Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

The Placid Casual · Apr 3, 2003, 12:08 PM

I am too distraught to go into details. I would just caution people not to.

Marc

gorickey · Apr 3, 2003, 12:51 PM

Don't tell me, you lost like 5,000+ songs worth of MP3's?? Just a hunch.

mitchell_pgh · Apr 3, 2003, 01:01 PM

You can't just post "Don't rely on Backup App." and leave it as that...

Some of us trust it and need to know what made you not trust the app. Obviously you lost data, but how...

The Placid Casual · Apr 3, 2003, 01:21 PM

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
You can't just post "Don't rely on Backup App." and leave it as that...

Some of us trust it and need to know what made you not trust the app. Obviously you lost data, but how...

Ok, not sure what part of the process was to blame, but gorickey hit is spot on (you're psychic right?

)

5000 Mp3s / 18 Gigs worth down the tubes.

Basically OS X 10.2.4 wrecked my machine (Dual 867, 512 RAM), and made it totally unstable... it possibly has a Logic board issue as well, but that seems not to have contributed to the problems...

Anyway I had to back everything up before doing a total clean install as a 'save your' data install failled to correct the problems...

I put all my apps and documents into one file and compressed it with 'Stuffit'... them backed that up over 4 CDs with Backup.

I them did the same with 18 gigs of MPs, over 8 Cds...

I then made sure they unstuffed OK... No problems were encountered.

(I had no other way of backing it up as I lent my External HDD to a mate.)

Anyway, I reinstalled and all system problems have been corrected...

I installed 'back up' and restored the 'work' Cds... Expanded them... No problems.

Did the same withthe CDs, but the 'stuffed' file is showing as corrupt. Nothing I have done can get it to work... Error 17538 is displayed.

I have no way of knowing if it was 'Stuffit' that has caused the problems or the disk spanning in backup... but just thought I'd warn people...

Peace,

Marc

KidRed · Apr 3, 2003, 01:22 PM

You may be crushed, but an empty warning without details of your experience doesn't merit much faith. To us, you possibly could have done something incorrectly, or have a funky sytem configuration.

We need the juice!

CatOne · Apr 3, 2003, 01:24 PM

Originally posted by Marc2211:
I am too distraught to go into details. I would just caution people not to.

Marc

Here's my way to backup -- very simple.

Get an external firewire HD. Once every couple weeks, drag my entire home directory to the external HD (deleting old version first). No stuffit, no nothing. Just ~38 gigs of data (pictures, MP3s). Rest of the time leave the firewire HD unconnected.

Works great. Restoration is very easy. If a file gets corrupted, it's only 1 file, you don't lose 5 GB of stuff in the .zip file.

MP3s and images aren't really compressable anyway. They're already highly compressed.

LightWaver-67 · Apr 3, 2003, 01:30 PM

Ummm... I coulda sworn that Backup does NOT... repeat NOT backup the songs... it JUST backs-up your iTunes Library DB files... NOT the actual songs. There's no way Apple would host multiple Gigabytes of data for every .mac user to backup their audio files. It ONLY backs-up the library DATA so you would not need to rebuild your playlists, renaming or ID tags, etc.

I may be wrong.

The Placid Casual · Apr 3, 2003, 01:37 PM

Originally posted by KidRed:
You may be crushed, but an empty warning without details of your experience doesn't merit much faith. To us, you possibly could have done something incorrectly, or have a funky sytem configuration.

We need the juice!

Totally standard system configuration, 10.2.4.

Not funky setups.

Machine: Dual 867 PM, totally standard apart from an extra 256 MB RAM, and an extra internal CD-RW (not used in this procedure.)

After I compressed the Mp3s, I them used 'Expander' to enlarge the files again... this worked fine so I assumed the fault was not with Stuffit...

As for back up, I just dragged the 'compressed' file to back up and selected the 'back-up to CD and DVD' option... it clacualted how many disks I would need, and did its thing...

Done it hundreds of times before with no problem... although not with the file sof this size.

Peace,

Marc

The Placid Casual · Apr 3, 2003, 01:39 PM

Originally posted by CatOne:
Here's my way to backup -- very simple.

Get an external firewire HD. Once every couple weeks, drag my entire home directory to the external HD (deleting old version first). No stuffit, no nothing. Just ~38 gigs of data (pictures, MP3s). Rest of the time leave the firewire HD unconnected.

Works great. Restoration is very easy. If a file gets corrupted, it's only 1 file, you don't lose 5 GB of stuff in the .zip file.

MP3s and images aren't really compressable anyway. They're already highly compressed.

I usually do it exactly the same way, and have never lost any significant amounts of data... However I lent my external drive to a mate at work a few weeks ago who has never given it back!

Sods law I guess

Peace,

Marc

The Placid Casual · Apr 3, 2003, 01:41 PM

Originally posted by LightWaver-67:
Ummm... I coulda sworn that Backup does NOT... repeat NOT backup the songs... it JUST backs-up your iTunes Library DB files... NOT the actual songs. There's no way Apple would host multiple Gigabytes of data for every .mac user to backup their audio files. It ONLY backs-up the library DATA so you would not need to rebuild your playlists, renaming or ID tags, etc.

I may be wrong.

If you choose the built in option to 'backup iTunes Library' you are 100% right...

However if you read my description above, you will see that this is not what I did.

Peace,

Marc

LightWaver-67 · Apr 3, 2003, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by Marc2211:
If you choose the built in option to 'backup iTunes Library' you are 100% right...

However if you read my description above, you will see that this is not what I did.

Peace,

Marc

My bad... I just skimmed... did not fully read. Ignore me.

