Storage Ideas for P2 data

[Big Brother]

How are people storing their shoot data from P2 cards for long term usage (meaning when you need to FCP on them for few weeks/months). No data-tape based storages. How are you being sure of its safe keep viz HDD corrupting/crashing etc. Any external multi-terrabytes of array or something similar ... Also how are folks managing field copying the data w/o the P2 gear from panasonic (meaning the economical way)

pl share & help other using P2 or planning to get aboard the wagon :)

[adeath]

I use an older gen macbook pro with FCP 5.4, Panasonic P2CMS, a Duel Adapter and a fist full of acomdata ondago 150GB portable HD with fw400. After the card fills up I use the adapter to load the card on the desktop and use finder to copy both files lastclip.txt and the contents folder to a new reel folder i have created on the portable HD. When the copy is complete I open the new reel with P2CMS and make sure the clips play properly. I then copy the new reel over to a second portable HD that is daisy chained to the first one. When this is done I make sure the backup is good and then I reformat the card and put it back in line. We have 5 8Gb and we have been using this workflow for 2 1/2 years with no lost clips. When I get back to the office I take one of the drives and copy the reels off to a series of 750GB Seagate Freeagent drives. I then wipe the backup drive and put it back into service. The files are log and captured thru FCP as necessary to a Cal Digit HDpro. The portable drive that still has footage on it gets labeled with a spreadsheet and shelved. Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Al

[Ben Digedig]

When using a laptop is infeasible, I use a small Formac HDD powered by the camera and offload this way. You can 'verify' the files but it takes twice as long. I only delete cards when I have run out and its absolutely essential.

The HDD drive has FW so I can edit quick turnaround SD projects direct from it.

Not really stuff you want to be hassled with alone in the field on a shoot really - invest in more cards is the expensive answer. Miss DV tapes at $10? Hmmmmmm ;) Not when I'm digitising!

[mcgeedigital]

How are people storing their shoot data from P2 cards for long term usage (meaning when you need to FCP on them for few weeks/months). No data-tape based storages.

Data tape storage is the only viable long term solution.


Hard drives fail.

[Jan_Crittenden]

Hi,

You never answered on your previous thread, where are you located? Might find some additional help for you if you supplied this info.

Best,

Jan

[Jason Adams]

I use a netbook with an express card adapter for field offloading. Its 160 gig solution for around 400 bucks. I copy to external usb drive and internal. Redundant copies.

AT the office I copy the field drive to a RAID 1 that I store the data on. I usually fill one of these up per year and then replace the drive. I end up with 3 copies. 2 on raid 1 and one on field drive.

[ProfessorU]

I'm with Jason. Similar setup, except I found a laptop with CardBus built in.
A laptop is nice 'cause you can do a transfer at lunch and keep the clients off your back by playing a couple clips.

[Ben Digedig]

Hi,

You never answered on your previous thread, where are you located? Might find some additional help for you if you supplied this info.

Best,

Jan

Who J?

Laptops arer good - especially if you have a camera assistant ;) . Thery are however one more thing to carry and to go wrong. They and the EXT HDD also need power. I fitted 240v in the crew car and often use a laptop - it offers a measure more of data security and can be left to 'get on with it'.

Never forget to have a USB bus powered 5400rpm HDD with you though for when Windows wobbles or laptop batteries let you down.

D

[EC Junior]

What do you guys think about eh NEXTO NV2500? I remember seeing a big discussion somewhere in this forum.

Coming soon, ETA Mid-End August:

http://www.nextodi.com/en/product/NVS2500_en.html

For the field.

[Cees Mutsaers]

The hpx300 powers a HDD via firewire and/or USB ??? So I can just conect an "on the go HDD" to one of them and offload the p2 card to it right ?



When using a laptop is infeasible, I use a small Formac HDD powered by the camera and offload this way. You can 'verify' the files but it takes twice as long. I only delete cards when I have run out and its absolutely essential.

