Video storage strategy for new Mac user

[CP450]

I want to choose a rational storage strategy for myself as I begin editing my home movies using Final Cut Express. Here is what I am considering:

1. External scratch drive (how big and is RAID 0 satisfactory for this?)

2. External drive for backup of my finalized video collection. I would imagine that it will quickly get over 1TB. My internal drive is nearly 500GB full already so I figured I wouldn't store any video on my internal drive. Can I use a Drobo for my completed video products and as a backup for my desktop? If so, should I use it with Time Machine, SuperDuper, or both? How about a MacMini?

3. I will be purchasing a Macbook Air soon. How should I best deal with backup for this as part of the above strategy? Droboshare? MacMini?

4. Should I save my raw files on a hard drive or just my edited final versions?

4. I currently backup my documents, music, and photos on an external drive (in a safety deposit box with all of my DV tapes as well as the original SD cards from big vacations). I also use Mozy for online backup of the documents, photos, and music. I assume I should combine these onto one large (maybe 3TB) external drive for backup, still using online storage for all but video? Can you use something like a G-RAID3 for this? I assume RAID 0 is not an issue as it will be a second backup (the primary being the Drobo/MacMini or whatever as above).

5. Finally, how can I best do this to enable myself to view my finished movies on my home theater (Pioneer 141FD) system?

The more I think about this, the more confusing it gets to me. It seems as if I could end up with several external drives to plug in and unplug for backup, offsite storage, and networked storage. Do any of you have any thoughts on how I can achieve this in a rational manner? Thanks.

 

[tri3limited]

To be completely honest i think the Mac Air would be better if you went for the MacBook Pro. Far more power for even basic video editing.

Use the Mac Mini via the DVI straight into the TV and load your files off the networked harddrive as described below.

I would use one external HDD as a scratch disc for footage and renders and use a separate one to store final outputted files.

I do think you might be over complicating the drive solutions though, a couple for terabyte drives wont set you back more than £200 and would work perfectly as scratch and storage drives. Partition the storage drive in half and use one half for time machine (my preference) or superduper and the other half for your films. As far as networking goes if you attach the filmbox/time machine to a router and use it wirelessly for both. The scratch disc would want to be plugged directly into the mac.


EDIT: Just noticed you have an Apple TV... The networked HDD can be read from that i believe so you don't even need the mini. As for the laptop get the Air if you want portability and edit on your iMac!

 

[Keebler]

Hi CP,

I'm looking into the same issues right now. I'm either going to wait for Apple to come out with a media server (rumoured) or i'm going to buy the HP media server (mac compatible version coming soon).

I'll use a few HDs to edit the material then store the finalized movie files, along with photos and music to either of the above mentioned servers.

I would go for a macbook pro. I have one, it's good for editing and would be ideal for your purposes.

The reason why i'm getting a media server is twofold:
1. to have a centralized location for all media
2. to be backed up in RAID

And apparently, the appleTV can read the HP servers as that would be slick as well.

I may even take a rarely used 1 TB HD and put just my movies on that as well considering I'll have plenty of hours (over 80 1 hour tapes at the moment).

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
keebler

 

[CP450]

Thanks for advice...

I appreciate the input. I was thinking of the Macbook Air only for portability and so I'll use the iMac for editing. It would be great if Apple released a dedicated media server at some point. I'll keep the storage solution simple as suggested!