[Craig Alan]

Hi Tim. Thanks. I’ve been using raid 5 and today after no problems it was starting to develop errors which means backing up the back up and then reformatting the entire raid. and then copying the back up back to the raid. Not the only time this has happened.

It would be a lot easier to do this with one drive rather than an entire raid. This is in a video class and at the end of the year we keep worth while films exported as finished projects and wipe everything clean. During the year we leave everything as is in case we need to reedit for different purposes.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

the latest iMac seems to get really good reviews for fcp x.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

here is an option or get the model that is empty and find a black friday or holiday sale on 7200rpm drives

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2SRT24.0S/

its thunderbolt not usb c but i assume you have mac on the fcp x site

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Also consider the best graphics card you can get.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

If a library that your checking has missing links in a project or event can’t you just navigate to where its stored on the clone drive?

I’d be concerned about this but I have not read this anywhere else since the new upgrade.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

that would be i7 27′ which came with the higher end of the 3 graphic cards. can’t wait for iMac pro – need to finish grant proposal now and apple didn’t have the iMac pro quoted yet.

1TB SD for system drive.

also lots of third party ram and raid for storage.

Make sense?

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Hi Robin same advice for late 2017 iMac?

best graphic choice at apple’s site and stay with i5? No advantage to i7 for performance in general?
money not a variable…huge grant.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I decided on the Canon C-300. I felt at that same price point that the Canon had the better build quality and better ergonomics in terms of basic controls. Though Sony seemed to have a better form factor, once you rig up both cameras its a mini difference. I also use Canon Lenses and although the Sony can use a speed adapter that actually adds a stop of light its still an add on. Canon works better in auto focus. Though Sony does have a higher frame rate, its still not a great cam for slow motion. Canon has better color rendition and better image of CUs on faces. Though Canon claimed a greater dynamic range its pretty much a wash. I like Sony’s wide shots better – seems sharper . But side by side they are very close to each other in terms of image quality. Both have problems with Highlight fall off. I like the fact that Canon uses C-fast cards rather than a proprietary card that Sony makes. Canon has a solid track record with this Camera. When Canon’s was much more expensive the Sony out sold the Canon. I felt that the Canon had the better look in shadows in that its grain looks better than Sonys that looks very noisy. Side by side in identical lighting you can se the difference.

For slow motion and run and gun and no permit shots, I’m thinking of getting one of Sony’s Mirrorless Cams. Incredible video image for the price.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Two basic things that pretty much is universally agreed upon in the production community.
One: do not keep your media on your system drive.
The system drive is used for OS and Apps and small files.
External MEDIA DRIVES are used for media and most all FCP files except maybe the small FCP backup files
that can reproduce the edits of a project but contains none of the media.
Second basic universal understanding: hard drives fail, have backups of them.
Given that, below are one way, of complying:
Get one of these
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2U3DKR2/
$260

Get two of these:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1322879-REG/hgst_0s04005_4tb_7200_deskstar_nas_internal.html/mode/edu
$268 for two 4TB drives.

Get something like one of these
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1129120-REG/seagate_stea1000400_1tb_expansion_portable_hard.html/mode/edu
$55

get one of these: https://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc5
$40.

Format the two 4 TB drives and the 1TB portable drive in the OWC dock using disc utility.
Google it if you are not sure how. I would call one of the 4TB drives MEDIA 1 and the other one MEDIA 1 BU

CLONE your system drive (Macintosh HD) to the portable 1TB drive. You can now boot any Mac from that drive
including a loaner if you need to leave your Mac for repair.

The thing about CCC clones is you can update the back up and it will only take as long as it needs for changes since the last back up – not start all over again. And if your Mac or app goes off line or crashes, CCC will pick up where it left off.
You can even use it to back up camera cards to your Media Drive.

CREATE a master folder called (for example) “FCP PROJECTS” on your system drive and move all your FCP X folders into that folder. (Each project should have their own subfolder in the “FCP PROJECTS” master folder.

Create a folder on MEDIA 1 called “VIDEO 1”
CLONE your “FCP PROJECTS” folder on your system drive to the “VIDEO 1” folder on the MEDIA 1 drive..

(my names are just an option call them what makes sense to you but the “1” is so if you ever have the need for additional drives then you can create a MEDIA 2 drive with a VIDEO 2 folder.

Create a folder on MEDIA 1 BU drive called VIDEO 1 BU

Clone the MEDIA 1 folder “VIDEO 1” to the “VIDEO 1 BU” folder on the MEDIA 1 BU drive.
If you can’t figure out how to select a folder to be cloned to a folder – it will be cloned to- use CCC help.

Now that you have your MEDIA/FCP X files backed up – delete your “FCP projects” folder from your system drive.
Then empty the trash on your system drive.

Highlight your MAC HD under Devices in the finder.
Then click command I (thats capitol i not 1) and see how full your system drive is.
It should be no more than 80% full.
Otherwise it slows down.
Same with your MEDIA drives.

