Hey All! Heres a Fix for HDD Storage!

[MagicCat]

I hope this is the proper lace to post this, being the HVX uses a fair amount of HDD Space, and that most everyone by now probably has dozens, if not more HDD's they use for long term storage, I thought this would be appropriate.

If you are like me, you just buy Raw Sata Hard drives and use a Drive socket of some sort, to connect it to your Puter. We have well over 120 Raw Drives To date, and storing them safely and securely has become an issue. I found the answer.

Make use of all those old BetacamSP Small Cassette Tape cases you may have. With a 1 minute modification, a Standard 3.5 inch raw hard drive fits in the case like it was made for them. See Pics, pretty self explanitory. I found the Maxell cases to be a little better in construcion than the Sony Cases. All You need is an Exacto Knife, or Carpet knife.

Anyway, you can stick your Raw Hard Drives in a Standard Cassette Case for long term dust-free storage. On the PC, I do a simple Print Screen of the contents of the drive, fold it up and stick it in the clear plastic sleeve on the outside like most of us used to do with our Time Code/Contents lists. If you number your drives, the contents list, and the Case, you will have a pretty decent system for long term storage.

P.S Trim only the BACK strip of plastic, near the spine, NOT the front or it will no longer snap shut. Standard 3.5 inch Drives are about 1/8th on an inch too wide, or they would fit in with next to no modifications, (except trimming off the hub-holders, BTW: sony cases dont have hub holders but the plastic at the back end of the case is a little more tricky to cut quickly, but it can be done)
I hope this helps someone.

 

[Richter Video Equipment]

Good idea, but aren't there a lot better archiving methods then sata drives?

 

[MagicCat]

Good idea, but aren't there a lot better archiving methods then sata drives?

I dont know if I would say Better, there are certainly OTHER. It all depends on what you are doing. For tiny little projects like a Local Commercial spot or something, you could probably get away with a couple jump drives. However, Cost per Gigabyte, Hard Drives are the cheapest. For our purposes, it is nothing to suck up 2 Terabytes for both my Projects workspace, graphics, any animations or moving graphics, and all Footage. I double that space with a Backup. 2-2TB drives are less than 300 dollars now, for RAW drives. Add about 20% to 50% if you want those drives in a dedicated enclosure. RAW drives are cheap. If you are careful with them, they will last. I dont trust anything mechanical further than I can throw it, so a backup is mandatory at my company. All of my clients have dedicated drives and backups. Occasionally, if the project is very very small, we may put multiple clients on 1 drive, with at least 1 backup of that. When we are through with a project, both the actual project and all footage gets shelved. In the early days of Mini DV, we simply used DVD's for this. Hard Drives are much more practical.

Nothing is fact here, there are all kinds of alternatives. It all depends on what you are doing, and if you think you will ever have to pull that footage back up again. I have found I get more repeat business, if I just archive the whole darn project. Footage, graphics, music, voice overs, including a small diary of what is what, where and why. Many times, I even write down the version of the editing platform it was created in, as well as any plug-ins W'Version numbers, as well as any special notes I may need to read 5 years from now. I can quickly bring back up the edit as long as Im on the same platform, and re-edit something in 1-100th the time it would take me to do it from scratch. I dont have to tell the customer this unless it is a selling point at the beginning of the project.

So, to answer your question, It all depends on what you are doing, how much space you need, and what the current state of the art has to offer you. Mechanical hard drives will be a thing of the past in the not too distant future, so this answer will all change then. But For today....

 

[Richter Video Equipment]

good answer...you seem to be better at archiving then i am lol.

 

[MagicCat]

good answer...you seem to be better at archiving then i am lol.

Paaahahahaha!!. I'M better at archiving? Who is the one with over 100 Raw Sata Drives, and after 5 years, just found a freaking case to stick them in??. Hmmmmm? HA ha ha! You may be further ahead than you think My Friend!! It is times like this I admire my freelancers. They come to the shoot, do what needs doing, go home, and do the same thing for someone else the following day. Our journey on the project, has barely even begun by the time those guys have already forgotten about it. I know the grass is never truly greener on the other side of the fence, but sometimes, willful ignorance of the truth, CAN keep the heart of hope, pumping.

 

[Richter Video Equipment]

I just archive to blue ray. I don't like the reliability of blue ray though. Disk errors, easy to break scratch etc. IF i were you i would invest in a fire proof filing cabinet for all those drives. http://www.shoplet.com/Fireking-Tur...2CPA/spdv?ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=FIR2R1822CPA. Then your data would be totally safe on all those satas. I'm thinking of buying a small fire proof safe from staples for all my blu rays.

 

[Paul Hudson]

At least the Maxell cases are better than Sony. Their tapes were terrible as I recall.

