Same question would apply to any data copying. I have never had an issue thus far. Chronosync does not compress or produce an archive of any sort, it literally makes an exact copy.
One of the reasons I rotate through drives is that if I discover an issue of corruption or computer hijack I can hopefully go back to an older copy. I use this workflow for all my data, not just music, and the drives are purposefully NOT permanently connected to the computer, I drop them in the toaster when I am updating them. This is to avoid virus/hijack contagium.
Also, the backups are done per physical drive, and are identical copies, so if a drive fails, I can simply drop-in the backup and I am off to the races.
You could be asking “What if a track or album was corrupted in the first place from day 1”. That is not something I check and the question is completely orthogonal to a backup strategy in the first place.
Regarding corrupt drives one thing I have borne in mind is that batches of drives from a single manufacturer may exhibit a common fault ( I can think of one USB HDD drive from a major manufacturer some tears ago as an example). As a single backup drive is not advisable and multiple copies ( e.g. 3) is preferable I use a different brand for each.
Back in the early 2000’s I built PCs from scratch as an OEM, Hitachi released a series of Deskstar hard drives with excellent £/performance. Bought loads of them in batches, every single one failed, they got the nickname Deathstar. Thereafter I did what you suggest, purchased small batches - different makes and models.
RAID can go some way towards fixing errors that might appear on discs, but it’s worth bearing in mind that minor errors on this media seem few and far between (when errors do occur, they are either corrected as the drive gradually fails or catastophic, obvious losses of data rather than corrupted bits going undetected).
I would argue a few corrupted bits that go undetected is far worse than not being able to read a file at all (assuming you have a suitable backup strategy in place) and, in my experience, the biggest culprits today are: 1) unexpected power loss; 2) software bugs; and 3) a lack of ECC memory being offered in consumer devices.
Backups will help, but that isn’t much good you if your RAM starts failing and a machine writes corrupted data back to the disc, simply because this may not be discovered for a while.
As always, the best option to store multiple backups that retain several previous versions of each file (such as a copy from one day ago, another copy from a week ago, a month ago and a year ago etc).
This has occupied me for the past couple of years and is difficult. The first issue is that you have a proper will ( not self made). I would suggest that you find a way of notifying your significant passwords to your executor and keep it up to date.g. a " To be opened in case of my death" document. No point in keeping passwords electronically protected by another password stored only electronically in such a case. It is necessary that the data is accessible by an authorised third party so just passing on a drive or computer may prove inadequate.
I agree, although suspect this is about to become more complicated with the mainstream introduction of passkeys.
It would be nice if the likes of Apple had the notion of keys that are transferrable to a specified individual upon death (as well as keys that aren’t transferrable) - and that this vault should remain transferrable for a period of time after death).
Thanks for your thought which I hadn’t appreciated earlier.
The more that I think about this the more confusing it becomes. Can one legally pass on your data to third parties? I am not just considering data files in an abstract sense but in regard to the data therein the transfer of which may infringe the Data Protection Act ( countries other than the UK may well have their own version). Or what about music files? It remains illegal to rip discs ( subject to local legislation). However the record industry has stated that it is not their policy to prosecute private individuals who have bought the disc and only make copies for the technical requirement of their private replay. But which part of the record industry? RIAA which only relates to the USA, BPI ( UK) or IFPI ( international)? Can that policy extend to bequests applied after death where the recipient has never bought the music? What about the separate rights in musical compositions?
Too many traps to make recommendations in public IMO .Perhaps the IT industry in the domestic sphere is too young to have evolved answers?
I seem to recall reading that the music industry considers music downloads as licensed to the individual who was gifted or purchased the license and that license expires when they die. Whether this is consistent with UK/EU law is another matter.
As I said earlier he copying of copyright sound recordings without the authorisation of the rights owner is illegal - period. The only reason that we can do it is what is understood to be the record industry’s policy. That is , briefly, the act of copying remains illegal under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) but they ( as rights owners) will not prosecute in situations of copies made of purchased recordings solely for the technical ability of private replay. Which may indeed be seen as a form of licence. But where does this policy emanate from and how correctly has it been reported?
Death of the maker or possessor does not alter the legal position however that such copies are illicit under the terms of CDPA if the industry policy does not extend beyond the maker who purchased the original disc. We really need some form of official definition which I have never seen. There is also the matter of any separate copyright that subsists in the musical work as opposed to the sound recording.
Thanks Jeremy as your question has resulted in my spending some time researching the current position. I have found that I was out of date and what had been an area not covered by UK law within the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been resolved by a textual amendment to S.28b.
The amendment provides for " Personal Copies for Private Use" that ( my précis) recordings purchased ( lawfully acquired) by an individual may be copied and backed up, format shifted or stored for private use. This includes downloads. However, given the subject of this thread, the copyright is infringed if the copy is transferred to another person except on a private and temporary basis.
Sorry that my knowledge was outdated but hopefully this correction may put matters right.
I have a copy on two NAS, and I have a vinyl copy of most of my preferred music…In case of a fire I lose everything, in case of burglary I lose what they can take, and that is where vinyl and dCS multi boxes is good…It is heavy and there are so many cables to remove
Great question. Reading some of the responses here I realise there are some holes in my strategy.
My music collection stored on a Synology DS216+ (2-bay) in RAID 1 configuration with 2 8TB Samsung 870 QVO SSDs. My collection is quite static now, it consists of 90% of ripped CDs and 10% downloads, mostly hi res PCM so a daily backup strategy is not really necessary. I rarely buy stuff now unless I really like it, then I will get a hi res download if available, otherwise I stream the best available resolution from Qobuz.
However the same NAS also acts as a time machine for the family’s Macs (x6) and, way more importantly, stores my entire digital (non-iPhone) photo archive. The photos are backed up to a separate USB drive, WD I think, and the whole NAS is mirrored once a year to my old NAS which we keep at the summer house so I have local music availability there.
I do plan to upgrade my primary NAS to a 4-bay with RAID 5 when I have fixed a couple of higher priority issues. Looking at a QNAP TS-i410x.
Reading this thread has given me lots of food for thought though!
No issues at all so far. However they are fairly new, only swapped a couple of months ago after one of my WD Reds started flashing a lot of scary warnings. So there are maybe issues I haven’t encountered yet? Are there any known problems or issues with these drives I should know about? Any links?
Main msic storage is my Pink Faun 2.16x Ultra.
Secondary storage and backup for the PF is on a Synology DS1522+ running SHR Raid (5).
The 1522+ backs up to a DS218 with 2x 8tb disks as a JBOD.
The DS218 backs up to an external HDD. Nothing offsite though.
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