Need some answers about backing up with Thunderbolt and Firewire 800. Thanks in advance!

[Andrew Richards]

[jack wormell] “1. Can I copy the same files simultaneously to two different HD’s?”

Yes, but doing so can slow down the aggregate copy time considerably if you are going to HDDs since they write data linearly. There is also more strain on the I/O systems of the host computer and that can manifest in slower performance for parallel copies.

[jack wormell] “2. Is it worth buying Thunderbolt cables and HD’s to increase the back up speed, even though the SSD caddie connection is Firewire 800? Do we need an adaptor for this or can you get FW800 to Thunderbolt cables?”

There is presently only one Thunderbolt storage product on the market, Promise’s Pegasus. If you are copying from FW800, that is going to be the bottleneck unless you are copying to something even slower like FW400 or USB2. There are not Thunderbolt to FW800 adapters yet that I know of.

If you need to dupe bare drive to bare drive, this thing might be the fastest way to do it. They claim throughput of 72 MB/sec.

Best,
Andy

[Jack Wormell]

Thanks for the reply Andy.

That duplicator dock looks like an interesting piece of kit, but it does mean that we’d have to have the Hard Drives without any casing doesn’t it? and seeing as we want to continually add to them throughout the shoot it seems like they would be quite vulnerable being moved around without casings. Am I right?

Definitely worth a think though.

Thanks a lot!

Jack

[Andrew Richards]

You could get a large pelican case and some resealable anti-static bags. If you are just setting the backup drives on a shelf that is probably more protection than a FireWire case. Probably cheaper too.

Best,
Andy

[Walter Soyka]

[Andrew Richards] “You could get a large pelican case and some resealable anti-static bags. “

I really like WiebeTech’s anti-static cases [link].

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Andrew Richards]

Cool! Didn’t know about those.

Best,
Andy

[Walter Soyka]

They help my hard drives feel at home on the shelf, right by the dusty old 30 minute BetaSP tapes.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events