I’m looking for lightweight backup solutions for my ROCK library to an external USB drive. I’ve tried some rsync commands by mounting the ROCK internal storage on my Mac, running an rsync command in Terminal and seeing what happens. The copy starts but doesn’t finish due to a folder “vanishing” (according to terminal), and now one of my albums which is still present in Roon and can be played even after multiple restarts of the ROCK is no longer able to be found by using Finder whatsoever. It’s like it doesn’t exist at all. Ideally, I’d like to automate a simple script or something to recursively copy my library folder structure to an external at a set interval, and I think that’s what the rsync would do…have at it!
mjw
(Here I am with a brain the size of a planet and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper. Call that job satisfaction? I don't.)
2
Are you attempting to copy your media files or the Roon database?
FWIW, I use an external USB drive with ROCK, which is a copy of my music. When I add music, this is copied to the NUC, and backups are taken from the master copy on my main PC server.
Media files. I have the files stored on an internal SSD in the NUC.
mjw
(Here I am with a brain the size of a planet and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper. Call that job satisfaction? I don't.)
4
Rather than backup media on the NUC, you could keep the master copy on your Mac, backing that up to a USB drive, and use rsync to copy changes you make on the Mac to the NUC.
Let me clarify: I want to back up the files I have stored internally on the NUC to an external drive I have connected to the NUC via USB. Am I thinking about this in the wrong way?
IMO yes. You can only copy over the network as you can’t access the ROCK to transfer the files. So the data goes from internal storage over SATA to the ROCK, then over the network to your PC, from there immediately back to the ROCK and and via USB to the external storage.
It would be more efficient to connect the external USB storage to the PC directly, then the data has only once to travel over the network.
But aren’t I only invoking a command on my Mac in order to back up the internal SSD to the external HDD of the NUC? I think the only thing that’s happening over the network is any placement of new files onto the NUC, since I’m ripping those on my Mac.
You cannot copy directly from the internal drive in a ROCK NUC to an external drive attached to the ROCK NUC. What you are doing, is copying the file over the network to the intermediate PC and then back down to the external drive.
Better you attach the external drive to your MAC and then run the sync command.
Got it. I did not realize that was the case. Thanks!
Any thoughts on what would make the file I mentioned seemingly disappear? I’m a little apprehensive to run the command again without knowing why this happened.
Is storing the media internally o the NUC not the recommended method? To my mind, it’s a fast SSD and should have almost zero latency in playback…but, if there isn’t really a good way to back it up efficiently, maybe I approached the build in the wrong way. I can always buy an enclosure for my internal and use it externally.
I do this every week, it works fine! Mount the Rock data drive on your Mac using „connect to server“. Attach your external usb drive to the Mac. Then use the following rsync command:
Where Folk is your music folder (I have mine in genre folders) and LaCie1 is the name of your external usb drive. Jiggle the parameters and paths as necessary!
So what is the delete command in reference to? As I don’t yet have a backup of my new build, I’m super worried about deletion before the first backup completes.
I’m guessing the issue is a ROCK thing? I’m doing exactly what the OP is trying to do with no problems, but my streamer which houses Roon and my music files (with a backup HDD attached via USB) is running Linux Arch.
—delete will delete files from the destination drive if they’re missing from the source, it’s useful if you move things around and don’t want multiple copies. Omit it if you don’t want to do this.
