[Empeg-general] Re: Backing up MP3's off Empeg

[Steve Schow]

Of course you can do this...but its still a pain in the ass and would still
be a whole lot easier for everyone except Empeg corporation if we could just
do a backup from the Empeg....Its ridiculous to sit around and say that
doing it from the PC to begin with is "easier" or "more sensible".  Let's be
honest, we're talking about work arounds here to compensate for a missing
feature....albeit....a feature that is missing because Empeg doesn't wanna
go bankrupt in court (and I can't blame them).  Nonetheless, it is a missing
feature and any and all solutions that I have heard suggested to date or
work arounds and are NOT as simple or straightforward as it would be to
simply backup the Empeg to a tape drive or something.

All that being said....I don't understand why someone wouldn't simply run a
network backup program from another machine to mount the drives on the Empeg
and back them up?

-steve

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tony Fabris [mailto:tfabris@jps.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 5:26 PM
> To: empeg-general@empeg.merlins.org
> Subject: [Empeg-general] Re: Backing up MP3's off Empeg
>
>
> You've got a point about storage difficulties, Doug. There
> are ways around them (tape drives, for example, DLT's like
> the one on our file server will hold 35 uncomressed GB on a
> single tape).
>
> But here's my main argument to the backup-supporters (again,
> in different words):
>
> If the reason you need to backup your empeg is so you can
> move the files onto a third-party backup medium, then why
> didn't you just do that before you deleted the files from the PC?
>
> For instance, let's say that you wanted to retrieve the MP3s
> from the Empeg so you could burn them onto a CD-ROM. Or put
> them onto a backup tape. Or stick them on Jaz drives. Or whatever.
>
> Why didn't you just do those things in the first place? When
> you sent the tunes to the Empeg, you knew it was one-way. Why
> did you delete the files from the PC without backing them up?
> Even if you did have a way of pulling the files back off of
> the Empeg, you still have exactly the same storage and backup
> problems as you did before you deleted the files.
>
> I'm now officially one of the people who's had an Empeg drive
> go bad, and I still don't see a good reason for them to offer
> a music backup. A playlist/database backup I can understand,
> but not a music file backup.
>
> I can understand this: You store the files on the PC, but
> then the PC's hard disk goes bad or gets stolen. Okay, fine.
> But then there's the issue that the PC's files are really
> just a second-generation copy from the CD originals which
> (assuming you legally own the music) you could just re-rip at
> the expense of time.
>
> And if somehow the MP3s aren't from CDs but they are legally
> owned (for instance, online purchases or free downloads),
> then we're back to: Why didn't you back them up yourself in
> the first place? You knew the Empeg wasn't meant as a backup
> medium, so you shouldn't have trusted it to be your second copy.
>
> Really, the root complaint boils down to this:
>
> "Wow, here's a perfectly good box with 36gb of storage
> sitting next to my PC. It seems a big waste to have the data
> transfer be one-way only. And it's a waste to have to keep my
> music files in three different places just so I know that
> they're backed up. Besides, the Empeg would make a great file
> taxi, too."
> Yes, I will totally agree with that. It's a valid complaint.
> But it's one that Empeg can't address right now if they want
> to stay in business.
>
> In the meantime, the Empeg hasn't changed the amount of
> storage on your PC and hasn't changed your ability to keep
> your files backed up. It's just given you a reason to amass
> more files and it's increased your need for a backup system
> without solving the backup problem for you.
>
> ____________
> <A HREF="http://www.jps.net/tfabris" target="_new">Tony Fabris</A>_
>
> _______________________________________________
> Empeg-general mailing list
> Empeg-general@empeg.merlins.org
> http://empeg.merlins.org/lists/listinfo/empeg-general
>