A DIT question: to RAID or not to RAID

[Angelo Lorenzo]

When I perform DIT work, I usually purchase pairs of external drives. I use Shotput Pro to offload data from camera and sound media which allows me to offload to multiple disks simultaneously. Time-wise, offloading to two separate drives is a non-issue.

I had the chance to work with a director’s GSafe which is Hitachi’s little two drive RAID 1 box and I liked using it. I kind of want to purchase one, or something similar, on my own.

Pros:
-Smaller footprint
-Less cabling
-Keeps an eSATA port open for the RED Station (my tower only has two eSATA ports) so it eliminates a speed bottleneck there
-Cheaper for productions as bare drives are less expensive than full external drives

Cons:
-I don’t need to purchase this as all productions supply a hard drive budget, so I can just get externals
-Bare drives are more fragile to transport and store outside of the RAID trays once they are handed to the client
-Post production would need a hard drive docking station (hard drive toaster) to deal with bare drives
-Full mirroring is a blessing and a curse; Data loss from accidental human deletes could be a factor albeit a very small one. I’m the only one who touches data on-set, and while in a RAID, and I’m not that foolish

Thoughts? Looks like logically the answer is leaning more towards no, so maybe I’m suffering from some gear lust.

[Bob Cole]

Would an LTO tape drive be too much to add?

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Bob,

I’ve been thinking about an LTO for my own long term storage, but I don’t think it fits in the equation for my client’s needs. I usually DIT on higher end corporate videos or lower budget < $1mil shorts and features. I would deliver LTO, but it never seems to jive with anyone elses workflow. An LTO drive is on my list of acquisitions though.

[Bob Cole]

Fair enough. I think I read somewhere that LTO backup is mandated by insurance companies on big productions. Hard drives are pretty reliable, but LTO seems to be the gold standard.