How can I sync Folders and Drives in Nero BackItUp?

Nero BackItUp is a great tool for doing regular backups of all your valuable files.

If you do not want to do a typical local copy (click here to check out Nero KnowHow 00054), a case for you might be synchronizing two folders in two different drives on a regular basis.

1_Local Copy

Imagine you want to have the Windows library folders for Photos, Music and Videos in your PC backed up every now and then to a dedicated external storage location, say a hard disk, or a USB stick, which has the same folders. Your typical case is to have these folders always in a ‘fresh’ state on the hard disk or USB stick, i.e. the same way they exist on your PC. Having these attached to your TV set, you can always enjoy your latest media in the living room.

A regular backup should be very meaningful for you, in order to have all your files associated to the three folders available in a synchronized state on the external drive. This way you can just use the second drive as your playback device while the PC remains the general archive for all your sources.

Nero BackItUp has an easy ‘Sync’ function allowing you doing backups between two storage folder locations in two different ways.

2_ Sync Music folder

If you select ‘Sync folders 1:1’ Nero BackItup will make sure that each of the two folders on the two drives is always kept synchronous, i.e. identical. This is meaningful when you sometimes add files to this drive, or also the other drive.

In your described case, it makes more sense to use the second option, which is ‘Copy folders left to right`. As you always put all your media to the internal PC folders first, it makes perfect sense to use this scenario and have incremental backups of your three folders ever so often.

Incremental means that after Nero BackItUp did a first backup, going forward, it will only copy the new or modified files compared to the last backup. In fact, this saves a lot of time.

So, select ‘Sync folders 1:1’ and start a new job by clicking on ‘Add Backup’, then browse your PC drive for the music folder under the library, and Nero BackItUp will add the path C:\users\yourname\Music to the left. Do the same for your attached drive. Make sure you have created three empty folders there first (Music, Videos, Photos).  Add one job for each folder. Now, you only need to decide if you want to do this manually each time or if you want to add a scheduled backup. Scheduled backups should be your preferred option. Click ‘Sync now’ and the initial backup will start right away.

3_Weekly sync

Backup multiple Folder Jobs between two Drives over Time via ‘Local Copy’

When you want to back up a larger amount of dedicated folders between two drives over time, it is easier to make use of ‘local copy’, and select the wanted folders within the customization page of Nero BackItUp. This way you will achieve the backup results via one job, only.

Try it out: it is easy, fast, and gives this great feeling of having all your valuable media files backed up over time in a safe place.

4_Customize Local Copy

Nero Know How 00123

 

Why do I get the message ‘Please insert an empty disc…’ or similar when trying to burn?

If your Nero application shows this message in one or the other form, the following overview shows potential problem scenarios and possible solutions.


Problem 1

  • Your disc is not empty

1

 

Solution

  • It might have happened that you inserted a disc into your drive, which is not empty, i.e. burned data already exist on this disc
  • Please put an empty disc into your disc recorder drive
  • The compilation size gives you a reference

Problem 2

  • a) You have selected to burn more than one copy at a time
  • b) You are burning a disc with Nero DiscSpan

empty disc_2Solutions

  • a) If you have selected burning several disc copies with one recorder, Nero will ask you to insert a disc into your drive, each time one disc burning is done
  • b) This message will also show when using Nero DiscSpan in Nero Burning ROM, which allows you to burn large projects over several discs – even different types of discs – in sequence
  • Within the burn process, Nero Burning ROM will pop up this message ever so often in order to burn to the next disc

Problem 3

  • a) Your disc does not comply to the type of compilation (disc project) that you have chosen initially
  • b) You have more than one disc recorder in your PC or attached to your PC externally

3

Solutions 

  • a) Make sure that the type of disc project you have selected complies with the type of disc in your disc drive. For example: If you have selected an Audio-CD project, put an empty CD-R or CD+R into your disc recorder
  • If you want to burn a DVD-Video disc, insert and empty DVD-R or DVD+R disc into your disc drive
  • b) In a normal case, you want to burn your disc just once, with one disc recorder. In this case make sure to put the disc into the recorder drive that you have selected for burning
  • If you have selected burning to multiple disc recorders please make sure to have a disc inserted into each recorder, so that the message will not pop up

TIP! for more details on disc types check Nero KnowHow Glossary

Nero KnowHow 00121

Why do I get the error message “The file C:\Users\… .mp4 (or similar) is referred to in your project but it cannot be found in the previous location…”

When opening a saved project in Nero Video, the application checks if all files associated to your timeline project are available. This means: all files (video, photo, audio) that you have imported to your project and used within your project timeline – before saving and closing it last time – will be checked for.

If Nero Video shows this message with one or the other file reference, the following problem scenarios and possible solutions apply.

NGST-443

 


Problem 1

Some or all of the media that you have used in the project timeline reside on an external drive that you disconnected in the meantime.

