Compare 60GB of files in less than 10 secs!

A few days back, I posted about my backup process. In that post, I described how it takes approximately 2 hours to do this backup. The reason why it took this much is because I would first delete the whole contents of the backup hard-disk and do a complete copy from the first to the second. I always wanted a tool that will compare both directories for differences and allow me to only copy those new files from the main disk to the backup disk.

The first software tool that I tried was Araxis Merge. I had this tool already installed because it works great for file content comparisons. So instead of trying out new software, I decided to try what I already have. I found out quickly that I wouldn’t be using Araxis for my music collection because it was taking a long time to do the comparison – it took so long that I had to cancel the process. After a quick Google search, I found Compare Advance . Compare Advance compared the whole 80GB of my music file directories in less than 10 seconds. I have found a keeper. The price is not bad either – $24.95.

From the above screenshot, we can see the analyis that was done on my collection. Folder 1 (my main hard-disk) contains 10,008 files and folder 2 (my backup disk) contains roughly 300 less files. This means that since my last backup, I have added about 300 files to my collection. The size of the folders compared are roughly 60GB and 57.5 for folders 1 and 2, respectively. The process of backing up my files has just been curtailed to a few minutes from a couple hours. I no longer need to copy 60GB, instead I just need to copy 2.5GB.

Hitachi’s New 1TB Hard Disk and 250GB USB-Powered Portable Disk

The 250GB USB-powered disk is $250. There is no price out yet for the 1TB external hard-disk. I think that 250GB is more than enough for my 80GB collection. I have no use for the 1TB disk, for now. I would only take up 8% of the 1TB space with my current collection. By the time I reach to the point in time when my collection requires 1TB, a few years will have passed and this 1TB disk would be obsolete.

So just how much will 1 TB of music files is, really? Some quick and rounded math provides these figures:

• 20,833 Hours of Music
• 868 Days of Music
• roughly 2 years and 4 Months of Continuous Music without repeating a single song.

* Assuming 1GB is about 250 Songs and each song is about 5mins.

10+ years of collecting mp3s down the drain?

No, it did not happen. I did not loose all of my 80+ GB of mp3 files I have collected in about 10 years. However, the though of this occurring is always on my mind. I am taking precautions at this time in case of a disk failure, but I need one more level of security.

Currently, I have two copies of all my digital music files in two separate Western Digital USB external hard disks. One is always connected and the 2nd disk is only connected when backing up the files from the 1st disk. I usually create a complete backup about once a month. The process of backing up the files from disk #1 to disk #2 takes about 2 hours and is not one of my favorite things to do.

I realize that my current backup system is good, but not optimal. I still run the risk of having both disks failed, having both disks stolen, or both disks damaged. The only way I can finally have a peace-of-mind is to have a complete backup somewhere outside of my house – an online backup service. There are only two requirements that an online service must have for me to even concider them: unlimited storage (or at least a few hundred GB) and relatively cheap. A quick Google search landed me into this company: Carbonite. For $49.95 a year I can store an unlimited number of files for online backups. I just have a few questions about this service: I wonder how much time it will take to upload all of my files? would this online system be ’smart’ enough to only grab the new files from my disk rather than do a complete backup each time? I will sign up for the demo and log my experiences here in the coming weeks.