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Best backup system?
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While tape is a good way to go, there are other GOOD options.
From the description or your set up a Drobo may be a good option. The Drobo is more then just a hard drive, it offers data redundancy on the device as well as the option to expand the drive capacity at a later time. In addition when compared to other raids you do not have to use the same make and model drive in every drive slot.
The regular Drobo and the Drobo Pro are both great options for safe data storage.
As was mentioned it is also good to have a copy of everything at another physical location, the Drobo also makes this quite simple. When combining the Drobo with the Drobo Share and then using the Drobo App Drobo Rsync (yes the Drobo can actually run special apps on the Drobo) and a second Drobo with Drobo Share at a Off-Site location you can sync the two Drobs. With a set up like that everything you put onto your Drobo is also safly stored at another location.
Unfortunately the data rates of the Drobo are not quite up to the speeds needed for proper video editing performance they are built for smart redundancy not for supper speed. BUT THEY ARE BREAT FOR SAFE DATA.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
While LTO-3/4 tape is more secure than hard disks, you need to know that LTO tapes can be written in many different and often incompatible formats. What I shudder to think is that one may delect a format that may become invalid in a few years, so even if one had a drive, the software to read it may or may not exist.
That’s not the case with hard disks and DVD-Rs or BD-Rs.
I’ve begun to suggest clients Blu-ray BD-Rs to back up SxS or P2 or CF card data from Sony XDCam Ex, Red, Canon 7D shoots. Its neat, one card one disk. As many disks as there are card changes, so the risk of a unreadable disk means only minimal loss of data. Besides, BD-R disks seem to be hardier than some noname DVD-Rs or CD-Rs. And they are cheaper than LTO tapes.
If your media is SD ProRes, 1 BD-R could even hold an hour of video or half an hour od HD video.
One day (probably 2-3 years hence) there will be a 1 Tb optical disk, and that drive will still be backward compatible with today’s disks. Just as I can still read system backups on CD-Rs written in 1993.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India
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