 

[MagicCat]

@Richter: Thanks for the link. Yes, I looked at one of these and thought about it but had another Idea. It is two part. Part 1, dont keep backups in the same building with originals. Part 2, Instead of buying a safe that sits inside a buring building, I had thought about designing a safe that could be hooked up to a truck and yanked right through the wall with tow chains in a worse case scenereo. Hide the hooks behind some siding. If you built it right, you could make it so everything inside would not go flying. I would imagine, you could also contact your local fire department with special details about your personal property, so they would know it is there in the even you are not. In the mean time, I stick with part 1. BluRay's are rather pricey and besides the cons you already pointed out, like DVD's, they can be slow to access if you have files that are multiples of gigabytes each. For what it is worth, I still have 10 year old IDE Drives that work like the day I bought them. Mainly, because they were not in daily use and stored well. If you dont need to access them beyond the time your actually editing your project, and they stay stored right. Drives will probably outlast your relationship with most clients. Just make sure to spin them up a few times a year to keep in check. I have heard, (not experienced) that Data can eventually dissipate if a drive is not used at least a few times a year. They say that due to the way the data is written magnetically, it can literally, disappear. I dont have any comments or experience with that happening, but, I try to side with the margin of error and take my drive stock out for a test drive 2 or 3 times a year. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside too!

@phudsontx: Tapes are/were Tapes. Buy them fresh, and most seemed to work. Lemon's apply to everything, no tape or media is exempt from having a bad run. Maxell boxes seem to be made from slightly thicker plastic, they use more plastic on the frame inside, and they have a little Lip around the lid, that adds a little more structure to the whole case. Sony's are like the Old Chrysler K Cars. A little rust in the wrong spot on that Uni-Body architecture, and the whole thing folds in half. You could fit two on a 1 car flatbed that way...LOL

 

[MagicCat]

P.S. Like tape stock, we also build our drive costs into our project's bills. Very small projects (50 gigs or less) we just pile into a company drive with other clients, contact with the client can be made if you want to delete it. That is also a good Ice Breaker/Reason to checkup on your client to see if they want more work or a re-edit done. Most seem to appreciate the fact you still have their footage, even those who have paid to have had it retained. Rarely, have I had a client turn down the Idea of billing them for their drive, and rarely, have I had a client actually ask for their drive. We dont give clients their projects, that is like giving away the tools with the car repair. In a court of law, I have been told that Intellectual property rights on the actual working project (FCP, PPRO, Avid proprietary project files) usually belong solely to the individual that created them.

Funny, I just opened a Premiere 6.5 project the other day in CS4. I had issues with CS5. Other than some missing propriatary transitions that belonged to abilities of an old Pinnacle Pro One Capture card the project was created with, it opened like I just wrapped it yesterday. What a hoot!

 

[Jarek Zabczynski]

They make ones specifically for this purpose. Discovered these about a year ago, LOVE THEM! They have little tabs that hold the drive.

http://www.amazon.com/Drivebox-Stor...VSMM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1304447398&sr=8-2

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/cases.php

 

[Richter Video Equipment]

@Richter: Part 2, Instead of buying a safe that sits inside a buring building, I had thought about designing a safe that could be hooked up to a truck and yanked right through the wall with tow chains in a worse case scenereo.

Why would you need to remove it? Cant you just get the data after the fire is out? Why do you need to pull them out with a truck? I'm thinking a fireproof safe is cheaper then a non fireproof safe plus the equipment to pull it with a truck.

I'm guessing you just saw the coming attractions for "Fast Five" lol

I use blueray because when you buy them by the 500 pack they are dirt cheap. Off site storage is ideal, but then you need to make 2 copies of everything..(probably should anyway)

 

[Lockhart Products]

I've been using these: http://www.amazon.com/I-NC05-3-5-Inch-Drive-Protection-Milky/dp/B002FDRYTA/ref=pd_sim_e_6

I pick them up at my local MicroCenter for about $10.00 each. They are stackable.

 

[MagicCat]

They make ones specifically for this purpose. Discovered these about a year ago, LOVE THEM! They have little tabs that hold the drive.

http://www.amazon.com/Drivebox-Stor...VSMM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1304447398&sr=8-2

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/cases.php

Great Idea, thanks for posting this. I must say Holy Smokes are those EXPENSIVE!!!! 18 bucks each + Shipping?! That is just freaking insane. Even considering the time=money equation: @ 4 minutes trimming a little plastic off a BetacamSP case is still about 850% cheaper, and they can go right back on the shelf made for them at most production houses. Heck, you can still take your hard drive anti stat bag, cut it up and spray glue it inside the beta case if your worried about static discharge, and your still cheaper than these by a mile. Considering you could get a Beta 30min Cassette, AND a nice box (and a snazzy sticker or two) for under 12 bucks, there is no way I personally could justify spending 18 for a box. I'de go back to cardboard first.


Im not that rich and am definetly not that concerned about looks, but I sincerely appreciate your posting this Item. Im sure someone out there will benefit from it.

 

[KnoxHotch]

Cool Idea, just don't forget hard disks need to be spun up every now and then to keep them in good mechanical condition.

