Backing up FCP X Event

Andy,

If it's truly just a backup you want, absolutely Finder can do it by copying the Final Cut Projects and Final Cut Events folders to another drive ... but ... when you are speaking about FCP X not recognizing the new events folder, we are not really talking about backups anymore. I have seen that two file structures of Final Cut Projects and Final Cut Events on different drives that are on the system at the same time can sometimes confuse FCP X if the events and projects are the same at each location. As a general rule, I need to be out of FCP X when I use Finder to make a backup (not Time Machine but regular copy) to another drive. Then I need to remove that backup drive before I crank up FCP X. If you wanted to not use the original drive anymore, the new drive, with all the same folder structure and files, will be read happily by FCP X if you remove the original location drive (assumming both were externals). I know you can have differing projects and events in two different drives, but they should not be the same identicals projects and events in the FCP Projects and FCP Events folders.

The other thing to realize is that, depending on whether you told FCP X to copy your original media files to the event folders or not, The Final Cut Events folder will contain subfolders called (event name)/Original Media. This folder will have the actual original media files if that is what you specified in Preferences. If you did not tell it to copy the original media to the event folders, the Original Media folder will contain aliases that simply point elsewhere on the disk to where you have the original media stored. So ... if the latter is the case, and you want a complete backup, you need to backup the original media locations as well.

There may be other options in FCP X itself, but what I described here would be considerations when using Finder to do this. Best wishes.

stephen

Andy,

I have a better picture of what you are doing now. Like you said, you have a workable backup by copying the Event to your Data-03 drive. The thing that makes me a little unsure is that Data-03 is an internal drive so you really don't have the option of taking it offline all the time.

For my "backup" I simply stay out of FCP X and put another external drive on and do the backup through Finder. I then eject the external "backup" drive and continue working on my first external drive. You are setup with multiple drives so your backup needs are not as straightforward as mine.

All I know is that if I put a Final Cut Projects and Final Cut Events folder in the root of a drive, FCP X seems to see it there. If the events and projects within those two are duplicated from other root-level Final Cut Projects and Final Cut Events folders elsewhere on my system (on other drives), it has been my experience that FCP X can get a little mixed up. I have heard some folks here mention that you could place these folders on a "backup" drive but "hide" them down in another folder or something similar, but I have not experimented with that ... even though it sounds reasonable. Others have said that they have these two folders on different drives but use them to store different projects and events ... thus there is no conflict. I am afraid I really don't have a good answer for you. I would contact Tom Wolsky on this ... I know he has talked about it in discussions before and seems to have the right answers. Sorry I could not be of more help.

Best wishes.

stephen

Speaking of confused .... I also use "SuperDuper" to do my media backups and have concluded that it never entered the mind of any of Apple's programmers that there just MIGHT be a duplicate copy of an event on a users system. And if it did .... did they decide to use a binary coin toss to decide which is the one to use?

Now to the confusing part .... FCP x can't seem to find/display the EVENTS FOLDER on two identical drives BUT it has no problem showing me TWO IDENTICAL project folders which are on two seperate drives?

In the screen grab below you see the media on my "Lacie Video Media" drive and no media on my "Verbatim 2" drive

BUT.... when you look at the project folder you see the EXACT same projects on my "Lacie Video Media" drive AND on the "Verbatim 2" drive. That is to be expected as they are CLONED drives.

Now when I start up FCP x it's anyones guess which drive will display the media in the event folder. One time it will be the Verbatim Drive and the next 2 or three or RANDOM times it will be the Lacie drive. Why show both projects but not both events? I'd love to get one of the programmers of FCP x in a dark room for 5 minutes to find out but I don't think water-boarding is legal in Canada ....

I'm actually sort of surprised that there isn't an integrated technique for backing up projects and media. Seems like that would certainly be on the "A-List" of features.

With FCP7 I've always used a very basic app to clone my projects called SyncTwoFolders.

http://tcfj.pagesperso-orange.fr/site/ind_JS.html?Prg_S.html&Prg_AutresRB.html

What I do with FCP7 is I create my scratch folder on the root of my main drive called FCP which contains all of the capture, renders, etc.

I have another folder at the root which contains my actual project files and random media.

After I capture my footage I drag both folders to my backup drive. From that point on I simply use SyncTwoFolders to update the FCP back-up when ever I want - usually the end of the day. I use the finder to copy my projects. If I'm working several projects or add random media, I'll use SyncTwoFolders to do the projects folder as well. My autosave vault is on my system drive. I don't leave my BU drive mounted while I'm working.

If something happens to my main drive I jus mount my backup drive and continue working. Renders and all.

I'm hoping that this same technique can be employed for FCPX.

If this does work out I encourage you to donate something for this shareware. It really is just the right amount of features without getting too cumbersome. Very cool.

I know there's no autosave vault or "save as" or even "save" anymore, Reason?… unknown.

So, with the well documented Self-Save Bug looming any sort of cloning might be pointless since you might be cloning a project that has lapsed into a coma and is no longer performing it's self-update tasks.

I'm waiting til that one has been sorted out before I buy FCPX.

onward...