How do you back up your maya projects?

# 1 20-12-2006 , 08:30 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Posts: 3,708

Bit of a dumb question I know, but hey, this is the newbie forum so... how do you back up your maya projects?

Really looking to get this answered from all possible angles...

Do you compress your files? What do you save to - DVD RW? How do you clean out your maya project folders to make them smaller? Do you delete all your IPR and other rendered images? Do you save your crappy animations in a seperate folder to make your files smaller? Where do you save your photoshop files - not the textures, but the actual PS files? (my photoshop is storing them under my images folder).

Is there anything else I need to be thinking about or other tips or tricks you can recommend?

Again, sorry for the dumb question, but computers and me are like chalk and cheese...

arran3D

arran3D blog

Quote

# 2 20-12-2006 , 08:59 PM

Senior Software Developer
Join Date: Jan 2005

Location: Livingston, Scotland

Posts: 1,701

Being an IT Consultant, this is one of the most important questions you will ever ask and any could ever answer. So here goes...

Backing up of Data is one of the most critical issues in IT, that businesses fail to grasp at first (that is until everything dies and there's no way to recover it), backing up your own personal data is just as important, but you wont be financially bankrupt (unless your working on a freelance project). So on that note...

At the top of the Backup Food chain is DR (Disaster Recovery), this is an exceptionally heavy and dull subject, but basically it is the ability to bring your entire systems back up and running, using a separate location that contains a duplicate of... everything.

Most businesses use either Net Backups and a SAN (Storage Area Network), this is a farm of disks that contain all the important data. There is also something called retention periods, but this really does not comply for personal use, just backup what you want when you fell you need to.

You will be aiming for backups to CD or DVD (using Windows Backup or Nero etc...) to burn it to and to store it until you need it. I used to use a tape format called DLT this is very good and can last a while for uses (over a year per tape). Seeing as every tape is about £60 and a drive can be £500-£2000, I ditched it for the more cost effective method of CD/DVDs. All my Projects are on a Network Drive and all my tutorials are backed up on DVD or CD, and stored in CD Case for reference.

That's it really. All I can advise is backup and keep it, get rewritable to save wastage of repeating the same data onto different disks.

Sorry to be sooo dull, but it is a dull subject.

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
Twitter
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix

Winner SM VFX Challenge 1

3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

Quote

# 3 20-12-2006 , 10:49 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Posts: 3,708

Thanks for the great answer R@nSiD. user added image

Not dull at all...well maybe a little, user added image

but you've given me a lot to go on!

cheers! user added image

arran3D

arran3D blog

Quote

# 4 21-12-2006 , 10:24 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2006

Location: /dev/null

Posts: 891

Based on my experience, recordable and rewritable optical media have bad reliability. What I do is I backup my files to another computer using a LAN network or to a removable hard drive.

Quote

# 5 21-12-2006 , 11:15 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: NY

Posts: 208

In my case, I usually back up to DVD, and I also have a seperate Hard Drive just for backing up important files. Also, I make multiple copies of final versions, just so I am safe.

Eric Tacti
3D Artist

Quote

# 6 21-12-2006 , 11:22 AM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

The only back up I ever do is to compress and store on my desktop and thats rare that I do that, hangs head in shame....

Just save final projects animations etc onto DVD, but I really need to start to back up everything

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Quote

# 7 25-12-2006 , 12:36 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Feb 2006

Posts: 1,937

"Bit of a dumb question I know"

not a dumb question at all, better to be safe than sorry ... user added image

well this is what i recommend and which i personally do aswell

1- every week/couple of months burn your maya folder onto a DVD/CD.
2- have a spare harddrive in your computer and also copy your maya things in there.

hope it helps, marlon

Quote

# 8 25-12-2006 , 03:11 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: London UK

Posts: 351

Every month I stuff my maya folders into empty smarties tubes, wrap them in cling film, and slide them into carcasses of dead rats, then dig mass graves in my garden and bury them.

Ok admittedly i was just trying to spice up the subject, the truth is that I'm completely lame and never back up anything, and thoroughly regret it when my computer dies randomly. Do yourself a favour and buy an external drive that you can back up to every time you work on something. ie. save to both a C: and D: drive.

Game art WIP - Speeder Bike
Game art WIP - Speeder Bike Rider
Game art WIP - Ornathopter!

Quote

# 9 25-12-2006 , 08:32 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Posts: 3,708

Hey - thanks for the great responses everyone - sorry this reply is a bit late. I definitely need to get a seperate hard drive and also get in the habit of backing up my work.

Originally posted by petrol
Every month I stuff my maya folders into empty smarties tubes, wrap them in cling film, and slide them into carcasses of dead rats, then dig mass graves in my garden and bury them.

Originally Posted by

ha ha - I nearly choked on my xmas mash potatoes when I read that... user added image

arran3D

arran3D blog

Quote

# 10 27-12-2006 , 01:13 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: Big D, TX

Posts: 4

Since I'm a student and don't own a portable drive, I just email individual files to myself, if the attachments aren't too huge.

GG,
Long P. Nguyen

Quote

# 11 27-12-2006 , 06:48 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Feb 2006

Posts: 1,937

haha petrol, great story user added image

@ lphi - smart idea, i might start doing that when i have no cds and cant be bothered buying them lol ...

Quote

# 12 02-01-2007 , 11:56 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: NY

Posts: 208

Great idea, petrol! I knew that bucket of rat carcasses would come in handy. But, out of curiousity, does it have to be Smarties wrappers? Can I substitute with SweetTarts?

Eric Tacti
3D Artist

Quote

# 13 03-01-2007 , 01:45 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: London

Posts: 1,135

i back up on anything i get my hands on from CD's , external hd and flash drives

also if u want it for free create a goolge or lycos account (i prefer lycos) and u get online storage for free
lycos is up to 300mb FREE or pay for more
cant remem wat google gives u though

plus u can access from any where in the world

[uploading as im typing now]

Now at SMU doing BSc 3D Computer Animation so its hard to get on here
My wire render tut https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...threadid=20973

Quote

# 14 03-01-2007 , 03:00 AM

Senior Software Developer
Join Date: Jan 2005

Location: Livingston, Scotland

Posts: 1,701

docs.google.com if memory serves me...

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
Twitter
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix

Winner SM VFX Challenge 1

3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

Quote

# 15 03-01-2007 , 06:41 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Feb 2006

Posts: 1,937

yeah the free storage comparments on the web are very usual.. especially if you need a video for school and have seem to lost your usb drive and ran out of cds.. user added image

Quote

How do you back up your maya projects?

Posting Rules Forum Rules

Similar Threads

Topics

Free Courses

Full Courses

VFX News