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What is your workflow around backups and versioning?

That One Guy

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When it comes to fanediting, I'm primarily a Windows user. I use Acronis True  Image with an external drive for backing up my main machine, and the backup files are periodically copied to two other locations to minimise the probability of unrecoverable data loss.

But... since fanediting involves working with huge files (at least if, like me, you have source media for more than one project at a time on your machine :D) and I don't like having to include a load of often-static files from my editing projects into my primary backup strategy, I exclude the directory that contains my fanedits from the backup process.

I'm not a sucker, though - I have a different drive with enough capacity to spare for a copy of my editing projects, and I periodically copy the directory to that using robocopy.

This leads me to wonder what approaches other editors use for backing up either their editing machines or their actual edit projects.

Another question I'm interested in is version control. In the world of software this is basically a solved problem, but for editing projects I don't think the solution is obvious (at least, not as a hobbyist). Case in point, I'm working on something right now where I have two different approaches in mind, and they are by necessity very different. It'd be lovely to be able to merge changes from one to the other, for instance, or even just track what changes I've made, but thus far outside of making copious notes in a text file I'm not aware of any way to do this. (I'm using Movie Studio 12 Platinum, i.e. the home version of Vegas). In particular those of you who have collaborated with others on editing projects - how do you manage it?
 

ThrowgnCpr

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Unless I have some intermediate renders, I don't concern myself with backing up my source files. They can always be re-ripped if lost. 

As for my project files, I create a folder in my Google Drive and regularly upload a copy of my most recent edited *.veg file (Sony Vegas Pro). They are named with a date and version stamp (e.g., XFiles_IWTB_FE_20151215b.veg). The project files are tiny and if you are collaborating you can easily share the Google Drive folder with someone else.

I will also backup any custom overlays, effects shots, etc. to this folder.
 

TV's Frink

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I copy back and forth between desktop and laptop, backup to two external drives, and also to a flash drive that I put in my work bag so it's out of the house during the week.  I should probably look into an online solution like Google Drive as well.

I also backup my source files (except to the flash drive) only because I use so many sources that it would be a royal pain to re-rip everything.  However it is straining the limits of my storage so at some point I'm going to have to figure something else out.
 

That One Guy

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Frink, I back up my sources too for similar reasons, which means my backup is quite large. Good call on having a copy outside of the house as well, you're following good backup practice there :)

I kind of wish there was a way of getting Movie Studio to save a history in the project (even something simple like "each time I hit save, create a new copy of the project file with a datestamp, per ThrowgnCpr's approach above). Trying to keep some of my longer-running edits straight in my head can get quite difficult at times.
 

ThrowgnCpr

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That One Guy said:
I kind of wish there was a way of getting Movie Studio to save a history in the project (even something simple like "each time I hit save, create a new copy of the project file with a datestamp, per ThrowgnCpr's approach above). Trying to keep some of my longer-running edits straight in my head can get quite difficult at times.

Well, you could just use the "Save as" feature instead of "Save" 

You can customize your toolbar to put the Save As button on there. Of course if you're accustomed to just clicking CTRL+S, you'll need to break the habit and it would still require a bit of typing, but it wouldn't take too much extra effort.
 
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