Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos Backup Strategy

Hi Rick,

Thanks for checking, that�s a bit of an omission from M, I hope it is rectified quickly.

Regards,
Carl

I don't think the 3TB drives will work in a TwinStore. One of my friends has tried 3TB drives without any luck. The Sooloos system is based on Windows XP, Windows XP does not support 3TB drives without adding a bios update (as far as I know).

I would like to wait for all my loading to be done for my backup. I've put in lots of work editing files and it's a little scary not having a backup so I'm doing a backup right now as I post this.

I also think it's a great idea having an offsite backup, I keep a second backup at work for extra security.

Hi Victor,

Thanks for the feedback; did your friend try this with a TwinStore?
I ask because it was a Meridian Dealer that told me that the TwinStore runs Linux and should be ok with 3TB. However, I can't confirm this, though when I was told this I thought odd as we know C10/C15 run windows XP. I�m not sure about the Ensemble; but as it runs a Sooloos core this also tends to suggest Windows. Intriguing, I guess time will tell.

Regards,
Carl

Yes, my friend tried this with a TwinStore. It was actually his dealer that put in the 3TB drives and could not get them to work.

Based on the C10/C15 running on Windows XP I just assumed the TwinStore would use the same operating system.

Any idea which drive he tried ? Probably a Western Digital which seems to be available . With all the different generations of Sooloos kit about now we could do with amore up to date 'Sooloos Wiki ' with these kind of details about (in)compatibilities . It would be nice to have 'Importing ' and ' Backups' tips all in the one place for future owners of the Control15/MC200/600 . At the moment there are some excellent threads ( like this one ) but specific details can get lost . Current M Sooloos literature does not refer to Control 15/ MC200 /600 .


M

Hi I agree, I've started compiling a list for the WiKi; watch this space.

Regards,
Carl

[NotAllowedPleaseUseUrlTagAndFullUrl][NotAllowedPleaseUseUrlTagAndFullUrl]Twinstore3TB

Particularly taken with this bit : "3TB of capacity easily configurable with Seagate� DiscWizard� software to overcome legacy capacity limits of 2.1TB with no additional hardware required."

So the XP limitations mentioned earlier could be overcome ???? Until M come up with a new generation of 'Store' products bigger drives will be the way add to our libraries especially when it comes to adding hi-rez material from DVD-A or downloads.

M

I do not know what the 3 TB drive that did not work in my friends TwinStore was.

Here is a list of my loading tips if you want to add it to the Wiki:

Loading tip #1) I'm sure by now you have noticed that the pic Sooloos finds for the metadata is only 200x200 and pretty much sucks. Unfortunately you will have to manually change all the album pics using your PC interface. I've found that the bigger the better for the pics especially if you are using the "Dark" screensaver. Pics 1000x1000 work great but anything 500x500 are pretty good. The best place to get pics on the Internet is Album Art Exchange - High Quality Album Art (Album Covers and CD Covers) next best place is the MP3 section on Amazon then Amazon's music section then Google Images or eBay as a last resort.

I think you already know that Sooloos uses All Music Guide for it's metadata. If the Sooloos does not find the data you can sometimes "force" it in.

Loading tip #2) To import metadata on files the Sooloos does not find: From the Control:PC/Mac in the editing screen select "Update Metadata" at the bottom and enter the 10 digit AMG Album ID number from the lower left side of the AMG web page for that album. The number of spaces is important when entering this number, keep in mind the number is 10 digits long so if you see R 6209 you know there are 5 spaces. Also when doing this during importing, I find it works better if you leave the artist's name blank and only have the Album Name and AMG Album ID number entered.

Loading tip #3) Check the track titles when loading. It's much easier catching mistakes when loading the albums especially when loading FLAC or Apple Lossless files. If you find track title mistakes when loading FLAC or Apple Lossless files you can simply select "Revert to user data" at the bottom of the editing page, this will save you some manual typing time.

Loading tip #4) Having reviews available on the Control:10/15 is very cool. I thought it would be cool to have more reading info there so I add in artist biographies along with the reviews. Just find the artist bio online (All Music Guide) and using Control:PC/Mac copy and paste the bio in.

