Time Machine for saving Logic files...?

[zovek]

I am saving all my Logic Pro 9 projects to time machine. I mean, I just click the "back up now" and that's it. Is this enough? Being relatively new with Mac, I am wondering if is that easy?

 

I am using a latest imac and saving to a huge external hard drive.

 

I could also drag the files to same external hard drive... Any advise is apreciate.

 

Zovek

[triplets]

As long as you do the following you're ok:

Create new project,

Save As,

Name it, select the external hard drive, check "include assets".

Click Save.

 

If you didn't do this, you might have files scattered all over the place.

Is your external hard drive firewire? If not, it should be because USB is too slow.

[zovek]

Got it. Just some more questions:

 

1.What about all the projects I already created? Should I just drag themn to the external hard drive?

 

2.Your advise also applies to other projects with different applications?

 

Thanks!

 

Zovek

[Rev. Juda Sleaze]

Time machine is a backup solution, not a way to save files.

 

For your time machine disc, it's best if it's the same size or a bit bigger than the total of discs you're backing up. If your external drive is big enough, you could partition it to have one partition for time machine and one for Logic projects (but if you do this, don't let time machine back up while you're using Logic, as the disc will be being accessed by two programmes and could have speed issues).

 

If your external drive is not big enough for this, then either save projects to the internal drive, or better yet, get another external firewire drive to save Logic projects to.

 

Whether you save your projects to a partition on your existing external drive, or get a new one, make sure that those discs are not exluded from the time machine backups. It can be heartbreaking to lose a project you one day want to go back to.

[ski]

I would definitely recommend against ever writing/moving files manually to your Time Machine backup drive. To second what's already been mentioned, let Time Machine do the work. Don't try to help it LOL! I

 

With apologies to the smoking orangutan, I would recommend against partitioning your project drive and using it both for TM backup and projects, for this reason: if the drive goes bad, you'll run a very serious risk of losing both your projects AND your backup data. And don't think, "nah, that won't happen to me". Hard drives aren't infallible. They're electro-mechanical devices that can and do go bad, usually at the worst possible time. If they were that foolproof and reliable we wouldn't need backup utilities like Time Machine.

 

Thus, ideally you should be working off of three drives:

 

• system drive (for your system, routine computer usages, but NOT for recording audio or saving Logic projects)

• project drive (for saving Logic projects and recording audio to)

• backup drive (for Time Machine)

[Rev. Juda Sleaze]

With apologies to the smoking orangutan, I would recommend against partitioning your project drive and using it both for TM backup and projects, for this reason: if the drive goes bad, you'll run a very serious risk of losing both your projects AND your backup data.

 

That's a very good point. The smoking orangutan approves this message.