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How do you handle your storage?

puckhead193

puckhead193

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 25, 2004
9,582
874
NY
I started my job in september and already have gone through 2 TB and in need of a new drive. How do you handle your storage? Do you delete stuff? Do you keep buying new drives or just keep a rendered copy for yourself? what's your strategy?
Is it worth buying another G technology drive or will a lacie do? There is such a big premium when buying g tech. drives... :(
Anyone have a promo code for b and h?
 
Depending on what formats your work (SD, HD) and how many tapes or files you have to ingest into one project, you could also capture in a lower resolution to save storage and then when the edit is finalized and declared Master, you then can recapture/re-import the needed tapes or files.

At my work place for example we still work with tapes (for better archiving due to the sheer amount of tapes - 120 to 1400 tapes per project), so we can capture Digi Beta material in 10:1 MXF resolution and save quite some storage space.

We use dedicated FW800 (WD My Studio) and network (EditShare) drives to store the material.

Every project gets its own drive(s) and is labeled accordingly.

After the project is finished, and the shows have been broadcast, we delete almost all media, except the imported music and maybe some not used edits for later use.

We still have the project files, so we can later re-racpture all the footage we need if we have to (but I wouldn't like to re-capture our 1400 tape project).

We use Avid Media Composer btw. .
 
spinnerlys said:
Depending on what formats your work (SD, HD) and how many tapes or files you have to ingest into one project, you could also capture in a lower resolution to save storage and then when the edit is finalized and declared Master, you then can recapture/re-import the needed tapes or files.
Click to expand...

We shoot in HD, and then we export in SD 16x9 (why i have no freaking clue) I shoot sports (the whole game and don't stop recording until halftime or the game is over they want the whole game uploaded.) Not only is this a hard drive hog it takes forever to export the ETA is 6 hours for like a 90 minute clip using my iMac (see sig for specs)
 
In your case since you have tape as your backup. I would keep the original projects files, knowing that you can always go back and re-capture the footage for the project. Store in two places. For projects files. I keep one copy on a hard drive and then about once a month a burn a copy to DVD

For tapeless projects, I have a separate drives that keeps all the original p2 files with original file structures. Then once the project is finished I media manage the project to one of its own drives. Once that's complete, I also backup the project file to DVD. Since going tapeless last spring I have used 4TB so far. I always look out for sales on certain brands. Always keep about 2TB's extra on the shelf.

It does cost a little more. But there have been a few times I had to go back and find footage and highlights from events for a project. Makes it real easy, no capture time. Of course if your producer knows this be prepared for them to ask for just about any clip any time.
 
My strategy is to use a separate drive for every function so 1TB drive for scratch, one for source media, and a final drive for master mov's and transcodes. Project folders are always stored on my local directory.

Upon completion of a project, I open render manager and delete all the render files so my scratch drive is always copacetic. My final projects are usually pretty small so I have yet to fill up the master/transcode drive.

Still, I do have quite a few source drives but lately I have started making archiving decisions w/respect to footage that I don't deem worthy - luckily I don't have to answer to anybody so this decision is all mine. I will use media manager to copy the footage used in the project and go back and delete the source material if it's something I can easily shoot again or don't care about (sunsets? pretty sure I can always shoot another one of those..) Just started this practice so I'll have to let you know how that turns out...
 
For my personal work on my MacBook Pro 2.53, I capture 'everything' to a scratch disk LaCie Quadra over FW800, which is also my source media drive and my output destination drive...

I guess I'm just asking for a disaster?! I do have a backup of this scratch though, another LaCie Quadra.


For the work I do at the organisation I'm employed, I shoot on HDV Sony Digital Master tapes, and capture to an 8 Core Mac Pro on a dedicated scratch disk. No RAID, just backed up.

Not all of the tapes I'm given to edit with are time coded, so re-capturing at a later date isn't always an option for me. I don't delete any media. I work for a museum and since archival is important, having media and tape is no big deal.
 
MIDI_EVIL said:
...

Not all of the tapes I'm given to edit with are time coded, so re-capturing at a later date isn't always an option for me.

...
Click to expand...

Hello MIDI_EVIL, what do you mean, some of your tapes don't have a TC?

I never once came across a tape without a TC, and I handled thousands. How could that work? I'm just curious?


Or do you mean by any chance, that the TC is not the actual time of recording, but just the generic 00:01:23:21?
 
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