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Long term backups
Hey Everyone,
I work at a small production company that produces mainly commercials and some narrative work. We’ve been in the DSLR game for a while now and are loving it. The problem is my RAID is filling up rather quickly with the combined storage of the ProRes media and an archived disk image of each card that is shot in the field.
I would like to offload all the disk images to a storage device for long term storage and was wondering what folks are using for this purpose. In the past, I’ve just used firewire drives for long term backup but, as I look around my office I can count close to 20 in my edit suite alone. They always seem to pile up and take a lot of room on a shelf. I’d like to get away from the pattern of buying more FW drives when we run out of storage space.
What are my other options for long term storage? DLT drive comes to mind but I didnt know if there was anything newer/better out there for this purpose.
Thanks!
-Evan
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4 Replies
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Quantum LTO-4 is a very popular (not cheap but very robust) solution.
Noah
Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera!
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D.
Watch Formosa- My indie movie shot with the SDX900 and finished with Final Cut Studio. -
You can try 50 Gig BluRay Disc. I don’t know if this would save you space, once they start piling up, but since it’s easy to get a DVD organizer, it may help a little.
The other issue with Hard Drive’s; you need to spin them about every 3-6 months so they don’t seize up on you.
This is the downside of moving away from tape.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Video.comSony EX-1, V1U
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
w/ Adobe CS-4 Production Suite, After Effects
& CS-5 Production Suite. Window’s 7Manfrotto Tripod’s & Heads
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This is a good question! I need a good solution in mind when I start using these DSLRs myself.
My original idea was to use 8gig CF cards, and burn an exact DL-DVD copy of the card for archive. Or go the smaller way and use just 4gig cards and burn an exact copy to a regular DVD…although that would produce twice the amount of DVDs/Storage space.
I also entertained the idea of using BR-DVDs and just store the larger projects on there. Not only will the raw footage be on there, but also the ProRes422 files, the premier files, audio files…everything needed for a single project would fit on one single disk this way. The cost for a 50gig BR disk may be pretty hefty, so either you eat the price up, or pass the buck to your clients.
I personally don’t like the idea of using HDD to archive stuff for the long runs. It just seems to me that HDD fail quicker then properly stored DVDs…especially quality ones that are ment for archival purposes.
If you do use a DVD way of archiving, do it right.
* For archiving recordable (R) discs,discs that have a gold metal reflective layer are recommended. It’s said that with current disks, which are better sealed than they used to be, the use of gold as a reflecting layer is less important than it was, however it certainly doesn’t hurt!
* For general storage, a temperature between 4°C (39°F) and 20°C (68°F) is recommended with a relative humidity of 20% to 50%
* For long term storage, 18°C and 40% RH are recommended.
* For extended term archival storage even lower temperature and humidity are recommended.
* Storage in the dark, while not absolutely required, can’t hurt.Have Fun!
Ryan -
Sure you can try Blu-ray discs but as a long-term media they’re arguably even more fragile than off the shelf Firewire drives- like when was the last time you scratched or chipped a hard drive? LTOs aren’t cheap but they are incredibly durable. Sure you spend more in the short term but in the long run you are preserving in theory priceless work- right?
Noah
Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera!
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D.
Watch Formosa- My indie movie shot with the SDX900 and finished with Final Cut Studio.
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