Staying with Sonar - my backup strategy

Having decided to stick with Sonar, I did the following to ensure Sonar will work for a LONG time.
 
It's taken a 2-3 days on and off to get my backup system working, but here's what I've done to get a pretty solid backup strategy.
 
First it's worth mentioning how my drives are organised:

• C: Windows 10 OS
• D: DVDR Drive
• E: DATA drive (used for large plugin/sample content - e.g. NI KOMPLETE / AIR Complete)
• F: SONG drive (used for Sonar projects)

1. Audit of my current Windows 10 system:

• Downloaded Belarc advisor, ran it and printed it off. This tells me all the applications I've got installed (but not all plugins - see next step)
• Within Sonar, went to Edit->Preferences->VST Settings and typed each of the VST search paths into notepad - saved this as allplugins.txt
• Opened a command line window, and for each of the paths did the following:
• dir "{plugindir}" /b /s > plugins.txt
  ...where {plugindir} is a vst search path (e.g. dir "c:\program files\steinberg\vstplugins" /b /s > plugins.txt )
• edited the plugins.txt in another instance of notepad, and copy/pasted it into the allplugins.txt under the appropriate path heading.
• deleted the output file ready for the next run: del plugins.txt
• Did the same for each VST search path

Having now got a list of all the plugins/plugin directories in allplugins.txt, I printed this file off.
 
2. Backing up my current Windows 10 installation:

• I downloaded the latest Clonezilla iso and burned a DVD from it. This is what I use to do full backups of disks and/or partitions.
• Got a traditional (ie not SSD) 2TB SATA disk and installed it in my PC
• Booted from clonezilla and backed up images of my Windows 10 disk & data disks to the 2TB drive
• Switched everything off & disconnected the power & SATA from the 2TB drive. That way, it just sits there in my PC ready for a restore without constantly running.

3. Creating a Windows 7 backup environment
I figured that Windows 7 updates will now be minimal and shouldn't affect the running of most software, so having everything on Windows 7 is a safe bet for making it future proof. Note that I wanted to use my existing DATA & SONG drives, so they'll be shared between Windows 10 & Windows 7. The idea here is that I should be able to swap between Windows 10 & Windows 7 and all my plugins and sonar projects will be exactly the same.
So...

• I bought a Windows 7 license key from amazon (cost around £15.00)
• Installed a new SSD drive in my PC, and installed Windows 7 on it
• Installed all the drivers (leaving the network till last),
• Installed Firefox as IE8 is practically unusable on a fresh Windows 7 install nowadays.
• Downloaded the latest version of Windows Update from Microsoft and installed it
• Ran Windows Update and waited 2-3 hours while it installed around 200 updates.
• Installed all my USB audio hardware drivers
• Ran Windows Update again.
• Downloaded and installed Adobe Flash Player (Cakewalk Command Center seems to need this)
• Went to Disk Management (Right click on My Computer, click Manage then go to Disk Management) and changed the drive letters of my other disks to match what they were in Windows 10, e.g.:
  • D: -> DVD drive
  • E: -> DATA disk
  • F: -> SONG disk
  • G: -> Windows 10 OS

At this point it occurred to me that as I wanted my DATA drive to be shared between the two OS's, I really didn't want the content on this drive to be overwritten when doing all the installs on my Windows 7 OS. So what I did was:

• Re-connected my 2TB Backup disk and renamed it to DATA
• Went to Disk Management (Right click on My Computer, click Manage then go to Disk Management) and changed the drive letter of the 2TB disk to match what my DATA drive is on my Windows 10 OS. In my case, my DATA drive is drive E: so I assigned E: within Windows 7 to point to my 2TB disk, and changed the "original" DATA drive to X:

I then proceeded to install Cakewalk:

• Installed Cakewalk Command Center and ran it, entered my username/password, then quit after it had done its initial product check.
• Copied the content of "C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Command Center\Downloads" from my Windows 10 disk to the same path on my Windows 7 disk - this is so it doesn't need to download all the Cakewalk installs again.
• Opened up Cakewalk Command Center and installed everything
• I then went through the printout of my allplugins.txt file and installed all my plugins, ensuring that the installation paths I chose matched the ones on the printout, and ticking them off as I went along.
• I also went through the printout of the belarc report and installed any other software I needed (e.g. 7zip, Adobe Reader etc).
• Once I'd installed all the plugins that had content going on my "E" drive, I went back into Disk Managment and:
  • Changed my 2TB drive from E: to H:
  • Changed my original DATA drive back to E:

During the course of the install, I had the dreaded "authorised computers limit issue" (i.e. Addictive Drums, TH3 etc).
To get around this:

• I removed my Windows 10 authorisation from XLN and Overloud in favour of my Windows 7 boot and got them all authorised.
• I then set up a Windows Firewall rule to block SONAR and Plugin Manager from the internet.
• Booted back up to Windows 10, removed the Windows 7 machine from XLN / Overload, and re-authorised them for my Windows 10 machine.
• Booted back up to Windows 7

The above steps mean that SPLAT on Windows 7 is now effectively running "offline" and can't check for authorisations, but it also won't check for updates on those plugins. You'll need to go through the unblock/remove machine/add machine/re-authorise/remove machine etc whenever you need to do an update.
 
