Karaoke Forums

Hello,

  I currently have all my KJ music on an External HD and want to Back it up on to another External HD. What is the easiest way of doing this?  :)  Thanks

Just like any computer file.  Both the empty & current hard drives needs to be installed on the computer (obviously) & once formatted, select all from your existing & copy to new drive.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

May I add Grab a 12pack of bud light And Kick back. Mine took quite awhile:)

Ok, storage is right up my alley so here goes.

I would like to know more about your setup before I can make a detailed recommendation. What Operating System do you use? I would assume Windows but a lot of people use Macs as well. What type of external storage do you have? USB, USB2 or Firewire (IEEE-1394)? Do you have networking in your house?

Here is a general recommendation. If your external storage is USB/Firewire, you can get another of same type. If you have only one of the connection on your computer, like one Firewire connection, you will need a hub/switch of some kind to provide more than one connection. Typically, if you have a Firewire connection, you may only have one connection but USB generally have more than one.

Once you have the drive connected, it may need to be formatted. When you have mountable drives, they will show up as two separate volumes on your desktop, depending on your operating systems. You just drag the folder from old external drive to new.

If you have some cash and/or have already set up home networking, Ethernet or Wi-fi (wireless often known as 802.11a/b/g), then my recommendation is to get a NAS (Network Attached Storage). NAS is a large storage that sit on your network and every computer on the network can share the storage. It really is useful if you have more than one computer networked.

Advantages of NAS is that you can share data. Often the NAS is multiple drive configuration and provides drive failure protection. Make sure you get a system that has RAID 1 or RAID 5. So if a drive fails, the storage system will not. You just replace the dead drive and it rebuilds and keeps the protection. Another nice feature is that you can back up all your computer to a single protected volume so you can be sure your data is safe.

You do lose some capacity, RAID 1 half and RAID 5 1/3 to 1/4, depends on how many drives. Also, the speed over the network is no where near the directly connected storage and it costs a bit more but for someone who lost the whole data because a drive failed, it's worth it.

I have seen Firewire based RAID systems that offer data protection but it's way too expensive for my taste.

I hope this helps. If you provide more details, I can give you more detailed advice. Good luck.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

What the???  Lonman's Got it nailed Point and click.   You can piggyback Firewire Or Usb no need for a hub.

_________________
"There is a Law of the Universe:   CHEAP...   FAST...   GOOD...   pick any two."

actually, you MAY need a hub... depends on how many usb/firewire connections you have!

I have a wonderful 4-port unpowered hub I use to hook up many items! USB is fantastic in that you can have up to 127 devices without degredation! HOLY SMOKES! !

the only thing is, for each port, you have to have a single pathway going... it's not good to have one that receives input and another on the same port that you've got the hub hooked up to that's also doing a "send"...

MOST pcs, especially the newer ones, have at LEAST two usb ports, if not four. And you can always add a card into the expansion slot of the motherboard that will give you addtional usb or firewire ports! The good thing about the hubs that take the single port and make them additional is it's all external... no need to power the pc off and install cards. The bad thing about them is it's more wires and dangly doo dads that can get a bit confusing if you're not attentive to what's going on.

Also, with most Operating Systems... 2000pro and XP, you really should use the software driven aspects of USB...  powering the usb drive on will give you an icon in the system tray that informs the user that you have additional resources... and you have to tell the computer that you're ready to turn it off!! XP is pretty forgiving, but 2000pro doesn't like it when you just power off an external hard drive!

Check out www.pcgigs.com for some fantastic deals... I love the ones with free shipping!

http://www.pcgigs.com/external-cd-rw---dvd.html

Usb can be Piggybacked and so can Firewire. Firewire can have 13 devices series together, I have used 7 Firewire on one port with no problems and 4 with USB. A hub is over kill for Hard drive hookups.

_________________
"There is a Law of the Universe:   CHEAP...   FAST...   GOOD...   pick any two."

What do you use to Piggyback? That's the HUB for the connection.

I much prefer a port hub than a specialized connection from device hookup to device!

I agree.  Most of the systems have built in hub and most of the devices have through connection (piggyback) for USB, which in itself is a hub. However, it's better to concentrate all the devices on the single hub where all the signals are focused at one point. If you string along bunch of devices on USB, you are adding a hub at the end of  each device. There is a latency involved with each hub, however small. If you string along hundred devices, you will notice a lag in response from these devices.

It's better not to piggyback a bunch of hubs, specially for drives since the overall performance of the drive is much higher than your usual keyboards and mice. You can get USB hubs for few bucks now days. It's easier.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

well, as long as you don't have signals along a hub that are going both ways, you can piggyback multiple items on usb. It's designed to take up to 127 devices! Without degredation. Where you'll run into signal loss and hesitation is when you have signals going out and IN along the same port!

For a standard pc that has two ports... use one for outgoing, one for incoming!

To clarify, you can attach up  to 127 devices to a single bus. That was improvement from old PS-2 type of connection for keyboard where you can only have 1 device. However, that does not mean 127 devices piggybacked would give you the optimal performance. Adding a hub to each connection will slow you down. Typically the USB was designed so that you would use a hubs to increase the number of devices but usually that means a dozen or so devices on a single or two piggybacked hubs, not 127 hubs stung along with one device connected to each hub. It's better to get a hub and spread the devices on a single connection.

One thing to note about differences between a hub and a switch. Most of the Firewire devices are switches not a hub. A hub, you share the bandwidth between all the devices connected to it. A switch would guarantee the full speed with all the connections in use. Switch type of connection is preferred over hub but usually with modern USB devices, multiple devices would not saturate the bandwidth except for maybe storage type of devices.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

What does every simple thread end up in a totlal blown up disscussion of something not relevant to the question?

I understand it's a chat board and people like to post and agrue not to be a problem but for something to do. But more and more often a topic as example this one gets off topic.

Copying music from one hd to another.

Plug them both into your pc and drag you music folder from one hd to the other and wait. Mine takes about and hour and a 1/2 for 300 gig.

It is called chatting... Do you have a opinion on everything. Seems you have been there done that am bigger and or better than the rest.

Here is my argument, wouldn't that be "Why does instead of What does?"

Have a great Day!

my daddy can beat up your daddy!  LMAO

My Daddy is Dead, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

[/quote]

It is called chatting... Do you have a opinion on everything. Seems you have been there done that am bigger and or better than the rest.[/quote]

Yes, we all like to chat. Never said I was bigger or better than anyone. Just like to offer my opinion and sometimes I'm dead wrong. People take me to litteral.

and yes my grammar suffers when I lack sleep.