So i realized a couple weeks ago that i have a huge CD project all on one internal hard drive. so i went out and got a 500 Gbyte portable drive and copied the whole thing over to back it all up. Now a couple weeks later i have a bunch of new work on one or two songs, and i am wondering the best way to go about updating my backup drive... How do you make sure projects get cleanly backed up without issues like figuring out which clips are new and copying them each over? I guess i could drag and drop all project audio files back to a certain date into the backup folders of the backup disk, but i bet people have an easier way figured out, right? ... ... what do you recommend? ... ... Thanks,

Well Im not a pro but I use a External Back Up along with DVDs as well

For the HDD backup I do a "Save As" to the drive, then each time I update, I have it write over the existing backed up copy.

Not sure if its a good way but keeps it clean and its just paid off with a recent HDD Failure

If you're using SONAR's Per-Project Folder option, you can resave the project under a different name (maybe the name of the project and add -backup to the filename). SONAR will save only the audio that is being used in the project, so it automatically removes any old deleted clips. You can resave directly to the backup drive or resave on your main drive and then copy or move the project folder over to the backup drive.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
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  Ya, i have separate folders for each 'project', so i think i can simply drag and drop a project folder into the backup disk's projects folder and it should overwrite it, and only add the new clips if i check the right box, right? I guess i can play around with it and see. I just don't want to mess up the backups i have in the process of trying stuff out.

I simply do a drag/copy of my entire Cakewalk Projects folder to my backup drive and when it's finished, I simply rename the folder so that the next time I copy it, nothing will be overwritten.

This way I can have as many old backups as the capacity of the drive (2Tb) will allow.

I delete the oldest one when a new one is added

create a batch-file:

xcopy /s /e /v /c /r /d /y x:\projects\  y:\
where x:\projects\ is the source where you have all Projects.
and y: the backupdrive. 
 
so you can backup with one click, and it copies only newer and changed files.
 

xcopy /s /e /v /c /r /d /y x:\projects\ y:\

 
I would delete the old directory first:
 
rd /s /q y:\destination-path
then
xcopy /s /e /v /c /r /d /y x:\projects\ y:\destination-path
 
 
This way you get an exact copy of your working directory, rather than just overwriting what's on your backup drive.
 
If you're not happy with batch files etc, you can also use something like this
http://www.foldermatch.com/
to "sync" your backup folder to your working directory.
 

I use robocopy with the /m option for mirroring and it will only copy modified files.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2008/07/31/robocopy-mir-switch-mirroring-file-permissions.aspx

If you want to automate this, Look to this: http://www.leo-backup.com/ or http://www.nasbackup.com/index.php/Main_Page

also, your portable drive may have come with a good solution