Loading tip #5) Meridian added a section called "Tags" which is a "Focus" searchable field. You can use Tags for any info you would like to add to the metadata. Don't forget you have this field to use.

I use Tags for the media type that was the original source for the album. For example: CD, Gold CD, XRCD, Dual layer SACD, LP, DVD-A, Download, High Res Download... This way I can find and "Focus" all my Gold CDs very quickly with just two taps on my Control:10 screen. If you are wondering, I have 328 Gold CDs on my Sooloos right now.

You can also use Tags as reminders for you. For example: if you are loading and you know an album you just loaded needs more editing but you don't want to do it right now just make a tag called "Edit" then you can quickly find these albums later.

If you have a huge Classical collection you can use tags for composers or orchestras to help organize your collection.

There are many uses for tags, don't forget they are there.

Loading tip #6) When editing album info if you are copying and pasting when you go to "paste" in Control:PC you don't get a drop down menu when you "right click". To paste into Control:10 editing fields just left click in the selected field to get the cursor in there then hit "control V" on the keyboard.

I have not used Control Mac so I'm not sure if this is a problem with Apple computers.

I don't really like the way Sooloos deals with multidisc sets, you can combine them as a set but I like them better as a single album. My method is time consuming but the end results work best.

Loading tip #7) To load multi disc sets as a single album:
Load the CDs on the Sooloos as you normally would, once the entire set is loaded export (as FLAC files) the CDs to your PC. Next import all the CDs in the set at the same time and "unalbumize" them then create a single album from all the songs in the set (make sure to get the track order correct by selecting the songs in play order). Now comes the first problem, All Music will not be able to automatically identify the newly created album so you will need to go to All Music and get the album number (at the bottom left of the web page) and you can then use this number to force the album data in. The next problem is when you force the data in like this it will only give song titles for the songs on CD 1, the rest will show as "unknown". Instead of typing in all the song titles you can simply select "revert to user data" at the bottom of the track editing page. Once you get all your data correctly entered complete the import. Don't forget to delete the original CDs from the Sooloos.

I've done this with about 100 multi disc sets on my Sooloos, it took some time but I'm glad I did it.

That's all the loading tips I can think of.

Here is a non-loading tip:

To go directly to a song in a Queue on the Control:10/15 double click it. I had no idea the Control:10/15 had double click features until I accidentally did this.

Great post , Victor , thx.

M

Thanks again Victor, lots of useful info!

I recently added a TwinStore (with M 1tb drives)to my Ensemble system thinking that the system would be smart enough to use both drives for storage (1tb in Ensemble too) giving me 2tb altogether and the option to change to larger drives in the future. I back up to an external drive weekly and have been thinking about a second backup in a different location too! I understood that backing up from controlmac would take music from both Ensemble and TwinStore and create a combined backup disc. I understand this leaves the second disc in the TwinStore somewhat redundant of course.

Reading this thread has me wondering if this is viable as many of you appear to be disabling one drive (C15/MC200) and storing all data on a TwinStore? Essentially i am now doubting that the system could be restored from my 2tb external backup? If so i need to sort it out as the system now has nearly 2000 albums entered manually and i dont fancy repeating that job!

Any thoughts welcomed!

Having experienced a bad case of lost files (400 CD worth and luckily I managed to recover them), I had and will want to do the backup 3 ways:

1. Sooloos self-backup.
2. On every NEW addition of files, backup to the NAS.
3. As well as an external 3TB HDD.

It may be cumbersome to do it 3 times, but knowing I no longer had access to the original files and CDs, I surely would not want an irrecoverable incident to happen. Not to my Sooloos library which currently stands at 3836 CDs!

And yes, I am Victor's friend whom the local dealer tried using 3TB HDD on my new TwinStore but could not get it to work. Because of this, I had to go and buy one more TwinStore (2TB x 2TB) which shall arrive in a week's time. The code name for Seagate's latest 3TB drive is "Mantaray", but so far, only readily available as an external Seagate's HDD which I am using now as a 3rd backup option. For sure, Victor's very knowledgeable and I always call him for help whenever I hit as problem technically! He's really a great friend to me!

Cheers!