SO no more than 3.2 TB of used space on any of the 4TB drives.

(if 4TB is bigger than your needs than obviously you can get 1TB or 2TB drives but do not fill more than 80%)

As far as where to store the footage. If you are a beginner and want less work then just keep it all in the library
But copy your media drives to a different folder within the Project’s folder as well as importing them into FCP X as “optimized”. It pops up when you go to import just click to optimize. Let final cut do its thing.

As far as not needing to back up – not true. Sooner or later you will wish you did.

If after getting your system drive with plenty of free space and if things are still sluggish:
You have now have a cloned portable backup.
First clone your BU system drive HD
Boot from it and wipe your system drive clean and do a clean install of your system drive by downloading the latest OS 10 from the app store.
Call Apple care and have one of the care takers talk you through it.

If one of them is not very helpful then loose the connection and try again. Some of them are really helpful and some of them are paint by the numbers and don’t know anything. Or google the steps and see if you follow.
Tell apple care you use professional apps and need your system working fast. That you want a clean system.

If you don’t want to go it alone make an appoint at an apple store bring your computer and the 1TB self contained portable drive and give them both and tell them you want a clean install cause the Mac was sluggish and you use pro apps.

PS I am NOT an advanced editor or computer expert. Backing up your media and knowing how to organize media in FCP X is basic stuff you need to know. Check out ripple training and get their tutorial on media management.
and core training and you’ll know more than I do until I have time to go through those as well. You are making a living doing this you might as well learn the basics. If they cover stuff that means nothing to your needs then skip that part.
And when anyone here uses a vocab you don’t know, it will sound like rocket science. It isn’t. Google it and you’ll now know what they are talking about.
Not trying to be condescending. I’ve been there, post is not my favorite part of production, but you can’t produce without it. And knowing it you can enhance your videos in many ways.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Try to keep your system drive as clean as possible.

Raid 0s with thunderbolt connections are the fastest.
I use 7200rpm sata III drives
Raid 5 gives you less storage, slightly slower speeds but if one drive fails you will be backed up within the raid.
And then be able to swap out the dead drive. A good sign also that it might be time to buy fresh drives.
The drives are usually good for 3-4 years. wouldn’t trust it too much longer.
You need to back up all drives in your system or sooner or later you will loose your media.
softraid is a program that monitors all drives and keeps an eye on them in the background.
It also sets up soft raids which Apple used to do but not now. And softraid’s soft raid is competitive with hard raids.
What I do is collect individual drives and a drive dock for backups.
B&H # OWTB2U3DKR2
thunderbolt dock
B&H # HG0S04007
6TB drives
label them and store them
B&H # NEHDSTORA35K (B&H Kit)
hard to see but thats 4 x 2cases (8 cases) in stackable cases.
I use CCC cloner for backups
https://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc
I create folders on my raids holding my projects.
And on the raid I create master folders for collections of projects.
I keep these master folders under 80% of 6TB.
I keep the raid under 80% of its capacity. I use a 4 drive raids with 6Tb drives.
Then if I work on a new project or update one, I back up the folder it’s in onto one of the
6TB backup drives.
So for example Raid: Video 4-6> (the forth drive is for redundancy cause I use Raid 5)> folder Video 4.
So the project is in folder Vid 4 which is no bigger than (80% 6TB = 4.8 terabytes) is backed up to individual drive
VID 4 backup.
When you are done with a project you can delete it from the raid after you have yet another back up.
Now ion you never plan to edit it again then erase it all except the exported video.
In Final CUT
select the library the project is in.
In the Inspector>storage locations>modify settings.
You’ll see locations for media, cache/render, FC backups.
FC backups are very small files which can be stored in a folder on your system drive or anywhere.
Some folks keep all the others in the library, some don’t.
I create a new folder on my raid and in that have a folders for media card backups, and the three folders media, cache/render, FC backups. I leave motion content alone cause I don’t work in motion and if I were to I’d look into to what motion people recommend.
In the modify settings I select the folders above to the correct folder.
Now this is for setting ups new project.
If everything is in the library then use the consolidate if you want to move things around.
To make it simple just leave everything in the library on the raid except I would have the FC back up somewhere else
and media card copies somewhere else.
Without the original media and your backup which is automatic backups of the database portion of Final Cut Pro libraries you would be out of luck. The library can get corrupted. rare but it happens.
with those two things you can save your project.
You know your needs based on how you use your media and how much room these projects are taking.
So choose your drives and raid size accordingly. regardless back up all including your system drive.
Use CCC. way better than Apple’s auto back up though you might want to do both. If your system drive dies or gets corrupted then a CCC copy of system drive with have you not miss a beat. exactly as you left off. same with FCP X projects.

Now all that said, there are editors here that deal with way more media than I do and everyone must address the needs they have. But having backups and media being stored somewhere other than your system drive is pretty universal.

Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic HPX250P, FCP X 10.3, teach video production in L.A.