Note that I'm NOT trying to subvert the anti-piracy policies here - my rationale here is that if for some reason, your Windows 10 OS stops working during a session, you can quickly switch to Windows 7 and carry on working without worrying about the authorisation headache. If you do find you have to go to Windows 7 permanently, then it really should be the Windows 7 machine that is unblocked from the firewall and has the authorisation. IMHO these authorisations should be tied to the motherboard and not to your OS installation, that way dual-boot machines would be treated for what they are, i.e. the same machine.
 
Thankfully all the plugins using iLok installed without issue :)
 
After I was happy that all the plugins were working:

• I deleted the duplicate content of my 2TB drive, so all that was left on there was my Windows 10 backups.
• I then booted up from Clonezilla and did a backup of my new Windows 7 disk.
• I shutdown the PC and disconnected the SATA & power from my 2TB drive

 
So now I have the following:

• If SPLAT stops working on Windows 10 due to an update, I can reboot to Windows 7 and just continue.
• If Windows 10 OR Windows 7 gets corrupted (or the drives die) I can simply re-connect my 2TB backup disk and restore from the backups.

Possible additional steps:

• You could remove the drive letters for the other OS's in each installation (i.e. Windows 10 can't see the Windows 7 disk and vice-versa). This *may* offer some protection if you got a virus, so it wouldn't spread to your other OS. Personally, I'm pretty careful and find the ability to copy between them more useful.
• For those with spare pocket-money, having a spare SSD with a "ready-restored" copy of your OS's might be handy.

Just a quick note on Cakewalk Command Center: The Cakewalk servers seem to be being hammered at the moment, so pick a time when they're likely to be quiet. I found that between 07:00 and 10:00 GMT (UTC) were the best times for me.
 
I hope some of you find this useful!
 
Mark.

Great post, Mark! Thanks.
All the best.

chuckebaby

Marshall
I can't say I have studied your post in the greatest of detail, but I've read enough to know this is way beyond me.

If this is what is required, then you have justified my early decision to realise, the world has changed, it is time to move on, and moving on to me means Studio One.

He posted a lot of great info but his plan seems like the "over due it" plan.
Im simply backed up my installers. Done.
 
Good luck with Studio one though. it seems like a great DAW.
I just plan on getting my moneys worth out of Sonar. It is state of the art as of right now.
Maybe in a year or two I will change my mind but I used Pro audio 9 for 3 years with no updates.
 
We have become spoiled in recent years expecting updates 12 times a year.
Sonar is still a great DAw.
 
 

I agree with everything you say here. Sonar is amazing, as is this forum.

Is this the software you are writing about?
 
http://www.7-backup.com/

Ruben
Is this the software you are writing about?
 
http://www.7-backup.com/

 
No - It is:
https://www.langmeier-software.com
 

I got around to testing my backup strategy this weekend.
 
I've got one PC set up in my studio, and one in my house for convenience (it's warmer in the house this time of year!) Both have the same make/model of motherboard, but slightly different CPU's. They've both got Windows 10 & Windows 7 64 bit on them, but my studio PC also has a Windows 7 32 bit boot on it for running older software.
 
The studio PC was set up a while ago and still had standard hard disks so I decided to upgrade to SSD's. Rather than set everything up from scratch, I thought I try restoring my backups from my "house" PC.
 
Here's what I found:

• Both Windows 10 & Windows 7 64 booted up without issue. 
• The hard-drive ID's of the disks matched the ones on my house PC
• Windows 7 required me to put in a different license code, so I entered the original license code for that PC. This worked without issue. Windows 10 hasn't complained as yet, but the license code is ready if/when it needs it.
• Most of my plugins worked out the box without need for re-authentication. AD2, IK Multimedia (ARC2 / Lurssen) & TH3 (Full version) were notable exceptions; these just needed removing the old computer and adding it again.

The only issue that arose was when I put my original W7 32 bit disk back in, and it got confused with conflicting boot menus, but this was easily fixed by running "repair bcd" on the W7 32 disk.
 
The whole process took around 3 hours (2 hours to restore to new disks, and another hour checking everything). No re-installations, no updates, no searching for serial numbers. Just restored the disks, plugged them in, and re-authorised a few of the plugins.
 
The important thing is that Sonar, at no point complained that it was restored onto a machine with a different motherboard & CPU.
 
Mark.

i think windows 7 or maybe 8.1 was last best possible backup OS for Sonar an his Plugins.
 