The HDD drive has FW so I can edit quick turnaround SD projects direct from it.

Not really stuff you want to be hassled with alone in the field on a shoot really - invest in more cards is the expensive answer. Miss DV tapes at $10? Hmmmmmm ;) Not when I'm digitising!

[Barry_Green]

It powers a USB hard drive, not a firewire drive. You don't need an "on the go" drive, you can use any bus-powered USB drive. And then yes, you can directly offload cards to the hard drive.

[Cees Mutsaers]

so I can use a G drive mini of 500 GB from G-Technology(which is the size of a pen) which USB powered. That would be cool :-)

[Barry_Green]

Maybe, maybe not. Not all drives are 100% compatible, I know some big western digital mybook drives haven't worked, so -- you'd need to test it before knowing. The odds are very good that it would work, but until it's tested you won't know for certain.

Keep in mind there's a 23-card limit for offloading, so you may or may not be able to take advantage of all the space on a 500GB drive. If you're using 16gb cards, you could only take maximum advantage of about 360GB. If you're using 32GB or larger cards, then yes you could use all 500GB.

[MaxThomas]

I use a 200GB 7,200RPM USB2.0/FW400 G-Drive mini with the HPX with no problems, although I think the newer ones are FW800/USB, which may have a different chipset.

[davideo.net]

-I assume the hard drive needs to be formatted FAT32?
-If you have multiple P2 cards, how does the HD keep them separate since the P2 cards natively just say "CONTENTS" as their root directory?

[Cees Mutsaers]

I am missing some vital info here or didn't get your point :huh:
Does it have something to do with the amount of partititions of the HD ?
Is it max 23 in FAT?
By the way should the HD always be FAT formated?


[quote=Barry_Green;
Keep in mind there's a 23-card limit for offloading, so you may or may not be able to take advantage of all the space on a 500GB drive. If you're using 16gb cards, you could only take maximum advantage of about 360GB. If you're using 32GB or larger cards, then yes you could use all 500GB.[/quote]

[Cees Mutsaers]

The last info I have is that the G-drive mini is FW400/800 and USB and up to 500 GB (5400 or 7200 rpm with 8 MB cache).



I use a 200GB 7,200RPM USB2.0/FW400 G-Drive mini with the HPX with no problems, although I think the newer ones are FW800/USB, which may have a different chipset.

[davideo.net]

-I assume the hard drive needs to be formatted FAT32?
-If you have multiple P2 cards, how does the HD keep them separate since the P2 cards natively just say "CONTENTS" as their root directory?

Repeating my question more clearly - I just connected a 320GB USB drive that has been formatted exFAT on a Vista-running PC. When I connect it to the 300 and go into the thumbnail menu, under "HDD" the "export" command is grayed out. I can't find a way to either format the hard drive from the camera, or find in the manual how the hard drive is supposed to be formatted. I am shooting a big corporate job on Wednesday and I'd like the client to be able to get copies of my P2 cards on a hard drive that can be read by a Mac... so that's why I'm assuming exFAT (FAT32) is the proper formatting for the hard drive since I don't THINK that Macs like NTFS formatted hard drives.

Why can't I copy footage to my external hard drive?

[shorelinedigital]

Repeating my question more clearly - I just connected a 320GB USB drive that has been formatted exFAT on a Vista-running PC. When I connect it to the 300 and go into the thumbnail menu, under "HDD" the "export" command is grayed out. I can't find a way to either format the hard drive from the camera, or find in the manual how the hard drive is supposed to be formatted. I am shooting a big corporate job on Wednesday and I'd like the client to be able to get copies of my P2 cards on a hard drive that can be read by a Mac... so that's why I'm assuming exFAT (FAT32) is the proper formatting for the hard drive since I don't THINK that Macs like NTFS formatted hard drives.

Why can't I copy footage to my external hard drive?

