Backups - some kind of warning

There had been quite a lot of discussions how to make a project backup.

Some people mirror their drives and may find out that next day FCPX is complaining.
Some people use a backup software to copy those into folders FCPX won't see.
Others use the build in options of FCPX to assign new IDs to the project and events -- so FCPX won't complain.

All of them are quite dangerous depending on the way a project is build (and the way FCPX works).
If you start an event you can either copy media to the event or just link it. These "media files" are stored in the "Original Media" folder inside the "Event Name" folder.

If you start a project you can add media from this new event and from other events to it.

So if back up whole drives make sure to backup every drive which could contain any used media. This is a cumbersome but a safe way - even though you have un-mount a lot of things before you start FCPX.

Using the most often recommended FCPX route can lead easily into a kind of catastrophe. Here is why.
If you used the "Alias" way only the aliases will be copied (if you choose optimize media before these media will be copied as well).
This means you will get a copy of one ore more events which refer to the original events -- just using a new ID. But there is nothing about the media in there and your project still refers to the original event(s) using a kind of "alias bridge".
In case the original event doesn't exist anymore FCPX will rebuild this event using the "Event Name" folder content. This can work fine or not.
If you used aliases it will only find this aliases in the new "Original Media", but if it doesn't find the origin of the file in "Original Media" you will get a problem, probably a big one (to find all "original original media.). If you relied of the FCPX backup it would be a real catastrophe (same with just cloning not all drives)

So what's the safe way?
Either don't use aliases (and maybe keep all original media for a project in one event) or do it on the Finder level.
In any case don't rely on this tempting automatic things.

Just a note.
Andreas

I have a RAID that holds all of my project materials. Camera footage is imported into events. All other materials are in an "elements" folder with sub-folders by client. Those are not imported into the event but are accessed through aliases. I always make sure to use Event Manager X to take all projects and events offline before backing up so that I don't get duplicate files on the backup drive.

The RAID is regularly backed up to a folder on a second RAID using Carbon Copy Cloner. About once a quarter I go through both RAID's and delete any Render and Analysis folders that are of any significant size. I have found that most of them are not that big but if they are I just delete them.

It is a very simple approach that has worked well for me.

Doing a proper backup means backing up whole drives in tact, and ALL drives.