Music libraries - maintaining / redundancy

Hi guys,

I apologise if this is off-topic…

We maintain our music library on a dedicated drive in the PC used for playout. The entire contents are also kept on an external hard drive, and another networked drive.

This is fine if we need to restore, but are finding that folders or files are accidentally moved, renamed or deleted on the ‘live’ library via Windows Explorer and it produces gaps in the playlist when mAirList can’t find that file later in the day / week.

Presenters’ music is in a different location to try and mitigate some of this…

I just wondered if anyone has come across this issue before, and how you maintain your music library / keep it controlled?

Thanks,

Jim

We’re about to address this very issue, so I hope these thoughts will help.

What you need is a product which keeps drives/folders in sync on a regular basis (in your case, that sounds like it might need to be every two hours or so! ;D).

There are several of these around; some are paid-for products, some are open source freeware. Most offer automatic sync., others (such as bk Compare Folders http://bkprograms.weebly.com/compare-folders.html) highlight the ‘missing’ files and let YOU decide what to do about the differences, so it’s useful when you start this process off; because you can do fairly quick comparisons and figure out which files you want to keep in all your folders/locations, and almost as importantly, which ones you want to junk!

Then you can use something like Microsoft SyncToy, DSynchronize, FreeFileSync, or paid-for ones like Allway Sync, Backup4All, and so on. Many of the paid products also have freeware versions, usually with limitations: limitations which may or may not be relevant to your intended usage. :wink:

A useful comparison chart is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_synchronization_software.
That should get you started on a comparative evaluation process.

What you’ll end up with is a basically self-managing (and self-healing ;)) set of folders in different locations, which are (like the famous ‘maze of little twisty passages’) ‘all alike.’

PS: It’s not off-topic at all, IMHO.

BFN
Cad

I can’t add much to Cad’s reply except to say that he’s named a few good examples of sync apps to look at. I am using SyncbackPro although they have a “Standard Edition” and there’s a free one floating around if you look. I regularly take my laptop away with me so it comes in handy to get documents, source-code and even music all sync’d and ready to use.

I found Syncback to offer the best features and a simple layout with a variety of (hidden, if you prefer) options for copying and dealing with file clashes (ie: most recent file wins) plus filters to prevent certain file types from being copied. It also supports profiles so that you can have different folders at different times.

let me add robocopy, it is a Microsoft command line tool, very helpful for creating batch files or Windows Events for synchronisation.

[quote=“Cad, post:2, topic:7491”]What you need is a product which keeps drives/folders in sync on a regular basis (in your case, that sounds like it might need to be every two hours or so! ;D).

There are several of these around; some are paid-for products, some are open source freeware. Most offer automatic sync., others (such as bk Compare Folders http://bkprograms.weebly.com/compare-folders.html) highlight the ‘missing’ files and let YOU decide what to do about the differences, so it’s useful when you start this process off; because you can do fairly quick comparisons and figure out which files you want to keep in all your folders/locations, and almost as importantly, which ones you want to junk!

Then you can use something like Microsoft SyncToy, DSynchronize, FreeFileSync, or paid-for ones like Allway Sync, Backup4All, and so on. Many of the paid products also have freeware versions, usually with limitations: limitations which may or may not be relevant to your intended usage. ;)[/quote]

Hi Cad - thank you for the suggestions, that sounds like a good approach to me. I do like the idea of the self-managing folders.

The software looks great and I’ll try those out on a few test folders / drives and see how the automatic approach or highlighting the files works. Every two hours might not be far off! :wink:

Thank you Charlie - Syncback looks like a good option (the simple layout seems good), and I’ll try it out too.

Thank you shorty.xs, I hadn’t thought about Robocopy. I’ve used it briefly, but not at the station before - I’ll download the latest version and take another look.

Here is an excellent program used by some radio automation systems in the States for the very same purpose. It has a variety of features to meet your needs and keep all folders in-sync. One nice feature is that it can be configured to run automatically in the background-no user intervention needed.

http://www.secondcopy.com/

Regards, Alec M

To be fair, many of the others also share those features. I was concentrating on low- or no-cost solutions because I don’t know how much Jim may or may not have to spend (or be willing to spend) on this issue.

BFN
Cad

I’m using rsync :wink: And yes, also under Windows. Once you know the important parameters, it’s very easy to call it from a batch file at scheduled times.

If you prefer a graphical user interface, a free frontend is DeltaCopy.