hello. Is there an efficient way to compress mp3's for backup??

[Bozono]

I'm gonna sell a HD but I happened to get my music tagged and sorted how I like it. I don't have the space to copy it over right now, so I was hoping to compress it as much as possible.

Also, is there a way to span the files across multiple DVDs so I don't have to break them up in chunks?

 

[BlueWeasel]

I've wondered about this same thing myself.

Generally, the answer is no. MP3s are already compressed like 10-11x (when compared to the original WAV file) and like other compressed files (JPGs), it's hard to compress them even further.

But I've seen programs that specialize in compressing specfic file types, so I'm not sure if it's entirely possible or not.

 

[manno]

that would be like trying to compress a zip file you might get 1 - 5% copression at the most so if you had 50 gigs of music you might be able to compress it down to 47.5-49 gigs at best

 

[lozina]

as for the file over multiple DVDs question...

Just use WinRAR! It will allow you to take a giant collection or files (or one file) and put it in an archive that splits them at a size you want

For example:

1.select all files
2. right-click and say 'add to archive...' (option appears in windows explorer once you install winrar)
3. in the dialog that opens up there is an input at the bottom left labelled 'split to volumes, bytes'. Put the max size you want for each volume here. (i.e. 32m for 32 megabytes, 32k for 32 kilobytes..)
4. click OK

then it will put all your files in nice volumes which will be no larger than the size you specified

 

[apinomus]

I would disagree on the recommendation of WinRAR. If he burns these to CD/DVD, even if 1 of the discs get damaged, he's out his entire collection as you need all archives in-tact to extract them. My suggestion would be to just add songs/albums to the disc until it's full, then burn away.

 

[allstars]

Get another HD and move files over before selling the original HD.

As read in other posts here, mp3´s allready compressed and making "back-up solution" is NOT worth it, as one also said. 1 files dead, and whole archieve is dead.

You need to decide if you want to get rid of HD or keep music.

 

[allstars]

Agree 200% with apinomus...

I lost 25 cd´s of graphics work, special-effects and so which i created over like 2 years, by backing them up to dvd that way.. 2 files were corrupt on dvd´s and whole archive died. BIG BUMMER..

NOT RECOMMENDED!!

 

[lozina]

That's a good point about splitting the files, lose one archive and you lose everything!

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: apinomus
I would disagree on the recommendation of WinRAR. If he burns these to CD/DVD, even if 1 of the discs get damaged, he's out his entire collection as you need all archives in-tact to extract them. My suggestion would be to just add songs/albums to the disc until it's full, then burn away.

MMM, no.

WinRAR can add a recovery record so that a partially damaged file can still be recovered. It also has an option for additional recovery volumes. These split volumes work like a raid array. You can set it so that you burn 8 discs worth of data onto 10 discs. If *ANY* two of the discs get lost all the data is recoverable. This is much better than simply writing them to disc as individual files. What happens again when you lose a volume??

As for compression:

yea those suckers don't compress. If it were possible to squeze them any more they wouldn't have to resort to a lossy compression eh?

WinRAR can help with this too. Use the 'solid archive' option. It will look for duplicate (and hence very compressible) data not within a single file, but within all files. This is a very, very slow compression method but it makes things that are otherwise uncompressible work. I find it too slow myself though and would just rather deal with the extra volumes needed.

 

[Metron]

The only real way to reduce the file sizes is to re-record each original mp3 at a lower sampling rate, but I doubt you really wanted to hear that.

You'd be much better off buying this 300 GB SATA Seagate drive for $99.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

7zip + QuickPar FTW!

 

[0roo0roo]

yea stay away from winrar. its a stupid idea, corruption and u can lose all within. you can add recovery records or par files all you want..but why? its a lot of trouble and time for no reason and just adds a huge risk of data loss. just copy straight to dvdr ..whats so hard about that? double copy if you are paranoid. discs are dirt cheap. and no, even with winrar media compression...its not going to do anything worth bothering with. compression isn't magic after all, mp3s have to resort to being lossy to get the low bitrates they achieve.

 

[shortylickens]

Just use Roxio or Nero. Keep adding files until you hit 4.7GB. Then burn.
To make it easier, organize them on the HD in directories of 4.7GB.

Just how much music are we talking about here?
It may be better to swap them to another HD if you have 100GB worth.

 

[Metron]

He was asking in the OP about how to span DVD's without having to break up the files into chunks, so he's talking about lots of gigabytes.

Buy the new disk I recommended... 300 GB for $99, that's 33 cents a GB. Buy the disk, copy the data, done.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea stay away from winrar. its a stupid idea, corruption and u can lose all within. you can add recovery records or par files all you want..but why? its a lot of trouble and time for no reason and just adds a huge risk of data loss. just copy straight to dvdr ..whats so hard about that? double copy if you are paranoid. discs are dirt cheap. and no, even with winrar media compression...its not going to do anything worth bothering with. compression isn't magic after all, mp3s have to resort to being lossy to get the low bitrates they achieve.

Dude, you're not getting it. With recovery records you can decrease your risk.

Consider 10 discs of mps3 in the following scenarios:

1. 10 discs just written file by file.
2. 10 discs written as a spanned winrar volume
3. 12 discs written as a spanned winrar volume with recovery volumes and a recovery record.

What happens if you get a nasty scratch on a disc?

1. You lose whatever files were under the scratch (at best).
2. You lose 100% of your files (at worst)
3. Nothing. The recovery record has enough redundant data.

Now what happens if you completely lose 2 of your discs (or if the scratches above are really extensive)?

1. You lost 20% of your files. The rest are intact.
2. You lost 100% of your files.
3. You lost 0% of your files.

Now which is the best scenario? Keep in mind CD/DVDs WILL rot over time. You're gonna lose some. Personally I dig the whole "lost 0% of your files" scenario.

Compression is a different topic altogether. mp3s won't compress for crap. The only option is a solid archive. The speed of this IMHO makes it not worth the effort. When I backup using winrar I simply put compression on 'store' for mp3s. Very fast.

These backups are for occasional archiving. For dailys I just have an external usb drive and ntbackup. I flip the drive on when I want a backup, flip it off when I'm done. Backup is scheduled to run nightly so it fails or succeeds as needed.

 

[ShadowBlade]

2nd HD/iPod FTW

 

[RaWrulez]

Quickpar to protect