Noo! That I think is your problem right there. You’re using the internal 2TB SSD, which in the Nucleus is dedicated to music storage. It should NOT be used for backups of the Roon database. Backups should be made either to a USB-attached drive on the Nucleus, or to a network-shared folder on your iMac (or even both, you can never have too many backups)…
I want to 2nd what Geoff stated. Get an external drive for backups.
Interestingly, if you went with an external drive for music and not putting in an internal drive, you could have used that for both backups and music storage.
I was not aware of this. I installed a 2TB HDD not SSD and have been successfully backing up over the last 2 years. I hear what you’re saying but when i attempt to select a location the system only display the attached locations:-
Many thanks Geoff. I’ve now attached an external drive which has resolved my issues. I’ve also managed to successfully transfer my old backups from the internal HDD.
Glad that it’s resolved - yes, I should have seen that you had an HDD rather than an SSD in your Nucleus, my mistake. But the principle is the same; that drive shouldn’t be used for backing up your Roon database, because the entire drive is a Watched Folder. The recommendation is made in the KB article on Backups, but it’s in the middle of a page of text and easily missed:
We also strongly recommend that you do not set the location of Scheduled Backups to be within any Watched Folders. Keep the locations separate.
Hello @Errol_Jones, and thanks for your report! These guys are correct, we recommend backing up to a networked folder or a removable USB. Please let us know if you have further questions, we’re happy to help!
Hi, my back up (USB connected Seagate 2T) is no longer seen by my Roon Core. It used to work when Core was on my Mac Mini. Now I have purchased a Nucleus+ and it does not see the back up.
Is this because my external Seagate is Mac formatted and not suitable for Nucleus? I think so…
Please spec the appropriate external back up for me! Or can the Seagate me re formatted for the Nucleus? Thanks!
Well, I think you can check by plugging the drive back into a mac to verify it’s format. If you let us know here what that is we can let you know if it should work. Better to know than just reformatting and loosing everything on the drive.
Hello @Ken_Kyser, to find out what format you’ve used, you can check via these directions, just don’t reformat the drive.
Go to Applications and Utilities and launch Disk Utility . The application will appear on the screen, and you will see the main window, with a list of available storage devices on the left and various disk management options on the right. At the bottom of the main window are storage device details, including disk description, connection type, USB serial number, total capacity, write status, S.M.A.R.T. status, and partition map scheme.
Hi, OK I get that this USB drive is not compatible with my Nucleus+.
I suppose some drives can be re formatted and others not?
If this drive can be reformatted, which should I choose?
Or should I buy a new USB drive that is more desirable?
Also, is there a way when I back up my Macbook Pro (a separate similar 2T USB drive) that it also
backs up my Nucleus and its internal music hard drive and Roon?
Smart in so many other than computer ways, Ken Thanks again!
No, not quite - it is how the drive has been formatted that is not compatible, not the drive itself.
So, to use it for Backup on your Nucleus, you’ll need to re-format it (using your Mac). Note that re-formatting the drive will erase all the current data being held on the drive, so if you want to keep any of it, transfer it off the drive to another storage location first.
Attach the drive temporarily to your Mac, and use the Mac to format it to the exFAT format. This is the recommended format (see the section on USB Storage - Best Practice in this article):
Then re-attach it to your Nucleus, and set up the Backup schedule in Roon.
Important: the Roon Backup function backs up the Roon database and your Roon Settings - it does NOT backup your local music files (held on your internal music hard drive). What do you use to backup your Macbook Pro? You may be able to use this to access the music files held on your Nucleus over the network and back them up.
That is what I understood. Roon-Backup is making a backup for the database, the indices for the Ronn-System.
But, why do I need a backup of the index-files? I am running a i5-xxxxx wirh M2-discs only as dedicated box for Roon. Second I am running an 8-Bay NAS with music and data. Third I am making a backup of the music and datat every night. And last but not least: I having a mirror ot he first server, just in case.
So, if the Roon-Server (I5-xxxx) loosses all the data, I have to start the index-creation-job and it takes, let’s say 5-6 hours to have the index of my 111K music-files organized again. Why should I use a backup in this case?
If I have to switch to the second (mirros) server. I cannot use the backup beacuse it is another system. So I would rather start the job pointing to the mirror-Server.
What is the backup really usefule for?
A Roon backup is very useful if you have a problem and need to reinstall Roon, for instance. You then do a restore and you’re right back to where your were before. Also, some people make a lot of their own edits to the Roon data and don’t want to lose all of those edits. A Roon backup can be useful if you want to move Roon to a different core device or run Roon on a second core device, etc.
I have my Roon core do automatic backups nightly to a USB 1TD HDD. I keep the last 20 backups. My question would be, why not?
This topology really has nothing to do as to whether you will ever need a backup.
Third party software does not guarantee a successful Roon Restore.
Can’t speak to the efficacy of a mirror.
Because of the way Roon constantly and somewhat unpredictably updates its database, the only guaranteed way to accomplish a Restore, should that be needed, is from a backup made with Roon;'s proprietary backup from Settings==>Backups.
That I think is your problem right there. You’re using the internal 2TB SSD, which in the Nucleus is dedicated to music storage. It should NOT be used for backups of the Roon database. Backups should be made either to a USB-attached drive on the Nucleus, or to a network-shared folder on your iMac (or even both, you can never have too many backups)…
