What's your method for backups?

[hogger129]

I feel like I am getting OCD about this. Up until now I have been just using MakeMKV, selecting the main movie and ripping into an .mkv file and compressing the lossless audio track to FLAC and storing them on an external hard drive. Is this typically what you guys do? Is there any better solution I should be taking? Am I absolutely fine keeping the lossy audio track and the main movie title? Thanks.

[redwudz]

I convert my BDs to MKV/H.264/AC-3 files of 8GB with Vidcoder. The files are stored on my video server HDDs and
I also back the MKVs up to Verbatim DL BD discs.

I keep the original BDs, but the archival storage saves conversion time in case of HDD failure on the server.

The 8 GB filesize was chosen to fit either 3 MKVs on a SL BD or 6 MKVs on a DL BD.

For DVD backup, the same format MKV, but I use a CQ of 18.5 and use the same BD SL and DLs for archival backup.
The MKV size for DVDs varies from about .7GB to about 2GB, depending on the running time and quality of the DVD.

For just data backup, photos, text, etc., I still use the server and the BD backup system.

[lingyi]

Rip and convert Blu-Rays to MKV. Rip DVDs to ISO. Keep everything uncompressed (edit: i.e. unreencoded) on multiple hard drives in external USB cases and on my main PC. Each location is a backup for the other. Replace the drives as they near end of warranty with new, larger drives and offset the cost by selling the old ones.

The external USB cases hold four drives each and are connected to my WDTV. I use Mezzmo to stream the data on the PC drives to laptops and tablets.

As long as I don't completely brain fart (which I've done a few times in the past) and delete both sets of files when I'm upgrading my drives, I'm confident in my data safety. *Crosses fingers*

[hello_hello]

As long as I don't completely brain fart (which I've done a few times in the past) and delete both sets of files when I'm upgrading my drives, I'm confident in my data safety. *Crosses fingers*

I've done something similar before. That feeling in the pit of your stomach just after you've clicked format for the wrong drive.... it's not pleasant. Fortunately I still had another copy of the data but it made me extra, extra, extra careful.

My favourite "computers are viscous bastards" story is the time I reformatted a drive after copying all the data to to a second drive, but right after formatting was the precise moment the second drive decided to die without warning. Fortunately, I managed to get all the data off it. When it was first connected to the PC it'd make some odd noises, I'd give it a tap, it'd spin up and keep running for five or ten minutes till it quit again. That was my morning ritual for a week or two till I recovered everything.
Believe it or not that's happened to me twice. The second time I'd bought a couple of new drives and I was shuffling data around. I copied most of the files off one drive, and when I tried to copy them back the next day, the drive I'd copied them to was dead. Fortunately pretty much all the files were still duplicated on a second drive, but now when I'm shuffling files around I try my best to make sure the data's on two drives at any given moment, if possible.