Backing up LaunchBox/BigBox

[Riffman81]

So after having a HDD fail recently (luckily it was my OS drive and not my LaunchBox drive), I've given quite a lot of thought to backing up my LaunchBox install onto an external drive. Just wondering what methods any of you guys out there might be using to backup your setups? Right now, my train of thought is to just copy my entire LB folder over to an external drive. My setup is right around 2TB with games and media included. Lets say I go this route and backup my entire installation... if I ever wanted to update my backup with the latest version of LB, what files would need to be copied over to overwrite the existing files to ensure a working backup should I ever need to use it?

[SentaiBrad]

Yea, you wouldn't want to copy over 2TB every single time, that will eat up the drives faster. I would just copy over the LB install, just the files no media. That would be the smallest and simplest approach, and only copy over a platforms media when something major changes. Have you thought about a cloud backup too? I use BackBlaze myself, and it's fantastic. It's $5 a month, with no file size limit. I use it on my entire PC. https://secure.backblaze.com/r/011scr

[Riffman81]

23 hours ago, SentaiBrad said:

Yea, you wouldn't want to copy over 2TB every single time, that will eat up the drives faster. I would just copy over the LB install, just the files no media. That would be the smallest and simplest approach, and only copy over a platforms media when something major changes. Have you thought about a cloud backup too? I use BackBlaze myself, and it's fantastic. It's $5 a month, with no file size limit. I use it on my entire PC. https://secure.backblaze.com/r/011scr

Wasn't aware of BackBlaze, $5 monthly isn't a bad deal at all so I'll be checking that out. Backing up just the core LB files is the smallest option in terms of space, but what if I have to use that backup at some point... will LB re-create all media folders for images and such upon start up for all of my platforms? I guess what I'm wondering is what I'd have to do to get back up and running as quick as possible going that route. Also, does LB work with relative paths? Or will the drive I choose to use to install the backup on have to be the same drive letter as the previous install?

[SentaiBrad]

LaunchBox does use relative paths if it's all on the same drive. So my roms and emulators even have relative paths because they're all on the same S drive. Initially I would make a copy of your entire LB install, might as well if you have the space, but as LaunchBox gets updated just backup the core files. If you change up a platform or something major, you can either do a full back up, or a core backup then replace the system's media with the updated version, if that makes sense.

If you just copied over the core LB stuff, and you were suddenly missing just media, the Metadata and Media Downloader will fix that. You just click on a game, Ctrl + A to highlight them all, then Tools -> Download Metadata and Media. This will re-download everything. Of course it's not the fastest method, but if you wanted your backup to take up as little space as possible, so you only backed up the core, then this is a possible solution. I think backing all of LB up, and updating the LB files every so often, and replacing the media when major changes happen might be the smartest method. If you do use BackBlaze too, I would exclude your local backup from backing up again to your cloud backup, as uploading that much data could take a while.