Repurposing an old laptop as a music server

bartman100

So I've dusted off my old (circa 2005) Dell Inspiron. Only 1gb RAM, 1.86Mhz Processor, 100gb hard drive. So, it might not be a long term solution. So far....

1. Reinstalled XP afresh
2. Deleted all non-essential programs
3. Run Service Pack update
4. Run XPlite to clean it up
5. Installed Chrome and Windows security essentials only
6. Installed VLC media player and Spotify

Now I need some advice on:

6. Best way to rip CDs (format, bit rate etc...)
7. Best way to back up my files (open source software?)

Ultimately I want to be able to transfer all music files to some 'permanently on' network attached storage and ultimately, ultimately, stick it in the cloud to access anywhere.

I've only got an old Griffin ipod player (still a beast though) to hook it up to so all a bit archaic.

Any advice? I don't / won't got down the Linux route!

Cheers

nicklouse

EAC to rip as FLAC. it also tags does art work and lyrics.

then convert to whatever format you want to playback with.

use the FLAC files as your back up.

bartman100

Thanks nicklouse. I assume you mean ExactAudioCopy ? Just googled it. Looks perfect. Assuming I can give 70GB or so exclusively over to the FLACs then I should be able to get a fair few on there. Not sure what the 'average' FLAC file size would be though (say, compared to MP3).

nicklouse

an example.

remember FLAC is a lossless format which can then be converted to anything.

I have about 350GB of FLAC files.

bartman100

Cool, thank you.

Quick calculation says, assuming average FLAC file size of 25,000KB, then I think I can fit about 4000 tracks on 90Gb (don't quote me on that though!)

craker

Well that's the same sort of spec. as my laptop...

If you've got XPPro you can configure Media player as a UPnP server. I did use TVersity which can do on the fly transcoding but I think they've started charging ($5 or so!). Echo Nick's choice of Flac (compression of about 2:1) but 256K + mp3s are alright.

bartman100

Thanks both. Sticking with nicklouse's suggestion for now.

First problem - EAC is failing to find track names! Sure this is easily sorted. Time to get to grips.

nicklouse

Press the button that finds it for you.

RTM

dynamicbrick

bartman100 wrote:

Any advice? I don't / won't got down the Linux route!

Despite my love and knowledge of Linux, I'd say this is a good thing to do - I eventually gave up making a music/media server on Linux (on an old desktop in my case) and just went and bought a 2Tb NAS.

nicklouse

see the button.

bartman100

Cheers! - found it.

Talk Talk huh? Good album!

AchillesLeftKnee

bartman100 wrote:

7. Best way to back up my files (open source software?)

Copy to a big, cheap, USB external hard drive with robocopy (free thingy from MS that does differential copies reliably). Disconnect drive when not being used to back up to.

It's a very unscientific approach, but wins out bigtime when it comes to restoring (which is why backups are taken in the first place...) because you don't need anything cunning in order to get at your data. We actually use this approach for a certain amount of stuff at work - plug into pretty much anything and you're away, no need to install anything, no need for specialist hardware, verifying the thing's worked is a case of "same number of files in tree, same amount of data, it's worked", and the backup can be (for some of our stuff anyway) be used direct "as live" if needs be.

nicklouse

AchillesLeftKnee wrote:

bartman100 wrote:

7. Best way to back up my files (open source software?)

Copy to a big, cheap, USB external hard drive with robocopy (free thingy from MS that does differential copies reliably). Disconnect drive when not being used to back up to.

It's a very unscientific approach, but wins out bigtime when it comes to restoring (which is why backups are taken in the first place...) because you don't need anything cunning in order to get at your data. We actually use this approach for a certain amount of stuff at work - plug into pretty much anything and you're away, no need to install anything, no need for specialist hardware, verifying the thing's worked is a case of "same number of files in tree, same amount of data, it's worked", and the backup can be (for some of our stuff anyway) be used direct "as live" if needs be.

and copy again to another disc and store in a different building.

AchillesLeftKnee

nicklouse wrote:

and copy again to another disc and store in a different building.

Thrice into three different buildings in our case. Different building can be a bit a tricky for domestic stuff though.

nicklouse

yes but after all that time ripping the music.

it can get expensive.

AchillesLeftKnee

nicklouse wrote:

yes but after all that time ripping the music.

it can get expensive.

This is very true.

bartman100

I'm thinking of getting a ReadyNas Duo eventually and back up to both. Or a cheaper NAS to plugin to the router and stream to Sonos.

nicklouse

i have a Duo 2 X 1Tb (mirrored)which I run three Squeezebox players from.
and a Ready Nas NV+ 4 X 2Tb drives. (raid X)

bartman100

Oh ok. Will checkout Squeezeboxes. Of course, there's Google Music now too - sheesh! Too many choices.

dynamicbrick

Vaguely on topic, but seems you chaps know your onions on this score.

Chatting with a customer the other week about storing music in the cloud, he'd chanced across a trick - with common or popular albums, he was ripping them at 96kbps (for speed) and putting them in the cloud. When he pulls them back they're 256kbps or higher - he reckoned the cloud provider is only keeping one copy (the highest quality one) of the tune.

I've spent 16 years in IT sales, and there is a logic to this - keeping one copy of common file names would be the most efficient way of storage for the cloud provider, but I'm not convinced there's that much intelligence or cross-referencing in the cloud.

What do you guys reckon? Guff or truth?

nicklouse

true and if you use iTunes you can use it to upgrade your poor low res to the version on the iCloud.

dynamicbrick

Ah cheers.

Is it only on iTunes?

I have nothing Apple in the house except the fruit. Mind you, I don't have any sub 192kbps tunes on any device either, just intrigued to know whether it was an urban myth

nicklouse

yep read here

http://macdailynews.com/2011/11/15/how- ... nes-match/

there maybe other options now.

bartman100

It's truth I'm sure - Google simply match the track name and serve you their own copy. I think!