AC130: AVCHD and Archiving for long term storage????

pronghornproductions

pronghornproductions

Active member
What are you using to archive your raw avchd footage for long term storage that is reliable and relatively cost effective? Just had a hard drive die with some very important footage on it............... Was considering zip drives but reviews seem unfavorable.
 
I keep two copies of the AVCHD files and prores conversions on different hard drives. I also burn the AVCHD files on DVD-R's. I keep them in a fireproof safe with a dehumidifier inside. Not the most cost and time effective but I've never had any issues with failure.
 
I use a voyager drive dock. Stick a raw hard drive in (laptop or full size) and it comes right up. All my finished jobs get filed that way, and the drives go in plastic anti-static cases. I keep a log on my mac so I know which drive to pull if I need something. And my files back up every night.

If you have something priceless, like a Kennedy getting shot - copy it to an SD card or a drive. Stick it in a safe deposit box. Storage is cheap - it's putting redundant copies in a safe place that's difficult. insurance people say to keep passports & stuff in the fridge - supposedly it's the last thing to survive a house fire, and it's waterproof unless underwater.

One of these days I'll have my (not-attached) garage remodeled. I'll run cat5 in the electric conduit and move a 2nd set of backup drives a safe or refrigerator out there. The "cloud" is just too slow for the terrbytes I have live at any time!
 
I keep a single copy if it is something I don't think I will ever edit again. If I know I will go back to it over time I keep one copy on my NAS or DAS and the 2nd copy on a separate HDD that sits on a bookshelf. If you are afraid of fire or theft then keep the second copy off site.
 
pronghornproductions said:
What are you using to archive your raw avchd footage for long term storage that is reliable and relatively cost effective? Just had a hard drive die with some very important footage on it...............
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Was this hard drive that failed a working drive in your computer, or an external backup drive??
 
I use a NAS and 2 1.5TB drives, I run gigabit with Jumbo frames at 9K and dual 1GB NICs in my mac Pro. I have the drive set to same as raid 1 (both drives are the same) super fast over network and I have no worries like before. I render my final file out to 720 and 30FPS and put it all in a folder based on project and year and forget about it. This helps keep space as I normally dont need the complete project unless I know I will use it. My wife also uses the drive for our Photography business side. Total cost was around $500 with drives and 1-2 hours to set up. If you go this route dont just buy a cheap NAS or SAN, read the specs data transfer if the key! I bought this model because its a business class and speeds are great. I use this device to also because I can pull the video from my DVD Player and directly play my finished files on any tv in the network to see what my final product will look like. I need another unit because my wife and myself are starting to fill up since she got a new camera.
 
LanceOregon said:
Was this hard drive that failed a working drive in your computer, or an external backup drive??
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I asked this question earlier because when an external hard disk subsystem "dies", it is often a case of just the power supply having failed, and not the actual hard drive. And in that case, your data can be very easily recovered.
 
AVCHD like all digital video is computer data. You'll never see computer data archived for long term on a hard disk in a professional IT environment. Hard disk die, they're mechanical, the motor will eventually fail, the logic board could be damaged by static charges, the directories will become corrupted with use, the actual media on which the data is written is designed for fast access, not data retention for decades.

Therefore the most appropriate, simple, reliable and cost-effective method of big data archiving is still tape.

You could use Blu-rays which have a higher cost on media and are a bit quicker to access, and you can mount them on the desktop, but you would have to get the most expensive ones to have some confidence that the dye will not let you down years later, and at any rate you would have to check the integrity of the data as it's been written, since once corrupted data is archived on optical disc it cannot be rectified (unless it's RW which is expensive and much slower). Tape can do this by default and has built-in error-checking and directory backup routines that add to their reliability, plus it's re-writable which means you can update or increment the data or just delete it and recycle the tape.
 
dkamisat said:
. Not the most cost and time effective but I've never had any issues with failure.
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I highly suspect that his failure was not with a backup drive, but with a working drive in his computer. Hard disk storage is becoming more and more affordable. And we are now seeing 4 TB backup drives becoming available. Your solution of backing up to two separate drives, and then storing them in a safe with a dehumidifier is about the best solution that I can think of as well.
 
It was an external drive and yes it was a power failure of the HDD, I know all of the data is still there, but retrieving will be costly. I had a new editing system built and at the builders suggestion we installed the external drive internally to the new system as I was starting to have issues with the drive dropping out..............20 mins. into backing up the now internal drive and it failed for good, will not power up. I have about 500 gigs of footage on the drive, most of which I have back ups for, but there are a few files I was unable to back up before it failed. Does anyone know of a retrieval expert that works cheap? :)
 
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What about backing up on DL disc or zip drives as data files? I have heard disc is not reliable, but if I made 2 copies and stored them in a safe dry place wouldn't it make more sense than trusting a hard drive which we know is prone to power and other failures? Also how reliable would thumb or zip drives be? I have heard some say they rarely if ever fail and then read reviews on models I was looking to purchase and finding all sorts of failures.................... I am just very leary of backing up on hard drive again after having one fail.
 
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