How to Backup Your Files the Simple Way
We’ve all been there: After weeks or months of writing and recording, we finally have a finished song. The mix sounds great in our cars and phones; our friends are digging it.
At some point, a disaster happens, and we lose our important files. At this point, we realize we do not have a backup plan for our work. You may have a backup and can restore your data; that's great! Unfortunately, most of us don't have a solid backup plan if this occurs.
Whether you work at home in your basement studio with your band or in a commercial space, you need a backup plan. This plan starts with knowing your backup options.
Following the 3-2-1 Rule
The best way to back up your files and never lose anything again is to follow the "3-2-1" rule. This simple formula involves making three copies of your data on two different media types and backing up one copy off-site.
The guide below lists several options for backing up your data. In the best-case scenario, you would follow all the options to ensure your files are protected no matter what happens. The 3-2-1 formula ensures that your files will still be saved if your physical hard drive stops working or you spill coffee on your laptop.
Option 1: Getting 2 Backup Hard Drives
First, you need an external hard drive to record and a backup. I wholeheartedly recommend LaCie hard drives, which come in various capacities and connection types. Long & McQuade carries other external drives with different capacities and peripheral connections to explore.
People with small budgets can back up their files using a flash drive. However, remember that USB drives are typically slow, have limited storage space, and should not be used for work. Solid-state drives are faster and recommended if you plan to work directly on your projects from them.
The LaCie Rugged 2TB External Hard Drive is a popular seller among LaCie storage options
For extra caution, consider buying a third hard drive for long-term backups. This drive will save the completed projects with all songs, tracks, and stereo mixes labelled correctly.
I had a main recording hard drive and a backup drive. I manually backed up my main recording folder to the backup drive, overwriting the previous version with the new data. One time, I wasn’t paying attention, so I moved the backup to the main drive and essentially deleted all the rhythm tracks I had just finished recording, which contained 48 songs!
As you can imagine, it was heartbreaking and led me to rethink my strategy. If you intend to do this manually (which I don’t recommend), create a new folder on the backup drive with the name/date/project and then move the files inside this folder. That way, you have a timeline for the project with multiple instances. It also lessens the risk of copying over something incorrectly, like I did.
Option 2: Automatic Backup Solutions
Using backup software to automate file backups is a smart way to avoid forgetting to backup your data and prevent mistakes.
There are several great software options that can perform automatic file transfers in the background. One is the Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich (available for the Mac operating system only). For PCs, you can use EaseUS ToDo Backup. There are also a few open-source options, like Clonezilla.
Create a schedule to back up your work. It could be at the end of the day or the end of the week—whichever works for you. The schedule you create will copy your important data to an external disk drive. Make sure your external storage is always connected to your computer.
Option 3: Online Cloud Storage
The next thing to consider is having storage off-site. You can use a cloud backup service like Dropbox or Google Drive to move individual files to the cloud. If an accident was to happen to your offline hard drives, there’s a digital copy somewhere else.
This statement may show my gray hair, but having a high-quality copy of your final mix in a physical format can save you. In the instance where all of your multitrack files have somehow disappeared, you at least have a copy of the last final mix. Sure, the mix may not be exactly what you wanted, but it’s better than not having it at all, right?
Preserving Your Work: A Smarter Backup Strategy
Imagine this—you’ve just finished mixing a song, and months later, you need to revisit it. But when you open the project, all the tracks are labelled “Audio 1,” “Audio 2,” and so on. Instead of diving into the mix, you’re sorting through a mess of unnamed files. That’s why having a solid backup strategy is crucial.
Creating a high-quality stereo mix of your final track is a great starting point. A straightforward method is to use a Zoom H4 Essential handheld recorder to capture the mix in real-time and save it onto an SD card. Store the SD card safely until the project is finished. This way, you always have a final copy of your active project.
If you prefer a physical format for long-term storage, consider a dedicated CD or media recorder, such as the Tascam CD-RW900SX CD Recorder/Player or the Tascam Solid State Two-Channel Networking CD and Media Recorder.
Always record in WAV format for the highest quality. While MP3s are convenient, they lack the fidelity needed for professional backups.
Backing Up Multitrack Sessions
When you’ve wrapped up a project, your backup shouldn’t stop at just the final mix. Save all your multi-track files as consolidated WAVs, ensuring they’re clearly labelled. This makes it easy to reload them into any DAW in the future without the headache of renaming and sorting tracks.
Final Backup Checklist
- Stick to a backup schedule—consistency is key.
- Use off-site storage or cloud solutions for redundancy (keeping your data duplicated).
- Name your files properly so they’re easy to understand months (or even years) later.
- Plan for long-term backups because you never know when you’ll want to remix an old project.
Taking the time to back up your work correctly ensures your music is always accessible, whether you need it next week or thirty years from now. Following all the steps above will put you in the best position to never lose your essential projects and personal photos again.
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Shane joined Long & McQuade in 2019 when he started in the rentals department. He continues to work in rentals and is also the resident "recording nerd." Prior to working at Long & McQuade, Shane was a recording engineer producer for a small independent world music label in Winnipeg. During that time, he was nominated for and won many awards. Shane's current musical project is a "Pizza & Wings" band, in which he plays rhythm guitar. The band plays for a few hours weekly, then goes out for wings.
