Backing up large amounts of files

N

ninjaleprechaun

Active member
Okay, so I've gotten myself into a corner. Being newbish at the time, I began work on a huge project that took me 2 years to complete, but I manually captured everything..no logging or batching. I now have about 320GB of files for a project that I'm completely done with.

So my question is...short of burning these puppies to DVD's 4.7gb at a time, are there any massive back up options out there for me to look into? Do people use tape backups anymore?
 
Tape backup would likely be a little pricey compared to backing up on DVD when you factor in the costs of media and the renting of a drive. Don't forget, you'd have to rent a drive again should you wish to have access to your data. A good large capacity tape drive isn't cheap so it wouldn't make much cent$ buying one to back up 320 GB of files. I could be wrong, as my experience with tape drives is rather limited, but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be the best solution for your needs.

I'd suggest you reconsider burning to DVDs. I had around 200 GB that I recently backed up with a 16x burner (NEC-3550A in a NexStar 2 USB 2.0/Firewire enclosure) on standard 4.7 GB discs. With burning time and data verification combined, it took about an average of 12 minutes for each disc. I haven't burned any dual layer discs so I'm not sure how long those take. When I backed up my files it wasn't much of an inconvenience because I would burn the discs in between doing tasks around the house or during commercial breaks if I was watching tv. If you don't have a fast burner, you can buy one for a reasonable price. If you decide to go the DVD route, don't buy cheap media. Taiyo Yuden(sp?), from what I've read, is one of the highest quality media for DVD burning.
 
buy a 500GB internal hard drive and enclose it in one of those firewire/USB enclosers

newegg.com is a great site to get both for fairly cheap.

then copy away

I use Vice Versa Pro to copy/backup all of my stuff each and every editing session. it even keeps track of versions and stuff

the only way to go is magnetic at those sizes. forget DVDs. even with dual layer, 320/8? 40 DVDs man...
 
The reason I choose the DVD route for archiving my files is because I've had more than one hard drive go completely on the fritz. I just don't trust them anymore for data storage/archiving.

If I'm not in a rush I'll backup my clips onto DVD before I begin editing. If I'm pressed for time, I'll backup the footage to one of my other external HDs and then backup my files onto DVD after completing the project.
 
I've had a external HD stop working on me, and they probably all will stop working eventually but they are still the most convienent way of backing up.

Backing up on to DVD is a pain and then you have a book of 100 DVDs to sort. I would argue that DVD will be phased out before a fire800 drive. We'll see I guess.

If you are really anal about your data get a Raid array that automatically backs up your data. That and you can have two external (newer drives) one at home and one elsewhere, Katrina proof.

I only edit small projects so they never excede 200GiGs and then I can back up the final to DVCAM or HDCAM if needed. Keeping the source footage becomes a chore that is alsmot not worth the time. I have about 5 HD full of stuff that I probably won't need considering I have the master.

Hope you find an option you like.
 
The following is an excerpt from Charles McConathy's "Configuring your NLE". Whilst slightly outdated, it still applies to DV. Its an option:

Data Backup:
Backing up large disk storage takes a great deal of time even with the best backup devices. With video editing the data set is constantly changing, making it even more difficult since even if one wanted to there might not be enough down time to perform a backup. And remember that it takes as much time to restore as it does to backup.
Many editors simply keep their EDLs and project files backed up on a CD, ZIP disk, or a floppy, and keep the original videotapes. It's also a good idea to keep graphics, titles, and other files that take only a small amount of room, but take a lot of time to create, on ZIP disks or other removable media as well. By doing so, should a failure take place, getting a project going again will take much less time.
Click to expand...

http://www.lafcpug.org/feature_config_nle.html
 
if you lose BOTH your primary hard drive AND your backup hard drive, which are each supposed to last 5 years of heavy use or more, it's time to find a reason why your drives are quitting on you, (dust, magnetic, heat, cold). a brand new error free drive is a highly reliable piece of machinery. :-)

RAID is a way to go as well, my method is poor man's RAID but having two copies on two drives is almost foolproof unless someone drops an EMP on you.
 