Coming into this late. Can you offload from a laptop? if you have a mac, can you offload to a mac formatted drive with a Duel adapter?

If you need to offload to the USB hard drive directly and it IS compatible: camera should be in USB host mode. Then go to the Thumbnail menu and follow through to the HDD menu and format the drive from the menu setting. you should then be able to offload the cards directly from the camera. It's explained right around page 140 in the manual.

Tom

[Barry_Green]

-I assume the hard drive needs to be formatted FAT32?
No, the hard drive needs to be formatted by the camera. It will format the drive as a "Type S" drive, which means it will have one or many FAT32 partitions on it.


-If you have multiple P2 cards, how does the HD keep them separate since the P2 cards natively just say "CONTENTS" as their root directory?
Each card gets put in its own partition. So if you offload 15 cards to the drive, and then plug the drive into a Windows system you'll see 15 new drive letters pop up on your system. If you plug it into a Mac, you'll see 15 new "NO NAME" volumes pop up on the desktop.

[davideo.net]

Thanks, Barry. After reviewing an old thread, I see that my hard drive is not going to ever work. Jan pointed out that some hard drives just don't work with the 300. This brings me to my next question - I am in need of an inexpensive USB hard drive that WILL allow me to download directly from the camera. I was trying it with an $80 Verbatim (made by Toshiba) 320GB drive. I want something small that's powered right off the USB that I can pack easily with my other gear. Can someone give me a specific hard drive recommendation? I don't need a raid or anything fancy - just something to allow me to back up footage while I'm eating lunch or taking a break.

[videomagician]

As soon as my Camera comes in I'll let you know if my $100 Best Buy Seagate 500GB works or not.

[Martin Rose]

Seagate 320 GB FreeAgent Go works


Martin

[Ben Digedig]

Each card gets put in its own partition. So if you offload 15 cards to the drive, and then plug the drive into a Windows system you'll see 15 new drive letters pop up on your system. If you plug it into a Mac, you'll see 15 new "NO NAME" volumes pop up on the desktop.

Yeah - this can be a pain in Windows on a PC that has many drives and say card readers already assigned drive letters. You may have to juggle drive letters via the disk management snap in.

BD

[davideo.net]

Seagate 320 GB FreeAgent Go works

Thanks so much - I'll get one tonight.

[Jarek Zabczynski]

Data tape storage is the only viable long term solution.


Hard drives fail.

Yes...that's why I use two or more drives for everything. Multiple bare hard drives are still worlds cheaper than a data tape solution.

[Cees Mutsaers]

and thats why the 23 you mention before is the max. ?



No, the hard drive needs to be formatted by the camera. It will format the drive as a "Type S" drive, which means it will have one or many FAT32 partitions on it.


Each card gets put in its own partition. So if you offload 15 cards to the drive, and then plug the drive into a Windows system you'll see 15 new drive letters pop up on your system. If you plug it into a Mac, you'll see 15 new "NO NAME" volumes pop up on the desktop.

[Barry_Green]

It's the max because that's the way they designed the system. Usually a Windows system has A:, B:, and C: drives allocated, and there are only 26 possible, so the Type S drive format allows for a maximum of 23 more partitions; any more than that and they'd run out of letters!

[davideo.net]

Seagate 320 GB FreeAgent Go works

I'm bummed!! I bought a Seagate 500 GB FreeAgent Go today and it does NOT work. When I try to format the drive it is grayed out in the menu. In the upper right I see a red dot - which means no dice. Is it because I got a 500 GB drive instead of a 320 GB?

Is it possible that the latest camera update is causing this? Those are the only two possibilities...

Added: See next thread - I was wrong here!

[davideo.net]

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong trying to connect a hard drive directly to the 300. It was so confusing I started a new thread to explain it. In another thread it stated that "some USB 2.0 drives don't work" - but I bet that is not true - it's just that some people (like me) couldn't figure out how to do it.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=179414