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#1140
Yes MJ I have been having a few problems with the main machine (Ivy Bridge) for some time and this is the last thing that is not happening.
I suppose in all reality I should save the libraries as separate entities on the external and I would not have this issue.
I also thought buying the full version (x4) for the machines would give me a that little more leeway with what I can do with the program but it seems not eh?
The difficulty you're experiencing accessing parts of your backup could have been avoided if you didn't keep your libraries on the C: drive. Since I have only a 128GB SSD in my desktop rig, I obviously have to keep my data on another drive other than C:. But, even though my notebooks are one drive wonders and so have 500GB SSDs in them, I still keep my data on a partition other than the C: drive.
While imaging is the best (and pretty much the only practical) way to backup your system files, it's not really the best way to backup data files because of the time it takes to make an image and the difficulty of accessing only a portion of your backup. Since I keep my data on a separate drive or partition (depending on the machine), I'm not limited to just imaging to backup my files. I still image my C: drive/partition but I use a folder/file syncing program (FreeFileSync but there are other good ones out there, such as SyncToy) in mirror mode to backup my data. Folder/file syncing is much faster than imaging since, once the initial backup has been made, the only files that get written or deleted from the backup drive are those that have been added, changed, or deleted from the source drive. Besides being faster, folder/file syncing essentially makes a duplicate of the source drive that will easily allow you to copy files from to paste elsewhere.
Edit: I forgot to mention that, by keeping only system files (OS and programs) on your C: drive or partition, your system images will be much smaller, thus being faster to make and restore and will take up less room, allowing you to keep more of them.
Last edited by Lady Fitzgerald; 22 Dec 2014 at 09:22. Reason: Senioritis
I personally believe having the full version is worth the expense (I also have the four license package) but, sadly, not for the reason you were hoping for. I especially like the boot menu recovery option that allows me to restore my C: partition without having to dig out a recovery CD or USB stick (yeah, I'm that lazy). If you prefer imaging over folder/file syncing, you might want to look into the File and Folder Backup option (although I feel that would entail more work but, then again, you may have reasons I'm failing to see).
Absolutely Jeannie I did try that with a secondary drive but I found getting the music to play through WMP for example was an exercise in futility. That included any other data like Documents too.
My current SSD / primary drive is a 250GB EVO and it holds more than enough for what I muck around with and I often wonder how one would fill say a 1TB drive with data because that is an awful amount of stuff and excepting I suppose business people what on earth do people keep? If it is photos and documents then they must be into photography big time or programs that are very large. Personally I don't like large drives because of the issue with losing large amounts of data if the drive goes south.
If you include the external drive folder with your music in the Music library then WMP will have no trouble finding it as it uses the libraries to define what shows up.
I don't use WMP since I found everything about it to be an exercise in futility (to put it politely) and much prefer using MediaMonkey.
As long as one maintains good backups (I'm positively anal about that), losing large amounts of data from large drives really isn't an issue. If a drive goes south (and it has happened), all I need to do is recover my data from one of the backups (I essentially backup my backups since even backup drives can fail). It may take longer to recover such large amounts at once but I can just let it run overnight if it happens. The convenience of the reduced weight a single drive has over multiple drives more than outweighs the inconvenience of restoring a large backup (and, at my age, reduced weight is huge).
I don't consider myself into photography big time but I do take a lot of pictures when I travel and I always take them at the highest resolution possible to make editing, enlarging, etc. easier, which means the files are pretty large (although not as large as raw images would be).
I rip my CDs to larger mp3s than most people to avoid unacceptable compression losses and also rip to .wav so I can convert to other formats in the future, should I ever want to, without adding additional losses. I also scan the CD liner notes to keep in each album's folder. I eventually plan on destroying all my CDs to save space (the main reason for ripping to .wav). Accessing my music on my computer is so much easier than handling well over 500 CDs.
Many people keep their movies on their computer, something I need to start doing soon since I'm drowning in DVDs, to save space and for convenience. That can really eat up space.
I keep my personal home office as paperless as possible by getting digital receipts and statements whenever possible and scanning all other paper, then destroying the originals (other than the handful documents that require keeping originals).
I no longer buy dead tree books (colorful euphemism for paper books), preferring e-books, and have scanned over half of my existing dead tree library to PDFs to save space and for convenience (my scanned books take up more room than conventional e-books). I'm an avid reader and eventually reread my books (having a short memory span does have advantages at times).
Scanning my dead tree books would be major exercise I have collected a couple of thousand over the years. I no longer buy new ones though preferring e-books or even audiobooks these days. I too attempt a paperless office. It tends to be just government agencies that insist on paper these days.
I'm lucky; the only paper I have to have to hang onto are my birth certificate, Social Security card, the one lone stock I own half a share of, and property titles. Curiously enough, it's the government agencies I deal with (not many, thank God!) that are most likely to prefer digital over paper.
You are so correct that scanning dead tree books is a huge chore (I also have over two, maybe even three, thousand dead tree books). I've been at it, off and on (mostly off ), for several years but I am well past the halfway mark. I bought a high speed ADF scanner (Fujitsu ScanSnap s1500) just for that job that has also proven useful for paperwork reduction.
Yep well this has been a useful learning exercise if nothing else and I shall keep the Music separate on the external as I am more of a muso than piccy person even though I have six cameras only because I am a compulsive buyer of certain things
The WMP I just use for ripping CD's for the car as when I want quality audio (bit fussy with that) I would use the stereo.
But I am going to try the Ubuntu method I mentioned earlier as it has been really good at getting data off even "dead" drives.