FlintMI said:
if you lose BOTH your primary hard drive AND your backup hard drive, which are each supposed to last 5 years of heavy use or more, it's time to find a reason why your drives are quitting on you, (dust, magnetic, heat, cold). a brand new error free drive is a highly reliable piece of machinery. :-)

RAID is a way to go as well, my method is poor man's RAID but having two copies on two drives is almost foolproof unless someone drops an EMP on you.
Click to expand...

I agree. Losing my primary and backup drive has never happened to me and the odds of it happening are slim to none. What has to be remembered is the point of this thread is about archiving files as opposed to generally backing them up. For general backup purposes, hard drives are certainly the way to go.

The first drive I lost was my primary/only editing drive I had at the time. I smelled something burning and assumed my wife was in the kitchen. By the time I realized that wasn’t the case I noticed all my files had mysteriously disappeared.

When my 2nd HD went out I had a total of three external hard drives (two 200s and one 250 GB). At that time, I had all of my then-current work files on the primary drive (the 250) and the back up files on one of the 200s. The third 200 was full of my archival stuff of my previous project. That was the other one that went out on me. I had put it into a large ziplock bag and tucked it away on the shelf thinking nothing could go wrong with it. Later on when I wanted to grab a bit of footage from it, the drive was dead. That’s when the paranoia and voices started creeping into my head. :)

After my experiences I feel a lot more comfortable with archiving my files onto DVD (for the time being). The odds of something going wrong with a DVD compared to an HD are significantly smaller. Not only that, the cost of archiving is a lot cheaper. To me, buying a cake box of 100 DVD-Rs and having around 450 GBs of media to archive files onto is more attractive than buying a 500 GB HD and an external enclosure. That cakebox of DVD-Rs can be bought for a price that’s $250 to $300 less than buying a quality 500 GB HD with enclosure. I haven’t looked much at HD prices lately so that figure may be higher or lower.

Of course, as pointed out, the main trade off is convenience. For the savings I get I’m more than happy to put up with that. The way I archive my files, though, I don’t see it as being all that inconvenient since I do my burning in between doing other things. Although it takes my computer around 12 minutes to burn a DVD, it actually only takes me around 2 minutes (3 tops) to burn, label, and store my archival discs. If I considered the time and money it took for me to archive a large project to DVDs and compared it with the time it took for me to earn the money to buy a large capacity HD and enclosure, it's inconvenient in that regard to go the HD route for archiving. Chances are, the majority of files I archive are going to end up on the shelf and I’ll probably never touch them.

This method of archiving isn’t something I’m going to do long term. When HD prices drop to a certain point that I like, I’ll start archiving with a RAID configuration. Until then, I’d rather continue putting the money I save toward building upon my existing collection of production gear.
 
I do everything on HDs too, and not sata/raid. IDE all the way for me, I have yet to trust SATA (or SCSI) drives.

But then again, I still have voltage insecurities about USB. I'm a little wary.
 
There are a lot of backup options (optical media, HDDs, DLTs, etc) that you can choose.

The one piece of advice that I can offer is if the data is valuable, then use the concept of reliability by redundancy. Make a few different copies (on different storage devices) and store them in different places.

Two years of work seems like it would justify a conservative approach.
 
BTW el lago, I love love love that Heat Miser guy. if you are in NYC during Halloween, catch the parade, cause yer gonna see him.
 
FlintMI said:
BTW el lago, I love love love that Heat Miser guy. if you are in NYC during Halloween, catch the parade, cause yer gonna see him.
Click to expand...

Awesome. If I'm ever in New York during Halloween I'll check it out. I love all of those old school stop animation characters.
 
What I did was I invested in a 2TB hard drive bay. It sits in my closet and whenever I am done with files I just Firewire the footage over to the bay and leave it alone until I go in for a re-edit.
 
I dont know if most of you will agree with me on this but i dont just back up in external hd. I save the sound in a seprete file and save the video on a seprete file. The video becomes smaller in size and i back that up so i get uncompressed video in a small size. As for the audio i compress it in mp3 format. When i presentedprojects nobody noticed the difrence allthogh on charts u can see it but with ur ears it was hard to tell the difrence. This was a good way to compress your footage. I have been using internal drives with enclosures for two years already.I have not had even one problem so far. I have 12 in total of 300 gig drives. they have been prooven very usful. also take care of ur original tapes and i dont see why u should have a problem. I hopoe this helps if it doesint o well it did for me and my customers and i are very pleased.
 
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