Archiving Media: Raid 0 or Blu-Ray

[calchip]

I echo the general consensus of the value of tape as a permanent archive mechanism.

We use SDLT which is similar in reliability and speed to LTO. The cartridges hold about 120-160 gigs of video data; there are newer SDLT drives that will write 300+ gigs/cartridge. The tapes aren't cheap, but sometimes you can find used-once tapes inexpensively, and used SDLT drives can be had on Ebay pretty inexpensively.

We also store the majority of our HD video data online using RAID-5 arrays. Personally, I don't feel comfortable with RAID-1 as it's basically mirroring, so if something gets written wrong to one drive (through a power failure, controller glitch, etc), the error will probably be perfectly mirrored to the other drive. RAID-5, on the other hand, can sustain complete failure of one drive in the array (3-5 drives, typically) and still not lose any data.

We use a fast hardware-based RAID solution in a custom-built Linux box, because we read and write directly to the array from editing stations on the network, but Buffalo has a pretty inexpensive RAID-5 storage solution that's not as fast , but at under $1000 for a couple terabytes of storage, it's a good deal.

 

[flaminio]

Later on this year, according to this article (bottom of the page), you should be able to drag and drop files for archiving onto XDCam disks, using the Sony PMW-U1. 50gb storage per disk.

I've been just dumping to a pair of 1TB drives for my backup archive. I'm not excited about tape, particular the cost of that one drive to preserve the meta data, but I figure this solution will last me until something comes along. We're upgrading the studio to XDCam, and this might be that something. Thanks for the link.

 

[wgzn]

i use multiple firewire drives. at the end of most projects the project goes on to a drive that the client keeps and one that i shelve.

in over a decade ive not lost any data.

 

[David Saraceno]

i use multiple firewire drives. at the end of most projects the project goes on to a drive that the client keeps and one that i shelve.

in over a decade ive not lost any data.

As long as you are careful in storing the data, HDDs are the best value in archiving IMO

 

[booth]

I've been just dumping to a pair of 1TB drives for my backup archive. I'm not excited about tape, particular the cost of that one drive to preserve the meta data, but I figure this solution will last me until something comes along. We're upgrading the studio to XDCam, and this might be that something. Thanks for the link.

No worries, it's priced at around £2000 including VAT in the UK where I'm from. I think eventually it's what I'll end up using as £15 for 23gb's of optical storage that you can stick on a shelf is pretty good in my book. Especially if I change over from P2 to an XDCam camera, more footage per gb.