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[mastertone]

Whats your archiveing routine? Hdd and or dvd-r?
Do you compress it?
Do you save a worksheet with it e.g a textfile?

/Jonas

[carlsaff]

Switched recently from DVD-R to HDD. Just too much data for DVD-R backups -- I'd have to spend whole days archiving if that were my destination format and I can't afford to do that.

I don't save a worksheet because all project notes are contained in the Nuendo project file's notepad.

I don't compress. I just got a 1TB drive for ~$300. No need for compression when storage is that cheap! Just adds a layer of complication that might make de-archiving tricky.

I only guarantee archives 1 year for clients, but in truth, mine go about as far back as I can remember. It has saved myself and a client or two great trouble on rare occasion to have access to those files, so I'm glad I do it. However, eventually physical storage space will become an issue... then the oldest client files will have to go.

[jdg]

HDD

i have everything, since forever too (2000)
just bought another 500GB HD for 150bux, archived, and put it in a fire safe.

[Andy Krehm]

We back up to DVD's. You can usually get a few albums on each one and we have a huge amount of HD space so we can afford to leave projects on for a few weeks if the client is doing revisions or checking things out before signing off.

One thing we did learn is to always make two copies of each disc as we've had a few that would not boot up again. These can be done in the background and so really not much of a time waster plus we charge for them anyway.

Now that HDs are becoming so inexpensive, we are buying a 1 TB drive whidh will be used for safety archiving, thus leaving us with a copy of all the current work in case of a crash.

[Allen Corneau]

We have an AIT-2 drive built into our Sadie, 50-gigs per tape. Unfortunately it's not as cost-effective as HDD (like it used to be), but you use what 'cha got!

Every project is archived 30 days or so after the last activity of the project (usually the replication pre-master).

[Rick Sutton]

Switched to HDD when I moved from Sonic to Sadie. Used Exabyte on the Sonic for 10 years of backup. The session paperwork is kept seperately.

[Sonovo]

Using DVD-R and DVD+R, sometimes DL (for expansive projects).

The entire session backup with all files (and usualy a text file documenting the session in brief) goes into a plastic document sleeve along with the session template/recall templates, PQ log, QC printout, copy of the invoice and a copy of the master (usually DDP on CD-R/DVD-R). Each session fits on one sleeve, I can get quite a few sleeves in a 3 ring binder, and I have a shelf full of 3 ring binders...

Still, it's saved me several times when a client shows up years later and says "remember that album you mastered for me a while back, well...." and they don't have the original mixes anymore.

DVD is a bit slower than HDD, but I usually have Toast running in the background making backups while I'm doing other things. All active projects (colour coded depending on which phase they're in, i.e. if they've been started, delivered, approved, backed up, etc) are on the main set of 500GB networked drives.

For those of you using HDD, do you regularly start them up to avoid having the bearings freeze up from lack of use? I read somewhere that the bearing lubricant can migrate/settle and the HDD can lock up on power up if not used for some time (i.e. a few years).

Thor

[Thomas W. Bethel]

Short term storage on internal HDs

Longer term storage on external HDs

Final resting place CD or DVD+R

We have all of our archives going back to 1990 when we started doing this part time.

We tell clients that we keep their material for a period of 6 months and after that they have to pay a yearly "storage"  fee for continued storage. Very few have taken us up on the storage fee but many want to "revisit" their material months or years after it has been archived so we still keep their stuff around. Not sure what I will do with all of it when I decide to retire. Hopefully someone will buy the business and I will make the archives part of the total package. They sure take up a L:O:T of space.

[hnewman]

Same as Thomas.  Rotate through two external USB drives, one is always offsite.  I've been very happy with DVD for long term storage, once a project is finalized.  I've recovered sessions from 1998 off of CDR without incident (in fact last night I had to access a CDRW from 2000, no problems.)  If the discs were decent quality to begin with and are properly stored, they seem to last fairly well.  The only discs I've had problems with were very cheap and the foil has started to flake.  

I don't promise permanent backups for clients, I just do it for convenience, so there are no liability issues if a disc does go bad.

[mastertone]

Yeah, i think the external Hdd is the way to go, I have to get better at this, my stuff is all over the place right now, just need to figure out an easy way to save my worksheets, its so easy to work on paper but i would like to store it in the folder with the masters. Thanks guys.

[Thomas W. Bethel]

Scan your worksheets and save them as .JPEGS on your hard drive.

We do this routinely when we get hand written notes or instructions from the client. It works well and though it cannot be used for legal purposes it is fine for including in a project folder on your HDs. Just make sure you scan the document at 600 dpi or better and use the Black and White setting on your scanner unless it contains color information. We save the client's artwork the same way for their CDs so everything is in one place.