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Topic: external hard drive database protection. - Page: 1

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Hi guys, i was wondering if someone could help with this situation. the fact is that i´m a dj at a club, i carry all my music on 2 external hard drives. On special occasions, the club sends me to private parties and another dj covers me at the club, the thing is that i sometimes have to give one of my hard drives, cause my music is why the club is known for. the only thing is that there´s been a switch on the secondary dj and i don´t trust him so well.
is there a way to protect make my external drive so he can only play the music with the virtual dj, but not able to copy it outside my drive??
sorry if im not clear enough, i am new to posts.
 
Posted Mon 27 Jun 11 @ 1:38 pm
Yes, You Don't Lend your Wife, Girl Fiend or your Hard Drive.....Ever.......Period
 
yes, you setup the hdd sharing options and have the hdd password protected and set as a read only drive.

also make a back up copy ov your vdj database before hand incase of cuepoint alterations etc. although im not sure how things will work with updating the database on a read only drive anyway.

wither that or tell the other dj he has to buy his own music collection. if your drive gets screwed up then who is gonna pay for it, and who is gonna have to sit and rebuild your entire collection? cuz believe me, it wont be the other dj. or the manager.

speaking of which, have a word with the club manager and tell him your not happy about the situation. ask if he is willing to pay back the thousands of dollars you spent on building the collection if another jock fries your hdd? i bet he isnt. which in that case he either needs to buy an in house collection, have the other dj's buy a better collection, or give you more work.

either way. i would strongly advise you to NOT allow anyone else to use your drive.

afterall what is a dj without a music collection?? if they damage your drive, not only do they loose work, but so do you. and it wont be them to blame, it will be yourself for allowing them to use the drive.

just refuse, i would. if it cost me my job then so be it, the club just lost loads of business. and the music collection that keeps them running.
 
why dont you ask the club owner to buy the club a Hard drive, and transfer it to that one, database and all. i wouldn't advise you to tell the other dj, because he could just take the music and go, but yea. tell the club owner to buy the club a hard drive, that way, itll always be there. club property
 
thanks guys, i'll have a word with the manager, JoyeyKJ's comment just made me realize how bad things sound. doesn't matter if i have 2 copies, i will not lend it anymore.. hope not to be looking for a job soon...
Just in case, i'll see how to make it read only.
 
regarding DJGCE's post,

no dont, cuz then the club manager could tell you to go...and have "club property" of their own and not need your collection as they have it them selves now you gave them it.

tell him to buy you a backup drive if he wants you to allow the use of "your" music collection. and tell him the collection remains your property as you own the rights to broadcast it. and if ever a time comes when you leave the club, the collection remains your property. and get it in writing.

DO NOT GIVE AWAY YOUR COLLECTION TO THE CLUB...DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO CALL IT CLUB PROPERTY...

just request a new drive so you can back everything up, its the least they could do if they want you to allow others to use "your" hdd and collection.
 
Can you just burn a few DVD's worth of files to give to them so they can only use them on those days? There really isn't a way to fully protect your files and still allow them to access them only with a program like VDJ. It's like a car, if he wants them bad enough, he's going to steal them.
 
Mmm,

Most external drives are not that much protected in a way that it wont be possible to get data off. Only way to really do that is to use encryption.. But.. that will be very noticable in speed.

Your regular laptop HDD is however very easy to protect. The password that you can set in your bios for your HDD is a very blocking way to protect your data. Even IF they take your hdd into another laptop, it simply wont show data without the password. Its the HDD's own firmware managing this. So depending on how large your collection is, you might want to consider using a huge laptop hdd and using the external just for home backup.
 
but thats an even worse scenario, then there would be requests he leaves his laptop for other jocks to use. thus leading to worse situations.
 
I wouldnt even let them buy me a drive and let them use it. Why would I want everyone else to sound like me. No way! Our drive doesn't define us as DJs, but it does allow us to be unique to a certain degree. Dont Do It!!
 
good point, +1 to that.
 
