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Archiving Best Practices for All Media
Hi all,
For the past few months I have had some great success with backing up multiple terabytes of data to LTO tapes. This includes all the media that was shot for the specific project upon finish (I am going to start this process earlier now too for security).
Part of me feels that this is overkill, since not all the media was used and it might better to only archive the consolidated media in the final master. At the same time, I would understand a company’s comfort in knowing that everything they paid for budget-wise still lived somewhere even if it wasn’t used in the edit. Also, tape is cheap so why not?
Curious what everyone else’s best practices are for archiving an entire shoot vs. a consolidated edit?
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3 Replies
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Relative to the costs of recreating lost content – used in the project or not – LTO tapes are very cheap.
Develop an identification process that fits your workflow and deliverables content and archive everything.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
We routinely backup all media for features and docus that we handle data and workflow for. The time spent in consolidating media is not worth it. And if you miss out even a single file, or part of a file the whole backup becomes pointless.
For features we backup as much as a hundred TB to LTO-6 tapes. Tapes are cheap. And if the backup starts with the shoot, then its not a big task as one is backing up about a tape a day or two.We use Bru-PE and have been using it since 2010 or so. Tapes from 2009 still read fine and we’ve restored many shots for reuse in other shows. The drives holding the same footage may or may not mount any more, but the tapes work every time.
I think I’ve done about a couple of Petabytes to LTO-4, 5, and 6 over the past 5-6 years.
Just make sure you have some form of human readable database of tapes and their contents. We use Excel, and of course Bru-PE catalogs.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
Hey there – I would back up all media onto LTO…its reliable, unlike drives..
Usually what I do is Media Manage my final sequence of whatever the project is, adding two second handles, and write that to LTO as well. Just in case I have to make small tweaks to the project I’m not bringing a ton of unnecessary media back.
Lisa Bradley
Editor/Videographer
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