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Video RAID advice for newbie
Just a heads up, I’m a total newbie to the video industry. I’ve worked as a videographer for a non-profit for 5 years. There we just skimped by on what we could afford, which wasn’t much. I just started a new job for a school district and have been given the keys to a fairly substantial budget to get what I need to do the job. I want to do right by them and not waste money, so I want my purchase decisions to be educated. I’m an intermediate computer user, but have never used raid configurations before, so please be kind. Also, we can only really purchase through B&H, so I’m only looking at options available there.
Right now we record using Canon XA10 and XA20 model cameras. I’m hoping to upgrade to XF300’s with this new budget, but still we’re only talking MXF files, 1920×1080 at 50Mbps 4:2:2. So I’m not dealing with huge uncompressed footage.
Still I record a fair amount of footage. In the past 2 months on the job I’ve accumulated about 460GB of raw video, and I don’t expect demand to go down in the future.
Right now, my idea is to purchase two Western Digital 12TB Raid Arrays in Raid 0.
(I should note, I’m using a Windows 7 PC, so I only have access to USB 3.0, not Thunderbolt)
The first raid array would be my scratch disk, the second would be used for manual backup at the end of every day. (Using a utility like SyncBack)
Once my projects are complete, and I’m sure I won’t need to access them, I’d like to move them off to a 3rd RAID array like this set up in Raid 5 for redundancy. This array would serve primarily as an archival unit, with only occasional transfers to it and use in only rare circumstances where I need access to several month old footage.
Do you have any suggestions of a better system or workflow?
Thanks so much!
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3 Replies
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A nice solution from NetApp or Quantum or EMC would be ideal for you.
Bob Zelin
😉
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Thanks for the tip Bob,
I tried looking for those brands and wasn’t able to find anything except enterprise level racks in the 5 figures.
I guess I wasn’t very specific in my original post. I’m aiming to spend around $2,000 – $3,000 at the most on my storage solution. I’m just a one-man film crew, so these 100+ Terabyte solutions aren’t necessary or remotely feasible.Maybe there is a consumer level product line that I missed. Any links to a store with 8-16TB solutions would be perfect.
Much thanks!
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Hi Daniel,
don’t go with Raid0. I would go with a sonnet fusion R400 USB3.0 and raid5 level.
You can put 4x4TB HD’s in the enclosure.
Another idea is to get a esata card in your computer and connect with esata.
There are lots of esata Raids on the market. (Sonnet Fusion QR f.e.)
Again, don’t go with Raid0.
The western digital raid you’ve got in mind has got just 2 HD’s inside and doesn’t provide a Raid5 protection.cheers
Rainer
factstory
Rainer Wirth
phone_0049-177-2156086
Mac pro 8core
Adobe,FCP,Avid
several raid systems
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