I know this topic has been discussed before.

I've got a pile of at least 6 PG Music biab USB drives dating back to the 2012 version.

I don't want them. I'm done with spinning drives
Nobody I knows wants them


Has anyone come up with a decent use for these things?
I hate just throwing them in the landfill.

Thanks,

Don't you ever do computer backups?

Use Macrium Reflect backup software or similar and create Image backups of your computer's hard drive onto an unused removable drive. If your system ever goes ka-thump, you can recover the entire system more-or-less painlessly, because you have backup images to restore from.

Definitely no landfill needed!

I've always used old hard drives just for storage. They are small enough they don't get in my way, but ya - I back up old projects on them, or sometimes put personal stuff like old tax records and stuff on them.

If you care to put in the effort, you could give them to a data recovery company to used as spare parts maybe.

I'm using two right now alternating them with my Mac's time machine backup. I have another one with 8,000 plus songs ripped from my CD collection, etc. Plenty of uses. Reformatting them and donating them would be better than the landfill for sure.

Bud

Format them and use them for storage. Pictures, documents, song files..... they are just hard drives, after all.

Agreed with the others. You can never have too many backups for your personal data.

I've offered them back to PG but they declined.

My other hobby is OTR ( Old Time Radio ) so I load them with my OTR collection.

BINGO I have so many I now know what a "crap load" looks like. But yes they are very useful indeed.

Later,

I have three complete backups. Two are here and one is in my bank's safe deposit box. I have way to much money involved now to loose it all.

Good move Mario. It's always best to have an off-site backup.

Notes

That's a great idea... using them for storage. I doubt that I would ever go back and reload the older versions..... but I really hate to do that.... kinda sentimental ( emphasis on 'mental")....

But who knows.... in a pinch.... I might have to grab the oldest one and format that baby.

I don't even have enough money to play for a safe deposit box. (Which most people incorrectly call a "safety deposit box".) I have credit, not money. Still living on the premise that I can charge all I want and if I die I got to use all this great, fun stuff for free. No badge of courage to me to brag that I have no debt, especially if it means not buying the toys I want. I will never understand the "richest corpse in the graveyard" mentality. Everything in my life is covered. I have no worries about an expensive medical emergency. Other than mortgage, my debt is covered by credit life insurance. And I know I will die owing money on my house. What are they going to do to a dead guy? Glue my ashes back together and sue me? Yep, I am at that age where I started to think about things like this. I live one step above people who walk the poverty line by choice so I can buy toys. I spend so little on food I don't even deserve to be fat! Restaurants? Never. Movies? Nope. Vacations? MAYBE in my little trailer this fall. Which, by the way, is one of those toys! I got it last year JUST in time to be laid up with knee surgery. And this year Covid has me at home. I may head out on late November for a few weeks. Whenever it gets cold here, I will be in various "theres" that are warmer. Maybe parking in all of your driveways!! LOL!!! But anywhere that requires flying, never. $25 to bring a suitcase? Am I supposed to buy all new clothes when I get there? A cruise? What if I got out there and it sucked? I am stuck.

But once again, I digress... So on topic, yep. Offsite backup is a great idea. I personally don't have anything of value on my computer that a crash would be fatal, but a lot of you have stuff you can't "loose" (lose).

Eddie, the rule of thumb is he who dies with the most toys wins!

Maybe consider widening your circle of friends?

Can you run BiaB directly from the drive or do you have to install it on an internal drive?

Will, you can run directly from the external drive but only after doing the minimal install choice in Setup. You do not have to install the full program to the internal drive, but a few small files will be put there by the installer in the mimimal install, such as a few fonts and the activation info.

And there is an intermediate choice: install the program to the internal drive but keep the RealTracks and RealDrums on the external drive.

Let us know if you need help doing any of these options.

Thanks a lot for your answer! Very helpful because I am running out of space on my internal drives and it would be great if I could delete the 2019 version and run the 2020 version (mostly) from the external drive. It might also fix all the problems I had with the 2019 version.

Will