-
Archiving footage whilst saving disk space
Consider that you have just finished an edit for a client and handed them the final videos on DVD format and you now have a project that is 50-200 GB large.
What techniques would you employ to archive the project you have for the client so that if they come back say a year later and want to make changes you can BUT at the same time you want to save on disk space so you don’t run out of that terabyte you just purchased in a few projects time?
I’d like to hear different methods so that I may pick and choose which ones I believe would my production house best.
Mikkell Khan
Director
Diamond Films Ltd. (Trinidad and Tobago) -
7 Replies
-
We archive everything on 2 separate drives, one as backup.
Although it may take a bit of space, drives are cheap compared to the time it would take recompressing and organizing. You could also use the trim function in the project manager, but you may lose footage you might need later.
LTO taped is also a good investment for long term storage.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
So why LTO taped (reading up on it now) and not just a terabyte hard drive thats stored away after being filled?
Mikkell Khan
Director
Diamond Films Ltd. (Trinidad and Tobago) -
They are actual data storage tapes. Cheaper than drives after the initial recorder investment. Their lifespan is much longer than hard disks, which are very sensitive to shocks and are just not very reliable in that there is usually very little or no warning before a crash. In the end, the investment will depend on how much you archive.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
aRE YOU TALKING ABOUT OTHER THAN USING THE BUILD IN ADOBE PROJECT MANAGERTHAT WILL TAKE YOUR PROJECT AND KEEP JUST THE CLIPS YOU WANT OR THE CLIPS THAT WERE USED PARTIA;LLY.
i USE THAT FOR ALL MY PROJECTS -
I currently use a SATA bare-drive dock; mine is from Wiebetech. Bare drives are pretty cheap; just use at least two separate ones (archive + backup) for anything important.
-Jeff
-
Tape is far more reliable than single hard drives as a long term storage medium.
If you leave a hard drive on a shelf there is no guarantee in 1, 5 or 10 years’ time when you come to plug it back in that it will work. Hard drives need to be spun.
A tape on a shelf however, (be it data or video tape) will see you right for years to come. It shocks me every time I hear people are using individual hard drives / DVD-Rs on a shelf as their primary backup system.
-
Well, full disclosure, my _primary_ backup is tape (DDS). Most of my HD archive is rendered output or captured footage. I’d argue that any digital media is iffy after 10 years; maybe after 5: Will you still have the device to read it?
-jeff
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up