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Hard Drive Edit Backup FCP
Hi Everyone
I’m investing in a Apple Mac Pro 2 x 2.66Ghz Nehalem, 12GB Ram, 1TB System Drive and 3 further 1TB drives (i.e. to fill all 4 bays).
I already have 1TB MyBook, and 750GB MyBook, External Drives.
I won’t be getting a Raid card yet for my setup – I’m not yet sure how a Raid setup works yet. Once I get the knack of using my Mac Pro I will explore the possibilities of a Raid setup.
Hopefully I can use Time Machine also.
I’m not sure about which of the 1TB drives I have I should ideally use as my scratch disk. Previously I’ve just used my 1TB MyBook external drive.
Before I embark on editing my first project in FCS using this new setup, can anyone please offer any quick tips about how I might best use my hard drives for sufficient backup?
Any tips whatsoever appreciated – it would be great to have peace of mind from the offset that anything I edit is backed up.
Thanks in advance
Peter
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11 Replies
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I’d recommend you read up a bit on RAIDs for exactly that reason, backup. A RAID 5 configuration is an excellent combination of speed and safety, because if one drive fails, you can replace it and it will rebuild itself with no data loss. However, you need a RAID card for this. Cal Digit makes a nice one, I use it myself.
The other issue you’ll run into is, if you take 3 hard drives and use them as you will and then decide you want to raid them together later, you will have to obliterate all the data on those drives. If you have ample space when you decide to do so, you’ll be fine, but if not, you could be up a creek. Just food for thought.
Also, while I know migration causes issues with pro apps, I’m not sure if Time Machine does or not, but I typically use Super Duper to create disk backups.
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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Hi Richard
Thanks for your prompt, valuable feedback – looks like a RAID card is a necessity then!
3 last questions:
1. Below are the details of the four 1TB ‘internal hard drives’ I’ve been quoted with my MacPro – do you think it would be possible to combine these four drives into a Raid 5 setup?
MAC PRO 8 CORE 2.66GHZ 6GB 1TB RADEON HD 4870 512MB
WD CAVIAR GREEN 1TB SATAII 3.5″ 32MB CACHE INTERNAL HARD DRIVE (3 of these to fill remaining 3 bays)
2. Or, do you think my Raid 5 would be better with the 3 “WD CAVIAR GREEN 1TB SATAII 3.5″ 32MB CACHE INTERNAL HARD DRIVE” in addition to my 1TB external MyBook?
3. Last question I promise! Once I’ve established a Raid 5 – do I choose this one ‘virtual’ disk as my scratch disk in FCP?
Okay end of questions, I promise to go away now and do some research on Raid setups!
Warm regards, and thanks again for your advice and any further tips you can afford me!
Peter
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MyBooks are definitely not a recommended media drive that I would tell anyone to use for video editing. If it’s all you can afford for the moment, then go ahead, but look to step up to a video centric product from someone like G-Tech, MaxxDigital or Sonnet in the future.
In order to do a RAID you need multiple drives, generally in one enclosure that are all formatted together as one large media drive. In my case I have a couple of 8TB arrays that are eight 1TB drives all striped as one large array. So it shows up as one large hard drive on my desktop. It runs in RAID 5 which means that I can lose any one of those individual drives, but all my media is safe.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Hi Walter
Thanks for your feedback – I really appreciate it. Raid seems expensive but absolutely essential now!
Okay after a little research I can refine my question –
I will be buying my MacPro from an Apple reseller as opposed to Apple directly, as it’s a little less expensive.
There are three 1TB drives being fitted in my Mac Pro bays, called: “Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATAII 32MB Cache Dual Processor Internal Hard Drive OEM”
In addition, there is another 1TB hard drive, although I’m not sure if it’s Apple or not. The quote states: MAC PRO 8 CORE 2.66GHZ 6GB 1TB RADEON HD 4870 512MB
My concern is that the system I order from the Apple reseller won’t be configured the way Apple would do it, such as on the Apple website:
“Your Mac Pro system ships with each hard drive individually configured in the Enhanced JBOD level with Mac OS X installed on the drive in bay 1. Using Apple’s RAID Utility software, you can migrate the drives into a RAID set without reinstalling Mac OS X or reformatting the drives, or you can customize your RAID volumes to meet your exact requirements.”
Should I perhaps request that the Apple reseller I’m ordering from ensures that “each hard drive is individually configured in the Enhanced JBOD level with Mac OS X installed on the drive in bay 1”?
Peter
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[peter dunphy] “do you think it would be possible to combine these four drives into a Raid 5 setup?”
Peter,
What no one else mentioned is that Raid 5 requires a hardware card. It only requires three drives, but since it eats up a large percentage of one of the drives, it hardly makes sense with only three drives. Four dives is pretty much considered the minimum practical for a raid 5 configuration.
There are four drive bays in your MacPro, plus an empty optical drive bay, which can accommodate a fifth hard drive if the proper hardware is installed, so you can install an inexpensive 4-drive raid 5 internally. CalDigit has a raid card that comes with the hardware for the optical bay. I would recommend that call them and ask Jon Schilling about that setup. He doesn’t bite too often, and he will give you all the info you require.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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HI David
Thanks for your advice! I’ll get in touch with Jon. Much appreciated!
Peter
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Hi,
I’ve since received this info from the Apple reseller I’m interested in buying my MacPro from – how does it look?
I suppose my two concerns are:
1. Whether I can make the item they suggest a ‘Raid 5’
2. Whether I can expand my ‘Raid’ setup to include more hard drives should I need to expand in a years time to edit my independent feature
Any suggestions would be really appreciated. I could just take the Apple resellers word for it and say “yeah cool I’ll buy it” but just wanted to check with you Creative Cow guys first to see what you think.
“Just keep the one disk in the mac pro ( or maybe 2, so you can have a backup of your system)
Forget the raid card and internal disks
Use one of these instead – https://www.jigsaw24.com/default.aspx?ITEM=JIGSX183ARA
Its external, so if your mac breaks then you can still get to your storage. You can also transfer it to use on a different machine. Its fast enough to cope with 3 streams of video at prores format. Costs about the same as the mac pro with internal raid and disks”
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[peter dunphy] “I’ve since received this info from the Apple reseller I’m interested in buying my MacPro from – how does it look?”
You didn’t include the information from the reseller.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Hi David
Sorry for any confusion. Below is the info/email in quotes I received from the reseller:
“Just keep the one disk in the mac pro ( or maybe 2, so you can have a backup of your system)
Forget the raid card and internal disks
Use one of these instead – https://www.jigsaw24.com/default.aspx?ITEM=JIGSX183ARA
Its external, so if your mac breaks then you can still get to your storage. You can also transfer it to use on a different machine. Its fast enough to cope with 3 streams of video at prores format. Costs about the same as the mac pro with internal raid and disks”
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Peter,
That’s a solution, but not necessarily “the” solution. Of course, every VAR (value added reseller) wants you to buy what he has to sell, that doesn’t make them bad guys, but doesn’t make them right all the time either. In your case, it all depends how comfortable you are dealing with hardware. If you have been putting parts in your own computers, you’ll have no trouble installing drives and a card in your new Mac, but if you think you need a nearby reseller’s help and oversight, then better buy what they have.
Does that help?
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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