD as an additional backup.

I was thinking of having 2 DVD’s as well so that I could keep a second one somewhere else in case my house burns down or falls into an abyss.

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#23

Yeah it’s indeed the best thing to do. I have 1 continuous cloud backup (backblaze) of everything. It’s cheap for unlimited storage. Only downside being that drives it backs up need to be seen within 30 days.

I then have a 2tb hd that’s now full and will be stored somewhere in the house. I’ll buy a new one for backup purposes. To make sure the backup in the cloud of that doesn’t get lost, I use a second, directly available cloud backup where a back that drive up to.

Don’t have a DVD player anymore but for audio that’s handy indeed. For video projects not so much haha. I even considered tape storage but my projects aren’t that big. It’s a fairly cheap option though and a bit unknown. Would only use that if I worked in cinema though

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#24

Bvckup can also copy to local and cloud drives simultaneously.

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#25

Depending on how you’re working it can be safer not to save parts. Once you do, that ‘reload’ function becomes a threat to your current settings. No part save, no threat.

(That post has some other summaries of the save conditions)

I prefer to copy important parts into another bank as backups.

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#26

this sounds like a death in the family

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#27

It was at the time for sure :frowning:

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#28

Does anyone know of a proper way to rename Sets on the OT?

I have many Sets stored on the OT that have names that don’t make much sense at first glance; so I’m looking to go in there and rename most of them for easy ID’ing. (They are all regular character names, no å’s n such)

I’m a bit cautious now with all this talk about corruption… so I thought I’d be wise to ask.

#29

OctaEdit - Octatrack Software Editor and Librarian [ OSX / Windows ] ?

The file system on the OT seems pretty flat though, do just make sure you back up from time to time.

#30

Feel you Bro. Lost everything I did on my M:C.

#31

I actually wrote another little tool called OctaZip that was: “an intelligent archiving tool for use with Octatrack Sets and Projects. It provides Backup and Restore functionality whilst maintaining the referential integrity of both Source and Target Projects and associated Samples.”

Built it specifically to be a lightweight backup/restore tool; but sopped making it available for reasons.

OctaEdit v2 (when released) includes all the OctaZip functionality built in.

I actually did make a OctaZip v2 as well; so maybe that will be released as well at the same time as OctaEdit v2; or maybe not.

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