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archiving video projects

D

dcslacker

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 23, 2004
44
1
I've been pondering the best way to archive my video projects. My stuff isn't pro stuff, just personal and school projects. Currently, my files are on a 1TB Caviar Black HDD and duplicated on an identical drive in my Mac Pro (no RAID setup here, just copying to both drives manually). I keep the Premiere/AE project files in the same folder as my raw footage/photos/etc. The media within the project folders are organized by video/audio/etc.

The HDD is starting to fill up and eventually I need to archive this stuff. I'm not sure if I need to keep two identical HDDs of my video projects or if one will suffice. So far, I plan to take out the HDD, put it in a plastic case and store it in a closet while I put in a new blank HDD into the empty bay.

Does this sound like a good idea? Or are there other ways to archive video projects?
 
You are on the right track. Everything should be backed up at least twice. To be absolutely on the safe side, get yourself a small, inexpensive fire proof chest.
 
RE Archiving

Theres not one way to do this. What ever works for you, but here is my 2cents.

What sucks about computers is HDs can fail at anytime. So it is a good idea to backup your backup like mentioned.

Something that can make this a little easier is first buy an HD that has a Raid1 built into it, and the only ones I trust that do are WesternDigital My Book Studios or G-Raids, but these are a little more expensive.

If you don't know what a Raid1 is, this is what it means. The WD My Books come in its largest size a 4TB (dual 2TB HDs) combined to work as one single big 4TB HD by default.

But what you can do with these (and the software utility is included in the box to do this) is reconfigure them to be seperated as two 2TB HDs. You will still see on your desktop one HD icon but what happens when you copy files to it, it mirrors the files on both HDs. So if one fails you are automaticaly backingUP your backUP. And you just replace the bad HD rebuild it to sync the info back to the new HD and your ready to go again.

Now you can do this syncing manually or you can use OS-Xs Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner.

I use Time Machine. It works fine for me.
 
MovieCutter said:
Discs last longer than hard drives. I'd get a Blu-ray burner for like $100 and a bunch of BD writeables for archive.
Click to expand...


Well, another way to look at this... Blu-ray media costs per GB is pretty much the same as decent hard-drives. And if you look around, you can buy cheaper, slower drives for much less. So, if you archive to drives, it will be faster and cheaper... and you can always reuse the drive later if you decide you no longer need to keep a copy of the project. What I do, once the edit is complete, is archive to a storage drive and then put that away in a safe place. And because the cost is so cheap, I usually don't even bother deleting used media unless I can do it fast and efficiently.

If the drive is in a protective case and stored properly, it should last quite a long time if it's not having data always written to it. Other than the risk of demagnetization, how can a drive go bad sitting in protective storage? If you go the Blu-ray route, you have to deal with splitting files that are beyond disk capacity, and having to deal with the long burn times. I like the idea of finishing a project and then popping in a new drive for the next one. I use a Voyager Q running off eSATA/FW 800. If blu-ray comes down further in price, then it is probably the best way. But right now it's pretty much the same cost as hard disks... and even a bit more when you consider that you have to buy a burner too.
 
THX1139 said:
Well, another way to look at this... Blu-ray media costs per GB is pretty much the same as decent hard-drives. And if you look around, you can buy cheaper, slower drives for much less. So, if you archive to drives, it will be faster and cheaper... and you can always reuse the drive later if you decide you no longer need to keep a copy of the project. What I do, once the edit is complete, is archive to a storage drive and then put that away in a safe place. And because the cost is so cheap, I usually don't even bother deleting used media unless I can do it fast and efficiently.

If the drive is in a protective case and stored properly, it should last quite a long time if it's not having data always written to it. Other than the risk of demagnetization, how can a drive go bad sitting in protective storage? If you go the Blu-ray route, you have to deal with splitting files that are beyond disk capacity, and having to deal with the long burn times. I like the idea of finishing a project and then popping in a new drive for the next one. I use a Voyager Q running off eSATA/FW 800. If blu-ray comes down further in price, then it is probably the best way. But right now it's pretty much the same cost as hard disks... and even a bit more when you consider that you have to buy a burner too.
Click to expand...

