My old PC took a hit during an electrical storm about six weeks ago and I lost a couple of projects which means I have started over on those Media Composer 2.8.3 projects with a newly constructed PC

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could tell me what files must be backed up to another hard drive so as to allow me to recover the project should this PC suffer the same fate as the last one.

I will be adding an external hard drive for these back-up purposes, and I need to know which files should be saved to that external drive.

And, are there any software programs that will backup these files automatically?

Thank you.

Try Karen's Replicator for backing up on the PC.

and you'll mainly want to back up the bins (.avb) and Attic.  But, I backup the entire Avid projects folder and the Attic.

 I also backup the Attic and the entire Projects folder plus two more folders that always sit on the root of my D: drives. One is for all graphics and the other one is all the soundtracks.

I use AllwaySync for this, on a USB memory stick (freeware, great program, easy to use).

In addition I also backup ALL media files from my RAID 0 array to some cheap external hard drives (also with AllwaySync).

If anything should go wrong with my main workstation I really just need to plugin the external backup hard drives and the USB stick into any MC station and can edit (right) away.

Peace of mind for me

Is it easy for someone to post a pic about which folders you are backing up in MC?

A USB is good for the projects I guess but what is going on with media folders?

DonR:

And, are there any software programs that will backup these files automatically?

Each night all Avid projects, settings files, Avid Graphics Folder (with its full directory stucture for all graphics used by Avid)  etc are backed up to a different internal drive, an external ethernet RAID 5 backup, a network server's backup raided drives.

At the end of the day all those files backed up above are downloaded (using a desktop batch file) to a removeable USB drive and the drive disconnected, powered down and removed from the mains connection.

These processes are based on incremental backing up of only the files that have changed.

From a post I made way back in XDV days. The same basics still work here

A simple free automated backup for Avid Projects using basic windows functions and taking 5 minutes to set up.

Open notepad and copy and paste the following into a new document

xcopy "C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid Xpress DV\Avid Projects\*.*" "\\Actionmpeg\SharedDocs\Avid Projects Backup\" /M /E /V /H /R/Y
pause

Modify path names to suit your environment. (In first quote marks is my path to my working avid projects folder. The *.* stays as is. In the second quote marks is the path to your folder that will have the backups. For me in this example the double backslash path being to a network drive)

Save the file in your Program files folder as AvidBackup1.bat

Go to the Control Panel\Scheduled tasks Add new task select the AvidBackup1.bat file from your program files folder set your Parameters (Daily and time) and relax.

Before you run it the first time Go to Projects file and right click on the folder, select Properties set its properties as these items ready for archiving.
After the first run when it will copy everything in the folder it will just update changed files & verify. Each morning you will find the file open on your desktop with a press any key to continue. I run 3 of these to different hard drives. Works for any folder but has a DOS limitation at about 50GB's which should not affect any avid Projects folder.

If you do not leave your computer on 24/7 save the .bat file to your desktop and run it just before you close the computer.

Good Luck

DonR:

what files must be backed up to another hard drive so as to allow me to recover the project

Hi,

Part of this depends on what you mean by "recover the project".  If you back up the project folder and the attic, you'll be able to recover the project in the event of a catastrophic failure, but you'll have to recapture anything you originally captured from tape, and you'll have to reimport anything you imported from a file.  The advantage to this method is you don't have to take up much space (or time) backing up large amounts of information.  The disadvantage is you'll need access to the project's original tapes and files, and it will take some time to recapture and reimport them.

If, on the other hand, you back up the project folder and the attic and all your media files, then you will be able to recover the project in the event of a catastrophic failure by just copying them back into their original locations.  The advantage to this method is you don't need access to the project's original tapes and files, and depending on how fast you can copy everything back to it's original location, recovery could be very fast.  The disadvantage is backing up all that information will take a long time and a lot of hard drive space.

I hope that makes it clear.  Nothing anyone has said so far is wrong; I just wanted to spell it out for anyone new to the process.

good luck,
Carl

Carl,

Sorry that I did not make my goal clear. My goal is to back up everything including the media captured from the video tape so I may make changes right up until the very end of the project. Obviously, this will require much more drive space than just the final "project" but drive space is of no consideration.

Carl, you summerized my goal when you wrote:

"If, on the other hand, you back up the project folder and the attic and all your media files, then you will be able to recover the project in the event of a catastrophic failure by just copying them back into their original locations.  The advantage to this method is you don't need access to the project's original tapes and files, and depending on how fast you can copy everything back to it's original location, recovery could be very fast.  The disadvantage is backing up all that information will take a long time and a lot of hard drive space."

I was hoping someone could list the specific AVID folders that need to be backed up because it seems as if there is always one more folder that I should have backed up to fully recover all of the  media used in a project.

This particular project is the one showing a dive buddy being bitten by a shark and I most certainly did not wish to have to go clear back to the DVCAM tapes and start over.

Again, I want to thank everyone for being so helpful.

Don R.

Hi Don,

Assuming you're wanting to recover everything from a catastrophic failure, you should back up your projects folder and the attic folder from your system hard drive, and the media files folder on your media hard drive (depending on if you have MXF or OMF media this could be a few folders (MXF) or just one folder (OMF)).

With those folders backed up, if your system totally failed, you could reinstall Media Composer, then copy those folders back to their original locations and keep going.

Under the category of "nice to have but not critical" would be your user settings folder.  User settings are not critical to restoring a project, but if you back up this folder, you won't have to redo any workspaces or shortcuts or keyboard mapping after a total failure.

