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Hard drive failure: re-linking restored QT files
I had about 100 hours of miniDV footage (over 1100 QT clips) stored on a RAID 0. My backup plan was IF the drive failed before I made a copy, I could just recapture from the miniDV tapes. This was the backup plan with only 30 hours of footage. As the project grew, I delayed buying a backup disk and I never considered the time it would take to back up everything. In my mind, if the hard drive crashed, I was still ok.
The hard drive crashed.
I have a guy who says he can restore it, but NONE of the files will have the correct file name. So if I pay to restore, I’ll still have to figure out the name for each file by cross referencing the length of the clip with the length of the clip in my FCP bin (and also taking into consideration the content. I can watch a clip and roughly know what reel it came from.)
The question is: Is it worth it? I’m kind of thinking just recapturing from tape will get me exactly what I need, no unknowns. It will take about 110 hours. Job finished. Trying to re-link quicktime files might take the same amount of time, plus be mentally draining, plus have unknowns (plus, I seriously doubt they can restore all of the files).
Any thoughts on this?
-Trevor Ward
Director, “I Met with an Accident” -
5 Replies
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Recapture. Seldom if ever do revived media files ever work or save any time for anybody.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Another vote for recap.
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Assuming your friend can restore the files (this is a very big if, btw), the odds are that many of the files will be corrupt or incomplete. And how, exactly are you planning on figuring out the file names?
Recapture. This way, you know it’s guaranteed to work properly.
You’ve learned a valuable lesson- back up early, back up often. 100 hours of your time is the ‘tuition’ that you paid to learn it.
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
What bothers me most, is that this is the only data I don’t back up: captured media files. On small projects, it’d be no big deal to recapture. But this one got away from me. $400 worth of hard drives is more than worth 100 hours of recapturing.
-trevor ward
Red Eye Film Co.
http://www.redeyefilmco.com
orlando, fl -
RAID 5 enclosures are inexpensive these days.
There are only 24 hours in a day. That’s over 4 days of lost work and lots of money. $75/hr x 100 (and that’s a cheap rate).
I wouldn’t even take a chance on a small project.
Get that RAID 5 then start capturing.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group
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