Backup Advice

K

kieran

Member
Dear Friends,

I'm working on a documentary - shooting in High-Def on P2 cards.

The process of transferring footage from card to computer is probably familiar to everyone here. Per Barry's advice, I use P2CMS to export the files to my hard drive. After that, I use FCP to convert the MXF files into Final Cut-friendly QuickTime files...

So, this leaves me with two distinct sets of files:
1) The MXF copy
2) The QuickTime "Capture Scratch" files that FCP uses

My question is - which is more advantageous, backing up the MXF copy, or the Capture Scratch files? At first, I thought it would be more useful to back up the MXF files, but I'm thinking that the Capture Scratch files could be more important, since, if a hard drive catastrophe were to take place, they're what I would need to reconnect to.

I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

-Kieran
 
in my experience, unless youre using metadata, (and by the nature of your post id guess youre not) p2cms, when using FCP is an unneeded step. just drag the contents and lastclip from your card to your hard drive. then log and transfer in fcp.

the next part is somewhat open to opinion.

you dont HAVE to back up the mxf stuff - but if your capture scratch goes south and you havent - youre pretty much hosed. the p2 card contents is really your ONLY source archive. its the equivalent of your source tape. i just back my stuff up on hard drives. there is MUCH discussion here about the wisdom behind that but in over a decade ive not had a single reliable-brand hard drive go south...

so, IMO its not a matter of either but BOTH.

hard drives are cheap. keep em both.

my workflow is to just dump the render files after a project and leave everything on the drive (p2 content AND cature sctratch) as is. that way if a client comes back 6 months later i just plug the drive in and everything is as i left it.
 
The MXF files are your master copies.
If you have any issues with Log and Transfer in FCP, you are hosed.

I use Raylight and work off my MXF files now. Don't have to wait on Quicktime anymore.

Until Apple decides to let FCP use MXF files natively, it's a real timesaver.
 
As a general rule, back up "closest to the source". So back up whatever comes off the P2 cards. This will ensure that you get everything backed up somewhere. Then, if possible, work off of copies of this.

Next, no matter how good luck you have had with hard drives before, they can and will fail. (I have several hundred of them at work and we normally replace a couple a year.) Get three of them and set them up in a RAID5 configuration. Now you can lose any single drive and your data is recoverable without any problems. Replace the bad drive and the new one will re-build without any user input.

Hard drives are ridiculously cheap these days, I just bought a 1TB drive for less than $200.- at Office Depot. 500GB is less than $100.-.
 
Hard drives are ridiculously cheap these days, I just bought a 1TB drive for less than $200.- at Office Depot. 500GB is less than $100.-.
Click to expand...
this is EXACTLY the kind of logic that gets people into issues with external drive failure!

that certainly wanst a reputable drive you bought for that price and office depot doesnt even sell reputable drive products. their main offerings (from my experience) are lacie, maxtor and western digital - THE THREE highest FAILURE rate drives out there...

buy smart. not just cheap.

when possible, i live and die by these vendors:
http://www.caldigit.com/

http://www.macsales.com/

http://www.promax.com/

http://www.glyphtech.com/

in over a decade, the only issue ive had was a bad power supply - which was a very easy $30 fix
 
Last edited:
Sorry if i'm thread hi-jacking. But I had a question on the subject of P2 and MXF files.

I edit with a Mac Pro, and am planning on getting an HPX170 very soon. My girlfriend has a PC with a slot for a P2 card, and she will soon be getting a new MacBook (the kind without the P2 slot).

Since I won't be able to use her MacBook to transfer P2 data, would I be able to hot swap MXF files onto her PC hard drive, then when I get home, transfer the MXF files to my Mac and then log and transfer them? Or is it way more complicated than that? Is starting the files on a PC going to complicate things if I'm working on a Mac?

Eventually I'd like to get a used Powerbook of my own for hotswapping, but for now, a better tripod, audio gear, and money for 35mm adapter rentals would be higher on my list until I can start making more money.
 
Definitely keep the closest to the original in your case the MXF files preferably in their original P2 structure use P2CMS for this. With doco footage especially a good idea because it will give you the option to use the uncompressed (or least there of) version of the footage for more distribution options. Not to mention the fact that it may also open the options of selling the footage to the stock footage market.

As for storage options depends on your budgets if you have the cash LTO4. If not Raid5 or 6 with 1 TB drives and keep changing drive every 2 or so years. If still out of your budget then raid1 1TB G-Tech slightly cheaper option would be Soho raids they come in 4 or 2 bays. Next I would recommend Taurus drives raid 1 and last I would recommend Maxtor drives.
The drives I mentioned above are from what I have found the most reliable drives available today.
 
would I be able to hot swap MXF files onto her PC hard drive, then when I get home, transfer the MXF files to my Mac
Click to expand...
short answer - ive never done it, buut in theory as long as the external drive youre using to transfer from hers to yours is FAT32 (i.e. a format that can be seen by both mac and windows) you shouldnt have any trouble moving the data
 
No one is being prudent or saving money by by Office Depot/Costco HDDs for backup.

Makes no sense. Get bare drives from Hitachi or Seagate at zipzomfly.com and enclosures fron granitedigital, macsales, or someplace comparable.

Or with the suggested places above.
 
First let me say that I didn't intend to recommend any specific brand of HD to anybody. I just used Office Depot as an example of how cheap drives have become. The price drop applies to all manufacturers albeit with a different starting and ending point.

Second, I recall reading somewhere that the failure rates on Maxtors are somewhere between one half to one percent, and that this is pretty common among the "cheap" drives. I think I saw this on Tom's Hardware, but I may be wrong about that. But even at twice that failure rate it's hard to beat those for economy. A RAID5 set-up with 3 of those drives will give you pretty darn good security. Not perfect, but acceptable for most people.

Now, in my own experience at home having messed around with PC's since the 80's, I've had exactly two drives fail. Both were Hitatchi. And I once got a WD that was dead out of the box.

However, I don't make my living from my home computers. If one dies and I can't fix it in a few minutes, I will just start using another one and fix the failed one when I get around to it. I have lots of computers, and my apps are all installed on more than one of them. My Vegas Pro is installed on 4. My data is backed up to tape and to DVDs, but if my computer room blew up tomorrow my life would continue without much of a problem.

All this to say; I'm more than happy to buy drives from Office Depot. I have had zero problems with them. That does not in any way mean that anybody else has to do the same.

YMM, and most likely will, V.

Respectfully
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top