Let me tell you a story. A few years ago I was starting my day in the studio with my production partner, Jimmy. My computer was loading up and I was ready to open up my Cubase session to start recording, but the session files were not available. In fact, my work hard drive was not even showing up.
I rebooted my computer but I was still stuck with the same problem:“no work hard drive present.” At that moment I started to freak out. So I went directly on my backup work hard drive to realize that my last backup was 3 weeks old. That was pretty dramatic because for that past 3 weeks I remember working like crazy in the studio on different projects – recording full bands, a brass section with session players and so on. I had between 8-10k worth of work that was not backed up. Not good!
So I went to the computer shop and asked the technician to check my hard drive. I started to sweat with his simply put diagnosis: ‘‘this is only good for the garbage’’.
Data recovery to the rescue
I ended up calling a data recovery service in Montreal to check my drive. I had to pay an extra fee to have them work on the drive quickly. It took them 3 days before they were able to retrieve all the data. From what I was told, my drive had a technical hard attack and died. I was actually very fortunate to get my data back from what they told me.
So $1800 later I had my data back on a new hard drive that I backed up right away!
I’m telling you this story to illustrate the importance of backing up every time you can. You’re probably thinking that’s a no brainer, but trust when I say that it’s easy to forget when you’re in the middle of the action.
Here are a few ways you can back up your work easily.
[su_quote cite=”Trust me when I tell you that files can get corrupted at some point. It happened to me before and it will happen again. “][/su_quote]
Use backup software
Using a back up software can be very handy. If you’re on Windows my suggestion is to try SyncToy by Microsoft. It’s free and easy to use. I used it for years (after my incident) and it did the job perfectly. Even if Win8 is not listed as a requirement, I heard it still works using the latest Windows versions.
For Mac users, Time Machine will do what needs to be done and it’s included in Mac OSX. But you can also try some other softwares. There is a lot of good softwares out there to use. Like Super Duper and Carbon Copy Cloner for example.
Do it manually
The other and simple option you have is to back up your files manually. Just drag and drop, copy and replace every time you need to do a backup. I’m on a Mac platform now and this is what I always do. It’s fast, cheap and simple. Just make the habit of doing it at the end of every session.
The ”save as” habit
Another way you can lose your work is by using the same DAW file when working. Every time you save your work try to
take the habit to “save as” the file once in a while with a different name.
For example, when I mix a song, I will name the file “Song Mix1-01” when I’m working on the first draft of the mix. Then every 10-15 minutes I will “save as” to “Song Mix1-02”, “Song Mix1-03” etc., until I’m done with my first mix version. Then I will start working on the second round of the mix for the same song. I will then save the file as “Song Mix2-01” then follow the same routine as above. This way, you won’t lose all of your work. Trust me when I tell you that files can get corrupted at some point. It happened to me before and it will happen again.
Losing data is can be a nightmare – especially for us artists! At some point you can always redo the work that was lost but in reality it’s easier said than done.
Every time I get out of the studio, I always take the habit of backing up my work. Let me tell you this, you only make an $1800 mistake once.