The thing is that i have been the dj since it's opening a year ago, and we already established the genres, the costumers and all that turns around me & my music, they don't intend to make him sound like me, but they need the mood ther're used to. there is really no way to protect, or so it seams. i guess i'll just have to talk things over with the owner. thanks
 
Didn't you pay for all that music you have on your drive??......How long did it take you to purchase...

Don't be stupid, the worth of the music in your drive is more then several band new computers combine...

They will copy your music off your drive and find an excuse to fire you...after, though it might be too late already....

Good Luck,

Joey...
 
Bottom line is that it is YOUR collection of music, not the clubs. Your music collection is part of the reason you get hired for a gig in the first place, and the fact that you update it regularly gives you an edge on other jocks. Why would you want to give that edge away?

Further more, the only way to protect your HD is through encryption. If you give someone the password to your encrypted HD, they can copy it after they type in the password, which defeats the purpose of encrypting. Rendering it as 'Read-only' will not stop it from being copied. VirtualDJ requires read and write permissions for external drives to act properly inside the software.

IMO Your database is part of your DJ identity, don't give away something that you've taken years to build.
 
I wouldnt even let them buy me a drive and let them use it. Why would I want everyone else to sound like me. No way! Our drive doesn't define us as DJs, but it does allow us to be unique to a certain degree. Dont Do It!!
 
Let's stop this crazy talk right now. No, no, no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,No. No you can't use my hard drives. No, you can't get a copy of my hard drives. No, you can't have DVDs with my music on them. What planet are these people from? You should not even have a thought in your mind, not even a remote possibility, to let anyone use your hard drives. As one of the guys said, would you let him use your wife. To me, same thing. One more thing, No,no,no,no,no,no,no. I can't even believe we are having this conversation.
 
I dont give my hard drives to nobody. Its not my concern that another dj doesnt have the songs that the club wants to hear.
 
Copying your music to a club drive won't solve the problem, which is how to protect your investment in the music. If he has read access to the music (which is required for Virtual DJ to access it of course) then he can copy the music. The best solution you could manage would be if you had full control of the computer the music is connected to, that way you could implement security measures which disallow any non-approved external media to be connected. The whole system would look something like this:

1) Separate media drive with TrueCrypt drive encryption. This protects the drive so that it will be inaccessible if connected to a different computer. However, a password or security key (stored on a separate usb drive) would be required every time you start the trusted venue machine, so you'd have to leave that information with a manager you do trust. It is possible to hire a programmer who could make a software which only allows the drive encryption key to be loaded on a single machine, this way no-one else needs to know it. However, it may not be feasible.

2) Security permissions on the computer which disallow non-authorized usb devices from being connected, this way the other DJ cannot connect his own usb harddrive to copy (steal) your music.

However, this can be quite complicated to setup.
 
Nesto Cortes wrote :
the thing is that i sometimes have to give one of my hard drives, cause my music is why the club is known for. the only thing is that there´s been a switch on the secondary dj and i don´t trust him so well.

Either the music is yours or the clubs.. if you collected it and paid for it.. then its yours..
The 'secondary' DJ should have HIS OWN MUSIC!. If he doesnt then it sucks to be him..

Quote :
is there a way to protect make my external drive so he can only play the music with the virtual dj, but not able to copy it outside my drive??

I've looked into it a few times now..
short answer is no..

You can bitlock the hard drive, but then it will only work on the computers you allow.. second you allow buddys computer he can make copies..
You can encrypt the hard drive, but again.. only usable with your software and computer.. second you give out the password (which buddy will need to read the contents) he can make copies..

best suggestion is like the one above..
just give buddy a basic catalog of 100 songs that will get him thru the night.. if he wants more, he should buy more himself..
 
There are tools to enable only special USB devices and disable all the others. So your Harddrive with the music get's recognized but his USB Stick where he want's to copy the music to don't ;-))

Greets, Heiko
 
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