Windows 10 has a disintegration date every 6 months. If you install Windows 10 in 5 years, it will not run on the date 2020 without a reinstallation which will then threaten the installed licenses of the software due to another calculated hardware ID.

why not just install it on 2 computers and turn off windows updates?........

What i've done is pretty straight forward and you don't have to understand computers to do it. 
 
Are any of you aware that you can have a legal copy of Sonar on more than 2 computers? I have 6 all say LEGAL and owned forever. 
I have 2 computers licenced with XLN and iLock, If I use the 3rd I have to deactivate one of them, takes only a minute. Might be because I got a second licence for XLN from owning Professional. Do other's get 2 licences? 
 
I have 2 complete 100% Daw computers set up plus I installed Splat on every thing in my house that was available, I even installed it on the Laptop I use at work. 
 
1- Main DAW  W 8.1 i5 16 GB RAM 2 x SSD, 1TB XLN, ILock   SPlat and WaveLab 7 
2- Backup DAW W10 i7 12GB RAM 2x SSD,1TB XLN, iLock  Slpat, Cubase 7 EL, Wave Lab, Mixbus4 
3- Studio Laptop W 7 8 GB RAM i5  650 GB and 500 GB ( no SSD) XLN and iLok , SPlat Aug, Home Studio,  others 
4. Old Studio laptop Sony 2008 W7 4 GB RAM SSD SPlat Feb, X3e and  8.5 
5- Wife's laptop i5 Lenovo 8B RAM W10  X3e. 
6- Office desktop i3, 8GB RAM, W10  2x SSD 2TB  SPlat bare bones,Home Studio, x3e and 8.5  
7- Old DAW mothballed but still a great computer W7 4 GB RAM  X3e, 8.5, Cubase and Wave Lab
8- Work Laptop Lenovo i5 W10  Splat bare bones install, and back up of all my files. 
9- Asus net book  has Sonar x1. 
 
Plus I have CCC download folders going all the way back stored on most of these machines plus a few external drives. I have a document with all my serial numbers also backed up to the cloud etc. 
 
So as well as Splat installed to 6 computers I have various older versions on hand plus I own Cubase 7 Elements and now Mixbus4. I don't need to worry about not having a DAW for a long time

Hey Mark, I noticed in your post you said this:

• I then set up a Windows Firewall rule to block SONAR and Plugin Manager from the internet.

I wasn’t aware
Can you explain this? I haven‘t known of any communication between Platinum and Cakewalk through the internet. Last year when we had that bizarre MS bug, I suspected this communication may have been going on, but no one acknowledged it. 

So you do get 2 authorizations of AD2. I wonder?  I should have 4 then. 2 for Professional and 2 for Platinum. 
I got 4 kits from owning both. 

kzmaier
I was going to use windows 10 backup software to backup my "C" drive.  Is there a reason nobody's doing this?

 

Just backing up the data on your C drive definitely won't work, if you attempt to copy all that info to another boot drive. In order for it to be able to boot it has to be an exact copy with all the MBR and sys reserved, plus more hidden files. It may be called clone drive or drive copy or similar.
 
 It's possible the Windows backup software will do all of that, but I’d be surprised. You'd have to test it. If it were me I'd just use Macrium free. Just download it and it'll make an image file of your C drive. I use Macrium free on a Win 10 computer and Acronis on another one.
 
My boot HD is a fast SSD, but I have a 2nd HD SATA HD that’s a clone of my boot HD. I’ve always been a big dual boot fan, yet Win 10 is extremely quirky about dual boots and after banging my head against the wall trying to get it to work, decided to do it like others are doing.
 
When you want to boot to the 2nd HD, turn off your computer and disconnect your boot drive and physically connect the cables to the 2nd HD and then boot. Likely you’ll have to go to the bios setup or just choose it in the boot menu on startup. Actually I leave my 2nd HD in my computer with power connected and simply swap the data the cable.
 

msmcleod

Cactus Music
So you do get 2 authorizations of AD2. I wonder?  I should have 4 then. 2 for Professional and 2 for Platinum. 
I got 4 kits from owning both. 

I found once I upgraded from X3 to Platinum, my previous AD2 license was merged with my new one. I guess this was the price to pay to get all 4 kits.

 
OK That was what I was thinking, too bad as it would be nice to have that one extra licence for my Laptop. I plan on using it live and AD2 is just about every song now. I will just bounce to audio I guess which a lot of people seem to recommend for live playback anyhow. 
 
Another great back up and cloning tool that is free is EaseUS. 
http://www.easeus.com/?ad&gclid=CjwKCAiAvMPRBRBIEiwABuO6qVp3RMuxeHZnbtoGElSyU63_ISSZCBQd0TSsczCGxqB-ftazw72akxoCd-MQAvD_BwE