Striping necessary?

[Ttothed]

I also wanted to add something else. I was reading on this board and I heard htat you should or could put the FCS extra files on a different hard drive and keep just the applications on the local. Could I have an external hard drive that is NOT in the RAID and just keep the extra files and the project media. This drive would be constantly backed up (the projects at least.

thanks, sorry for all the questions

[Todd Gillespie]

[TtotheD] “-Can I use one drive to store the entire project and media files for each job/client?”

You can, as I normally do, but it’s a good idea to backup or store your project file on another drive. Local HDs work OK.

[TtotheD] “Of course, the RAID would not be mirrored or anything”
Then why are you doing it?? You don’t gain performance and increase your risk of drive failure by a factor of 3x. Unless you’re stripping with SATA? (but you didn’t mention it)

[TtotheD] “Ideally, it is cleaner to use one HD per project, but I could perhaps just offload the projects to a drive for storage at the end?”
Backing up projects depends a lot on your postproduction and $$, but since it’s not really feasible to backup media (even DV 25 to anything less than a half dozen DVD-Rs) the best backup is good organization (which it sounds like you have), labeling your original footage, and keeping a backup master.

[TtotheD] “…so just keep in mind the ease of travel.”
I’d buy a ‘reliable’ FW drive (or several) and a Pelican case for traveling around.

Cheers,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Ttothed]

So it sounds like striping into a RAID is sort of pointless unless it is a redundant raid. Can I put the project files and media on the same FW drive? Would htat be okay to do? I would also consistenly backup project files to another drive. Perhaps i would consider stirping into an array that would mirror.

I just bought this enclosure:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW912AL2/

and i have (2) 250gb hard drives that I was going to stick in. Was this a bad choice? Should I stripe the drives inside into an array. I mostly bought this so that I could use FW 800. I know it isn’t a ton of space, but for the small projects i do, it will suffice. As far as backup, I probably would NOT backup the media, just the core files and keep the tapes. Easy to rebuild.

Thanks

[Todd Gillespie]

[TtotheD] “So it sounds like striping into a RAID is sort of pointless unless it is a redundant raid”

It’s just depends on how it’s used, you will be getting a little performance boost by configuring with the enclosure, but you will always be limited to FW 800 speed. If you had decided to jam in a bunch of drives into your Tower with SATA then you could see a HUGH performance boost, but still not that secure. I use a GRaid that’s similar to what you are using, and it’s been very reliable, but I can still push it too far in trying to keep up with SD.

[TtotheD] “Can I put the project files and media on the same FW drive? “
As I said before, I usually do it with my projects, but it’s a good idea to keep a backup on your local HD.

[TtotheD] ” Was this a bad choice? Should I stripe the drives inside into an array. I mostly bought this so that I could use FW 800″
Not a bad choice, especially if your just using SD. Using the enclosure’s hardware to create a RAID is fine. I would stay away from software RAIDs.

[TtotheD] ” know it isn’t a ton of space, but for the small projects i do, it will suffice”
Drives are so cheap now a days (just bought an extra SATA 500gb for $220), definately the more the better.
It’s always a trade off for speed, security and portability. The more speed and security you get, the less portable it will be.

Hope this helps,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production