Solutions

  • Attach your drive with the respective media used in your project again, click ‘Browse’ and navigate to the folder that contains the file with the name mentioned in Nero Video message box. Select the file and click ‘open’. Nero Video will re-link all files that reside in the same location automatically
  • If you have moved individual files to other folders, Nero Video will show the same dialog box again, asking for another respective file name. If you have deleted single files in the given location on purpose, click ‘delete’, and continue step by step
  • If you have deleted all other files, or if you want to start the project anyway, click on ‘delete all’

Note: if you deleted linked files in the source location permanently, Nero Video cannot restore these files within a project. So, be careful when permanently deleting source files that are associated to a project.

TIP-1: When editing projects, we recommend always importing all media files from externally attached drives or devices to reside in a hard disk inside of your PC. Otherwise, you will have the risk of losing these files forever due to e.g. deletion on the external drive.  In such a case, Nero Video will not be able to restore your project – i.e. relink your files

TIP-2: For more details on what a project is and what project files are about, check Nero KnowHow 00029.


Problem 2

Some or all of the media that you have used in the project timeline reside in a folder that you have moved to a different folder path inside your PC or an external drive.

Solutions

  • In Nero Video dialog box click on ‘Browse’ and navigate to the respective folder on your PC that contains the file with the name mentioned in Nero Video message box. Select the file and click ‘open’
  • If this relates to an external drive, and for other steps and processes, please check the steps and tips mentioned above

Nero KnowHow  00120

Why do I get an error message saying I cannot import files in Nero Video?

By design, Nero Video can only import media files if they exist in a supported video, image, or audio format.

Nero Video has a high compatibility with media formats. Still there may be cases when the format that you want to import is not supported, and an error message may pop up.

The below overview shows you what works and what is not expected to work.


Import video file formats

  • Nero Video has a high compatibility with video formats. Please check the detailed system requirements for reference

Import photo file formats

  • Nero Video has a good compatibility with photo formats. Please check the detailed system requirements for reference
  • Please note that you can import photo files only within the video editing module of Nero Video
  • The disc creation module in Nero Video does not allow this

Import audio file formats

  • Nero Video has a high compatibility with audio file formats. Please check the detailed system requirements for reference

No import of project file formats

  • Project files are no media files. These are data bases of the metadata of a given project
  • Nero Video cannot import video projects as media files
  • If you want to start an existing project go to home screen ‘Open Nero Video Project’
  •  For more details on project formats, please check Nero KnowHow 00029

No import project metadata files

Import failed_2

  • Many video, photo, or audio editing programs create special meta data files of individual files used within their projects and save them in the same folder as the source media files
  • These files are no media files and are neither needed nor supported in Nero Video
  • TIP: Before importing from such a folder, select ‘sort by file format’ in Windows Explorer and only import media files. If – by accident – you have some of these meta-data files in your list of files to import click ‘ok’. Nero Video will import compatible media files, anyway

No import of document files

Import failed

  • In this case a user wanted to import document types of formats (word, text, etc.) via drag & drop into Nero Video
  • Such non-media formats are not supported in Nero Video

TIP: If you use the import function within the editing and disc authoring module of Nero Video, non-compatible formats will not be shown. This may help if you are unsure.

Nero Know How 00122

How can I burn an MP3 Disc or Jukebox Disc in Nero Express?

Nero Express provides many options for you to burn your MP3 files and other music files to disc.

You can burn MP3-CDs, MP3-DVDs, and even MP3-Blu-ray Discs.

Given your devices support this, you can have hours of music stored on your disc to play back comfortably with devices like your car stereo, standalone DVD player, or Blu-ray Disc player.

What’s even better: you can have mixed format CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs combining different typical audio formats like MP3, AAC, and WMA. Nero calls this Jukebox Audio Disc and below table shows an overview.

Jukebox Table EN

In Nero Express you can create such discs comfortably by clicking on of the Jukebox Disc buttons for CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc. Let us take the example of a Jukebox Audio CD. Klick on ‘Music’ in the left pane and then ‘Jukebox Audio CD’.

Start Jukebox Disc

Add your music files by clicking the ‘Add’ button. You can do this by using Windows Explorer via clicking on ‘Files…’.

However, the much more comfortable way of doing this here, is clicking on ‘Nero MediaBrowser’, which shows your albums and album files with cover art. Nero applications include state of the art Gracenote® Music Technology, providing album title, genre, album covers, and more within your files.

NMB

add

When you have added all files to your track list click ‘Next’, select your recorder, type in a name for your disc, and  press ‘Burn’.

It will take a few minutes for your disc to burn depending on the speed of your drive. You will be notified when the burn process is completed.

If your original files were ripped or edited with Nero applications, your Jukebox Disc will have album information and album art included in the music files. This way it is extremely comfortable to navigate and search for titles.

Nero Know How 00119