Where'd your buddy get bitten (location on Earth and location on his/her body)?  Was it a big shark?  On my first dive after being certified a 10 foot long Caribbean reef shark swam past me as I was chilling out on the bottom of the ocean off Freeport in the Bahamas.  It was one of the coolest things I ever saw.

good luck,
Carl

Shared Projects:

C:\Documents and settings\all users\shared documents\SHARED AVID PROJECTS

Private Projects:

C:\Documents and settings\(USER NAME)\Avid Projects

Attic:

C:\Program Files\Avid\(AVID EDITING SOFTWARE)\Avid Attic

AVX 1 Plugins Folder:

C:\Program Files\Avid\AVX_Plug-Ins

AVX2 Plugins folders:

C:\Program Files\Avid\AVX2_Plug-Ins

C:\Program Files\Avid\(AVID EDITING SOFTWARE)\AVX2_Plug-Ins

Media:

(Drive letter):\Avid MediaFiles

(Drive letter):\OMFI MediaFiles

that's all i can think of.

Excellent answer to me.

Thanks Chris.

I understood the Projects folder.

I understood about Media files.

Do you know what is Attic for?

And why we have to backup plugins as well?

Hi George,

sverkalo:

Do you know what is Attic for?

The attic is where Avid puts backup copies of your bins.  If a bin becomes corrupt, you can bring a copy of that bin back into your project from the attic.

sverkalo:

And why we have to backup plugins as well?

If the plugins used in a sequence are not installed on the system you're trying to play the sequence on, you may not be able to play them back, and you definitely won't be able to make any changes to them.

So in the scenario where the computer has failed, and you are restoring a project using backups of the project folder and media files folder, you must also have a backup of the plugins folder for any plugins that were used in the sequence.

good luck
Carl

Isn't backing up the project, backing up the bins as well?

Aren't the bins a piece of the project?

How you can bring it back? Directly from the Windows Explorer to a bin?

I asked about general backup as with Liquid I am backing up some folders, so I would know how to do it in MC. Not in case of a failure but in case I can edit from my desktop to my laptop.

Does anyone thinks that backing up with the utility within MC is a good idea?

I am doing this with Liquid and till now after 4-5 years I have never had anything lost.

Can I also make copies of the sequences as I am doing in Liquid?

"Isn't backing up the project, backing up the bins as well?" 

YES

"Aren't the bins a piece of the project?"

YES

"How you can bring it back? Directly from the Windows Explorer to a bin?"

You can point Avid at any backup and it will open from there. (open with External project option) Or you can copy the backup to your normal Avid Projects folder

"I asked about general backup as with Liquid I am backing up some folders, so I would know how to do it in MC. Not in case of a failure but in case I can edit from my desktop to my laptop." 

Copy your project folder to any other computer in the world with an appropriate Avid dongle attached and you just carry on editing.  Assuming your media is on an external drive just plug that drive into the computer you want to edit on at the time and Avid will find the media automatically

"Does anyone thinks that backing up with the utility within MC is a good idea?"

No. Every individual will have there own ideas of how and where to backup. Designing a utility for that inside Avid seems like a complete waste of time to me.

"I am doing this with Liquid and till now after 4-5 years I have never had anything lost."

Welcome to the club, its been over a decade here with Avid

"Can I also make copies of the sequences as I am doing in Liquid?"

Yes Duplicate from the Composer window. Copy from a Bin.  Open the bin with your sequence in it in any other project you like and carry on editing with it. 

Hi,

sverkalo:

Isn't backing up the project, backing up the bins as well?  Aren't the bins a piece of the project?

Yes and yes.  Some people like to restore projects by creating new projects and only bringing in copies of the bins from the old project rather than the entire project folder.  Someone who is an advocate of that method will have to expound on why.  I don't have strong feelings on the matter.

sverkalo:

How you can bring it back? Directly from the Windows Explorer to a bin?

Yes, you copy the folders from wherever you backed them up to wherever you backed them up from directly in Windows Explorer. 

sverkalo:

in case I can edit from my desktop to my laptop.

If you want to move a project from one computer to another, all you need to do is copy the project folder and the media from one computer to another.  Assuming everything else on both systems is the same (same plugins, same version of Media Composer, etc) it will work fine.

sverkalo:

Can I also make copies of the sequences as I am doing in Liquid?

I've never used Liquid, so I don't know how sequence copies work there.  In Media Composer you can make as many copies of sequences as you like.  When I'm working, I usually make a copy of my sequence at major points throughout the process (after the initial edit, after adding graphics, after adjusting audio, etc) and put the backup sequence in a separate bin.  That way if there's some major catastrophe with the main sequence bin and I can't get a copy out of the attic, I can always open up the backup sequence bin and start from there.

That said, I've never had a problem with a bin, and the one time I needed to go into the attic to retrieve a sequence, it worked fine.  In short, I've never had to actually use my backup sequence bin to recover anything.

good luck,
Carl

 [EDIT] Andrew types fast.

Thanks both.

What I am doing now is this.

1)I am backing up the project within Liquid to the extranl disc.

2)I am backing up the Media folder of Liquid and that's all.

From what you told me it seems that MC is even better on finding the media on the external disc than Liquid which you must point to... some times.

When I said utility I meant the built in MC for backing up the projects.

I am also doing the same thing I am backing up my sequences while I am editing from time to time.