Spliffdaddy · Apr 3, 2003, 03:30 PM

I don't think 18GB of mp3s will compress enough to fit on 8 CDRs.

I have one-third as many tracks as you, yet it takes a dozen CDRs to back them up - uncompressed.

Fallout · Apr 3, 2003, 03:46 PM

That same **** happened to me once, only with Zip disks and a different app. Since then I've never compressed my backups. Better to use an extra CD-R then to have the whole backup corropted.

The Placid Casual · Apr 3, 2003, 04:45 PM

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
I don't think 18GB of mp3s will compress enough to fit on 8 CDRs.

I have one-third as many tracks as you, yet it takes a dozen CDRs to back them up - uncompressed.

I have just gone through it all, and it was 16.1 gig of Mp3s. The other 1.9 gig was work stuff. They compressed though 'Dropstuff' down to 4.1 gig... I then used 7 700MB CD-Rs.

I'm not trying to mislead people. I wish what happened to me hadn't been the case.

Peace,

Marc

mikellanes · Apr 3, 2003, 05:24 PM

I could probably get most of it out (except whichever segment is corrupt) basically turning each segment into its own stuffit file...

where do you live?

Kaner · Apr 3, 2003, 05:32 PM

things you own end up owning you.

i lost 70 gigs worth of mp3s not to long ago. Ive been feeling free ever since. Now i just consentrate on collecting every essential mix, oh and I also have a website where you can download every single one ive got.

if i wouldnt have lost all that music, this inspiration would not have come to me.

also, you should have known something was up when you actually thought 17 gigs compressed into 4. that just isnt possible buddy.

tooki · Apr 3, 2003, 06:41 PM

Why use Backup.app to segment a Stuffit archive when you can just segment using Stuffit?

tooki

::maroma:: · Apr 3, 2003, 07:19 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
Why use Backup.app to segment a Stuffit archive when you can just segment using Stuffit?

tooki

Right. This is where I think the trouble is. Stuffit files have perpetual PMS. They go and get corrupt over the smallest little things all the damn time. Having Backup.app segment a large Stuffit archive such as that very easily could have pissed off that Stuffit archive enough to corrupt it.

As a matter of fact, I really don't trust Backup.app to segment any large amounts of data to multiple CDs for me. I really wish it had the feature to backup to another drive. I usually backup my essential files through the default setup in Backup.app to my iDisk. I also backup my entire install using Carbon Copy Cloner to a seperate drive. Fortunately, I haven't had to do a restore since using X, so I can't really attest to the success of it. I know this is of little consolation now, but I thought I'd mention my method.

bradoesch · Apr 3, 2003, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by LightWaver-67:
It ONLY backs-up the library DATA so you would not need to rebuild your playlists, renaming or ID tags, etc.

I may be wrong.

The ID3 tags (is that what you meant by ID?) are part of the song file. Just being technical.

http://www.id3.org/id3v1.html

The Placid Casual · Apr 3, 2003, 07:34 PM

Cheers for the imput guys...

I guess I am really stuffed (and stupid). I just didn't realise that you could segment 'Stuffit' files in 'stuffit' itself... and they were so fragile when messed about with...

I usually only ever back up with a DVD-R or an external HD and have very little experience 'stuffing' or compressing files despite having used Macs since '95!!... A large lesson has been learnt;

And I guess my grandiose warning as to backup is also now somewhat redundant, as it is a pure case of user error

I have marked down April 4th in my diary as the official day of mourning for the Mp3s, black suit is prepared. I will be hibernating from dawn until dusk on this same day next year as a mark of respect...

(Although bizarrely as Kaner mentioned, it does feel really quite liberating... kinda strange...)

OwlBoy · Apr 3, 2003, 09:15 PM

Originally posted by Kaner:
oh and I also have a website where you can download every single one ive got.

.

Awsome man, Awsome.

-Owl

brainchild2b · Apr 3, 2003, 09:41 PM

Your to idiotic to backup your mp3s by copying them to CDs? don't use backup.app for that. it's pointless to try to compress .mp3

Just use your head when you back stuff up. What took you so long to wait to copy them to cd? You should have backed them up when you only had 500mb of mp3s, shouldn't have waited till you had 18gb.

That's what happens, if something was that important to you, then you should have protected it. end of story.

::maroma:: · Apr 3, 2003, 11:06 PM

Originally posted by brainchild2b:
Your to idiotic to backup your mp3s by copying them to CDs? don't use backup.app for that. it's pointless to try to compress .mp3

Just use your head when you back stuff up. What took you so long to wait to copy them to cd? You should have backed them up when you only had 500mb of mp3s, shouldn't have waited till you had 18gb.

That's what happens, if something was that important to you, then you should have protected it. end of story.

Wow, nice response.

I think he has learned from this experience (as he has already stated). And your insulting comments probably won't help him next time.

Hawkeye · Apr 3, 2003, 11:35 PM

30GB of MP3s, my friends. Not Napster downloads, but my entire CD collection, legitimate MP3s, with all ID3 tags done manually -- it's an orchestral library, and I HATE the way most idiots list their CDs. It was a lot of work that got sucked into oblivion.

I used Backup to backup my "MP3" folder. It spanned over many, many CDs. When I went to restore the data ... nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch. Error.

I don't know what it was. It could've been anything, but since then I just don't entrust that much data to a free app that I got for signing up for a $100 email address.

I just plug in my trusty Firewire HD and copy everythng over.

You're right to say "Don't rely on 'Backup,'" but you should qualify that with the statement "for the big stuff."

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

schwachs · Apr 4, 2003, 10:07 AM

ouch.