Am house cleaning along with some backup's.
Not counting the 2015 drive winging its way home.
Methinks I have 3 other PG drives. Maybe only 2...
I do have the bonus CD/DVD's from years past.

Would like to delete content and use the PG HD's for quickie backups.

Is it safe to do this?

Thank you!

Keep at least one current external backup copy.
That's all the advice I have.

I keep a couple, but I also have 6 hard drives in this system and many more drives stacked up in a cabinet, both PG and otherwise.

Here is how it's done at rharv house;
RB/BB on C: drive
Active copy of the external drive on a 500 gig internal hard drive (E:) and I run the realtracks from there.
Incoming audio tracks are recorded to F: (an empty 500 gig drive) and later saved/moved to G: or E: depending on use.

And the drive from PGMusic sits all nice and shiny in it's case .. until I wanna work on the laptop. I also make sure to keep it up-to-date so there are multiple good copies here but only one in use at a time.

Older PGMusic drives have been put to service in other ways, as you intend. I don't use them for 'backups' due to their size, but I have saved programming projects to them and took them to work with me when it was bigger than my thumb drive could hold.

rharv,

Excellent writeup....
I will definitely keep the new 2015 version, intact.

Have 350meg, 500meg, and 1tera for backups, away from the house.
The little ones will be great for the more recent Usertrack work.
Hate to lose that.

thanks

Hi rharv,
I have just purchased my upgrade...
In my current setup, I have BIAB installed on C drive... My BIAB arrangements are all saved on C... All of the Real Tack are resident on an external drive... My original 2014 Audiophile drive is store in a safe place.
My question is... when I receive the 2015 Audiophile upgrade, can I format my external drive, copy all the files from the 2015 disk and then run the install to upgrade?
Got myself into a bit of a pickle last time so just trying to avoid problems t his time...
Many thanks in advance

Here is my suggestion

I would use a program like WinZip or 7Zip or WinRAR and zip up the BIAB folder on your C: drive (this is to make a quick backup in case something goes wrong. Do the same for the RealBand folder. Once you have a successful installation, you can delete these zip files, but if you have to get back to where you were, it makes sure you're not dead in the water. Why do this? Because, then you can safely install the new version (2015) on top of the old version. That way you make sure you keep any user styles or one-time-offer PGMusic styles and content (it happens), and any user created content that may be located in the BIAB folder currently.

You shouldn't neet to format the external drive. If you have downloaded or created any UserTracks, you want to make sure you keep them and they are located under the RealTracks folder.

So, when you get your 2015 hard drive, you should just be able to run the setup program on that drive and tell it that BIAB should be on the C: drive in the same folder as your 2014 setup. Also tell it that your RealTracks and RealDrums are on another folder and just point it to the external drive, so it uses the same folders as where RealTracks and RealDrums are currently located.

Let 'er rip and once done, you should have a functioning 2015 BIAB and RealBand setup. Once you are satisfied that everything works, you can delete the Zip files (or back them up to some other media, whatever makes you comfortable).

I don's see a need to reformat your external drive, however.

Sounds like good advice... Many thanks John
Now I just need to wait for FedEx to do their stuff!!

Yeah, I'd install over top also.

Then you have one original 2015 disk and one upgraded, full working copy.

Just wondering about the "bonus" content that changes each year and is included only during the introductory period. It would seem to be most difficult for a user to keep track of the bonus content included with past year purchases. I also believe that in past years the bonus content has been included on the hard drive instead of a separate DVD or CD. I worry a user may inadvertently erase past "included as bonus" content when erasing spare hard drives.

As others alluded to: formatting the external drive guarantees you lose any 'bonus' features, any bonus or one time apps, etc (along with any work/settings/songs you may have saved on it along the way).

Better to install the new version over the old to keep these features and keep the new external drive as your backup. Worst case scenario is you can format that drive and copy over, but I wouldn't start there!

Install the latest BiaB over whatever version you have on your computer then backup all of your hard drives to external HDs. I use Acronis but there are a number of backup utilities available, some come with Windows.

I keep my externals on a shelf not connected to my computer. Only when it comes time to backup do I plug them in but YMMV. The main thing is backup, that way you diminish the chance of losing all of your bonus features.

I've been installing BIAB on top of itself since version 8 and never had a problem with that (well, one time, but it turned out to be something else on my computer that PGMusic helped me identify and fix). That would be version 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2007.5, 2008, 2008.5, 2009, 2009.5, 2010, 2010.5, 2011, 2011.5, 2012, 2012.5, 2013, and 2014.

So, yes, I would definitely upgrade on top of the previous version. All the add-ons stay put, all the changed files get updated, and all the new files get installed.

But, as I've said before, I always do a backup of my BIAB folder before doing the upgrade, so that if something goes wrong, it's quick and easy to get back to where I before starting the update. That is one of the huge advantages of BIAB NOT writing everything it needs to the registry.

That's the time consuming part, but safest.
Once you install everything over the existing and know it's working .. it's time to back THAT version up ..

I wish I had Source Control for my PGMusic products. If I could just click 'Update Working Copy' and that (whichever) drive would update to the latest version from my assigned 'source' .. or revert back to a previous version if needed .. a fella can dream.

SVN

Just an update on this...
I have just received BIAB 2015...
Installing program files on C:
Installing Real Tracks etc on F
The installation program tells me that it will only install .wma file as it seems to think that drive F is not an external drive... For the record this drive is 3TB and has nothing other than BIAB files on it... there is plenty of free space.
HOw can I get the .wav files onto this drive?

Mark,

Did you purchase the Audiophile version of BIAB/RB?

Regards,
Noel

Hi Noel
Yes, I purchased the audiophile version.
Cheers
Mark

Mark,

Hopefully someone who has the Audiophile version will read this soon and answer your question. Unfortunately, I have never owned the audiophile edition.

From the little I have picked up from reading posts, your easiest option would probably be to simply copy all files from the PG Music drive to your 3TB drive.

Then all you would need to do is to point BIAB to the F: drive to find the Realtracks. BIAB automatically selects WAV in preference to WMA (even though the Audiophile version comes with both).

Someone who has the necessary experience will soon see your post and help out.

Regards,
Noel

Hi Noel,
Thanks for your advice.
Best wishes
Mark

Not a problem, Mark.

If you don't get a response, simply start a new thread with a suitable heading. The only thing that could slow down people find your post is that it's buried in an older thread.

That being said, though, there are a few of us regulars on these boards who like to keep up to date with all posts if humanly possible.

Regards,
Noel