 

[MagicCat]

Cant you just get the data after the fire is out? Why do you need to pull them out with a truck? I'm thinking a fireproof safe is cheaper then a non fireproof safe plus the equipment to pull it with a truck.

Did you ever see the inside of one of those Fireproof Safes after a Fire? Paper may make it through a modest fire, but, IMHO, there is no way a PCboard or electronics will handle that without melting. Remember, most of those safes are only good for basic protection. If your safe is exposed to a nasty nasty super hot fire for a long time,,... deep within the house or building, well, lets just say I will believe it when I see it. Not to mention, for our purposes, I would need a rather large one. I figured that if I put a decent sized safe against one of the outer walls of my studio, and made it so the wall immediately behind it would be a "Break Away" wall, it could be yanked right out from the outside with a small car or less, and quickly dragged to safety. We are also Rural, I would not recommend this in the City or you might come home with a new entry way.

And yes, always make a backup if it is something you want to be sure of. BluRays in bulk sound pretty cheap, but they are not large enough to do any damage for 75% of what we do here. Access time is too slow to restore a project from 20-50gb discs. Typical projects here range around a Terrabyte between all the footage, and project components. 60 bucks at Micro Center gets me a Terabyte these days. TwoFers for as little as 100 if I watch for specials. I tack those fees right into the project, so, it is no money out of my pocket, and we can use them to edit on as well!! There is no need for much In-House Server space.

We are P2 based here, a single external Sata Drive even on USB is just fine for editing on. I have done projects with well over 5000 individual clips on it off of one with only 10 or 20% compramise in speed, compared to internal drives. CS5 works just fine with very few problems. (cannot say that for any releases before it though) The real bonus is I never have to buy Drive space and I can simply unplug one project, and stick another on. No need for wiping drives or long transfer times.

I use Beyond Compare, to sync all my backups with every day. Great Program for the PC.

David

 

[natums]

But what do I do with all my VHS recordings of Friends and Seinfield if I dont have cases for them?!

 

[ullanta]

Great Idea, thanks for posting this. I must say Holy Smokes are those EXPENSIVE!!!! 18 bucks each + Shipping?! That is just freaking insane. Even considering the time=money equation: @ 4 minutes trimming a little plastic off a BetacamSP case is still about 850% cheaper, and they can go right back on the shelf made for them at most production houses. Heck, you can still take your hard drive anti stat bag, cut it up and spray glue it inside the beta case if your worried about static discharge, and your still cheaper than these by a mile. Considering you could get a Beta 30min Cassette, AND a nice box (and a snazzy sticker or two) for under 12 bucks, there is no way I personally could justify spending 18 for a box. I'de go back to cardboard first.


Im not that rich and am definetly not that concerned about looks, but I sincerely appreciate your posting this Item. Im sure someone out there will benefit from it.

Hmmm... I buy mine in 10-packs (e.g. http://www.buy.com/prod/wiebetech-d...ve/q/sellerid/11408470/loc/101/220702380.html) and can usually find em at 10/$40 or so... so $4 each...

 

[simonpwood]

What happened to all your old betacam tapes though (have you stopped archiving them, thrown them out)?

BTW Fireproof safe will protect your money, documents, gold bullion, jewelery etc. But the safe will get pretty hot inside (some paper will smolder inside). I dont think harddrives would cope well with the heat.

 

[MagicCat]

What happened to all your old betacam tapes though (have you stopped archiving them, thrown them out)?

Good Question!!! We are slowly offloading all our old stock to HDD. I have several thousand pieces of Betacam, 3/4, SVHS, DV and other tape Stocks that needs to GO once we get what we need from them. One heck of a task.

However, we are trying to find a place that will recycle tape stock instead of dumping it in a landfill. That is good part of the reason we have not gotten rid of them to date. Nobody to my knowledge, recycles old tapes. That is awful. Can you imagine all the plastic and stuff that must be sitting in landfills right now? And they thought those plastic shopping bags were a nightmare,... millions and millions and millions of miles of tape is sitting out there, and probably still-will be after all of us are long gone. I don't mean to sound like a tree hugger here, but for reasons too long to go into here, it just weighs heavily on my conscience. (hence the reason for this post to begin with-find new uses for old stuff)

I talked to several manufacturers a few years ago when things started to move towards a tapeless workflow, trying to coax them to take responsibility, or at least participate in finding solutions to help find a way to recycle/re-claim this stuff. There are 5+ decades of tape stock out there that need to be handled. Nobody seemed to have an answer nor did they want to discuss it much. (go figure)

Someone could be a very wealthy person if they found a solution to re-claiming Tape Stock.

 

[Richter Video Equipment]

What happened to all your old betacam tapes though (have you stopped archiving them, thrown them out)?

BTW Fireproof safe will protect your money, documents, gold bullion, jewelery etc. But the safe will get pretty hot inside (some paper will smolder inside). I don't think hard drives would cope well with the heat.

I think this varries brand to brand and by cost. I've seen ones that even have a guarantee that the inside temp will stay below a certain amount. best bet is offsite storage, but thats such a pain.