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Optimum Solution for Backing-up HDR-Fox T2 Recordings (not CF)?

N

Newcoppiceman

Active Member
As our 15-year-old HDR-Fox T2 is still on its original 500GB HDD I've finally resolved to implement a scheme to regularly backup the folders/programmes it contains to external hard media on a regular basis. The HDD is currently about three-quarters full and its contents actively managed.

I have two spare working units whose HDDs I can pinch should the in-service HDD fail - or show signs it's about to - or implement alternative storage solutions as detailed elsewhere. Many of the recordings are of snooker with some HD files running to several hours.

I don't currently have the custom firmware installed. I did install it in autumn 2023 but then had all sorts of issues, normal operation finally being restored some six months later after removing it and performing a system flush; the PVR has been good-as-gold since then. Analysis of the HDD while the CF was installed showed it was in remarkably good condition (but that was a year ago).

So I'm looking for a regime for backing-up the HDD which doesn't use CF or a separate computer. That each backup might take ages isn't necessarily a problem if it can be done overnight, say. Ideally I'd have 7 external backup hard media and run a backup each day. Cost is less of an issue than ensuring a straightforward, reliable means of creating copies of the HDD's content. Thoughts and suggestions invited, especially from those who might already have such regimes in place.
 
The simplest would be to plug a USB drive into the box and manually start copies of the latest recordings as part of your daily ritual
 
MymsMan said:
The simplest would be to plug a USB drive into the box and manually start copies of the latest recordings as part of your daily ritual
Click to expand...
Worth considering, I suppose. This would be an incremental backup approach rather than making several full copies each week to different hardware which would provide more redundancy and might be simpler, albeit that it would take longer to execute. Thanks.
 
How many full copies do you need!
Once you have made your first full copy it would be faster to make duplicates on another machine - the Humax has a pretty slow USB transfer speed.
Obviously some copies should be moved offsite for safety.
There is little point in backing up every day recordings made a year ago - you only need to backup recordings made since the full copy

But is it really worth the effort - how often do you rewatch old snooker matches!
 
MymsMan said:
How many full copies do you need!
Once you have made your first full copy it would be faster to make duplicates on another machine - the Humax has a pretty slow USB transfer speed.
Obviously some copies should be moved offsite for safety.
There is little point in backing up every day recordings made a year ago - you only need to backup recordings made since the full copy

But is it really worth the effort - how often do you rewatch old snooker matches!
Click to expand...
Much will depend on how long it actually takes to copy (up to) 500GB to USB-connected storage. Do you know what the PVR's USB transfer speed is? Multiple full copies provide better security than just relying on one. If I did a daily full backup (to capture latest recordings) and that (a) took an acceptable length of time, and (b) was simple to do (ie I wouldn't need to identify the latest recordings) then I would get 7 copies of more-or-less up-to-date backups as a by-product.

I never watch old snooker matches, but I am just about to watch the last few frames of 2024's (yes, 2024's) Crucible final as it has taken me over a year to watch all the coverage I recorded last year. And I have some 37 files of this year's tournament on the HDD.
 
I'm not sure how you'll produce incremental backups without some (external?) aid. I don't think using the standard HDR firmware to copy, say a folder/directory folder1 from the internal drive to external drive will work well after 1st copy. I.e Will it ignore it so that you won't have duplicate files or will it produce another copy (with new suffixes)?
There is the added complication of what if you delete fileX from folder1 on the internal drive since the last backup? How will that reflect on the external drive backup - do nothing or should it also remove the fileX? How are you going to implement it?
 
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Looking at some other threads, it appears the USB transfer speed is around 2-10MB/s and limited by the PVR's SoC (System on Chip) so that would be an order of magnitude too slow to be practical.
 
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