Where are you buying your discs from? I get BDs for less than a dollar a piece, if not half that. Depends on the project too, I have 200 25 minute broadcast shows, 3 camera angles each+b-roll, photos, voiceover, etc. They come in at around 30-40GB, so those discs DL-BDs are less than $5. Again, depends on how big your projects are.
 
MovieCutter said:
Where are you buying your discs from? I get BDs for less than a dollar a piece, if not half that. Depends on the project too, I have 200 25 minute broadcast shows, 3 camera angles each+b-roll, photos, voiceover, etc. They come in at around 30-40GB, so those discs DL-BDs are less than $5. Again, depends on how big your projects are.
Click to expand...
Wow send me your supplier name :) Where I am we have to buy local and its not cheap. I know this is overkill but what about LTO?
 
MovieCutter said:
I get BDs for less than a dollar a piece, if not half that.
Click to expand...

Well, not to argue.. but you can get a decent 1TB hard drive off newegg for less than $50. Based on the link to cheap blu-ray discs provided above, the storage cost is still a bit less than going the disc route. And that doesn't figure in the additional cost if you wind up with a coaster or two. Of course, if you can get them for less than a buck... or half that amount, then the discs have the edge cost wise. But with the drive, you don't have to deal with getting the archive to fit on the discs or the slow burn speeds. With a hard drive, you can work directly off it and then when the project is done, just put it in storage. Not sure in the long run if the discs have better archival quality, but for the short-term workflow it seems to be the way to go. In a perfect situation a person would use a combination of both.
 
I think burned DVDs can fail over time, right? Like my archive of photos on DVD can degrade and maybe in 10 years they'll be gone unless I re-burn new DVDs every few years...

So are Blu-Ray discs susceptible to failure like DVDs or is there something special about them that'll give them better shelf life? If they degrade like DVDs, then perhaps a HDD would be be more economical. Not ideal, but economical. And put in a fire safe.

I think I can only afford the HDDs for now since it's the format in the drive bays; just remove, replace, and store. And I will have to decide if my data is worth having one copy or two! :eek:

Thanks for the input.
 
I have Verbatim DVD with family vids that won't play anymore after some five years.
 
cgbier said:
I have Verbatim DVD with family vids that won't play anymore after some five years.
Click to expand...

Not sure why, maybe it's the media? I have some CD's and a few DVD's that are around 10 years old and they load up just fine on my computer. I've even been able to pull images off a Kodak photodisc that I had burned back in '96.
 
THX1139 said:
If the drive is in a protective case and stored properly, it should last quite a long time if it's not having data always written to it. Other than the risk of demagnetization, how can a drive go bad sitting in protective storage?
Click to expand...
HDDs that sit for too long can have their lubricant deteriorate causing the drive to sieze and I've also had archive drives develop the 'click of death' even with infrequent usage. Hopefully SSDs will give us more stable, long lasting options in the future.

dcslacker said:
I think burned DVDs can fail over time, right? Like my archive of photos on DVD can degrade and maybe in 10 years they'll be gone unless I re-burn new DVDs every few years...
Click to expand...
Everything fails eventually. If you are looking for the digital equivalent of putting a box of photographs in the closet there isn't one. The closest we have is LTO but that's prohibitively expensive for many (especially for home use). You also have to worry about your archived media outliving the tools designed to read it. The rule of thumb I keeping seeing is to plan on migrating all of your data to new storage every five years or so and, as best you can, saving media in open formats so you aren't dependent one certain type of software being around so you can open your files.

For me, I use sets of mirrored HDDs and spin them up periodically (every couple of months) to confirm data integrity. I try and mix different manufacturers so if one company has a bad run of drives I won't have both drives in the same pair failing at the same time.


Lethal
 
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