Given the fact i work in documentary film, does this archiving set up make sense?

[oxband]

I want to start being a bit more forward thinking about how I backup data since HD footage takes up crazy memory.

I was all set to set up a full on RAID and switch to swappable drives but I'm thinking about not doing it and I want to talk it through with people.

This year, I'm going to finish editing two projects. One of them is 4TB of data that I have on 2 2tb drives. The other one i havent edited yet, but I dont imagine needing more than 2TB of data. Beyond those two project, I have my computer, music library, and DVD library backed up on some 1TB drives (everything combined comes in under 1TB. it's on multiple drives) and older film work all fits on one 1TB drive that I also have backed up multiple times.

I'll be starting a long term project next year that will be my largest one yet, but I will be shooting for over a year before I even begin editing. The storage need that will have is simply storing AVCHD cards.

I'm thinking that I will hold off on buying a more complicated set up because it seems my needs can be met by buying a bunch of 2TB external drives. For the projects I'm editing this year, I can pack up the larger one on two 2TB and the other one on 2TB. Not all those drives need be G-Tech/expensive drives (what I use for editing) because I wont be editing off all those drives. Some will be simply for backup.

I didnt realize how cheap 2tb drives go now; I was seeing ones from major brands like Western Digital on Amazon for under 90. I thought I would save money by going to swappable external HD's but it seems worth the extra money to have ones that are enclosed and portable, as I can use them anywhere instead of needing to make sure I can insert the swappable drive somewhere.

Bottom line: I'm thinking of buying a bunch of enclosed external HDs, half of which will be G-Tech HDs I use to edit, and the other ones being Western Digital or some similar brand.

Make sense? Am I missing something here? Any advice would be great!

 

[Zwhaler]

What you are doing makes sense, what kind of computer do you use? I recommend 3TB drives too they go for around $200.

 

[cgbier]

Why not looking int something like a Drobo just for b/u?

Archiving your stuff on external drives has the disadvantage that you have to let your drives spin some now and then to not lose data integrity.

 

[MisterMe]

...

Archiving your stuff on external drives has the disadvantage that you have to let your drives spin some now and then to not lose data integrity.

And how is this a problem?

 

[miles01110]

And how is this a problem?

It's not. Unless you're uninformed or confused.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I thought I would save money by going to swappable external HD's but it seems worth the extra money to have ones that are enclosed and portable, as I can use them anywhere instead of needing to make sure I can insert the swappable drive somewhere.

Have you seen the HDD docking stations that you can just pop drives into. For Example,

You should definitely have your projects backed-up onto more than one drive and ideally the drives will be kept in different geographical locations. And if we talking about ideally you'd be using something better than HDDs but the only other viable option for storing that much data is data tape and that's probably prohibitively expensive.

And how is this a problem?

It's a problem because your back-up drives should be sitting safely on a shelf someplace, not plugged in. Which means you are going to have to remember to spin up the drives periodically to confirm data integrity. Not a huge deal if you only have a drive or two drives but it can become cumbersome if the back-up collection grows.


Lethal

 

[oxband]

I had no idea you need to run the drives every now and then or the data can lose integrity. I have some that havent run in a year!

What's the rule of thumb with this?