How are you managing your media?

P

peripatew

Well-known member
So, with my addition of my GH2, my pictures and video files have greatly increased in size and quantity, and I'm trying to figure out how to manage my data.

I've used Dropbox (50gb) to sync and backup my personal data for a long while, including my pictures and videos. This is no longer an option, considering the size of raw footage for even small shoots.

I'd like to be organized, and keep my data consistent. My main computer (MBP) only has a 250gb hard drive, so I can't just backup my whole computer.

I'm thinking about moving my pics and videos out of dropbox, and storing them on an external drive. I've got a 1tb usb 2.0 drive that's empty.

My problems with this:
I'm loosing my data on my laptop, IE I can't access it 100% of the time as I won't always have the drive with me.
I will no longer be backing up my data online.

How is everyone else managing their data? I'll have personal pictures, client pictures, personal and client video.

Is there a good, cheap solution for backing everything up online every so often?
 
Backblaze (http://www.backblaze.com) seems to be great. I haven't signed up yet, but I know someone who's already put about 3.2TB (not GB, but TB!) on their service with no problems.

Another option is to get a second external drive. Once you have that, you can safely archive all projects and files you don't need to carry with you on your laptop. Just back those older projects and files up to each of the external drives and then, after verifying the backups, delete the files from your laptop. That way, the laptop has only your current, truly active projects, and everything else is still backed up on two separate drives. (Obviously, you want all critical data to be on at least two drives at all times.)

Of course, if your current projects and files add up to 200-250GB or more, then you simply need a bigger laptop drive. ;)
 
Gerson said:
Backblaze (http://www.backblaze.com) seems to be great. I haven't signed up yet, but I know someone who's already put about 3.2TB (not GB, but TB!) on their service with no problems.

Another option is to get a second external drive. Once you have that, you can safely archive all projects and files you don't need to carry with you on your laptop. Just back those older projects and files up to each of the external drives and then, after verifying the backups, delete the files from your laptop. That way, the laptop has only your current, truly active projects, and everything else is still backed up on two separate drives. (Obviously, you want all critical data to be on at least two drives at all times.)

Of course, if your current projects and files add up to 200-250GB or more, then you simply need a bigger laptop drive. ;)
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I believe the quote is "data does not exist until it exists in 3 places". Make sure one of those places is offsite in case of fire, flood and other disasters.
 
Good question, plus how are people managing their SD cards? Do you just delete all files when copied or actually reformat every time? How often can you reformat an SD card? I come from tape land and this card based stuff is new
 
I use a Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA external hard drive to back up my SD cards immediately after each video take:

http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-UDMA-s/64.htm

While this is not a cheap device, it's a self-contained backup solution that eliminates the need to bring a laptop to the shoot. It lives in the glove compartment of my car, where it stays charged and ready. The SD card slot on the Hyperdrive backs up a 16GB SD card in about 10 minutes and the software automatically manages incremental backups on its own. The Hyperdrive can also be used to review MJPEG still frames on its LCD screen.

What I did to reduce the price was to buy an empty unit without an internal hard disk from the Hypershop online store. I then checked out the bare 2.5" drives on Amazon, and bought a 500GB for about $50. Installing the hard disk into the Hyperdrive was no more difficult than inserting a SIM card in a cell phone. In addition to its SD card backup features, the Hyperdrive functions just like any other 500GB USB external drive.
 
mickee13 said:
Good question, plus how are people managing their SD cards? Do you just delete all files when copied or actually reformat every time? How often can you reformat an SD card? I come from tape land and this card based stuff is new
Click to expand...

+1
 
mickee13 said:
Good question, plus how are people managing their SD cards? Do you just delete all files when copied or actually reformat every time? How often can you reformat an SD card? I come from tape land and this card based stuff is new
Click to expand...

SD cards are that cheap, I'd say for anything that isn't just test/messing about, should be labelled and archived.
 
lpowell said:
I use a Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA external hard drive to back up my SD cards immediately after each video take:

http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-UDMA-s/64.htm

While this is not a cheap device, it's a self-contained backup solution that eliminates the need to bring a laptop to the shoot. It lives in the glove compartment of my car, where it stays charged and ready. The SD card slot on the Hyperdrive backs up a 16GB SD card in about 10 minutes and the software automatically manages incremental backups on its own. The Hyperdrive can also be used to review MJPEG still frames on its LCD screen.

What I did to reduce the price was to buy an empty unit without an internal hard disk from the Hypershop online store. I then checked out the bare 2.5" drives on Amazon, and bought a 500GB for about $50. Installing the hard disk into the Hyperdrive was no more difficult than inserting a SIM card in a cell phone. In addition to its SD card backup features, the Hyperdrive functions just like any other 500GB USB external drive.
Click to expand...

isn't there a good cheaper casing option (other company) without the jpeg/raw view ? i mean, i don't really need the picture view, i can just settle for
a good workhorse that copies the data..

* i searched for other options. most are the same price or higher. it appears to be the best option.
can you link me to the 500GB drive you bought?
 
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Good questions! I only save my AVCHD files in three places. And while I´m working on a project I save the project files plus all mov. files in two places.
This is not ideal so I signed up for online storing on Jungle Disk. But when I was going to save a big project there I realised it would take 45 days!
So I have to wait for a real fiber cable to my office before that is an option, right now I just have ADSL.

I reformat my SD-cards every time they are copied. Haven`t thought that would be a problem. Is it?
 
Oh, so 5400 is enough for the speed of this
Device? Dont you maximize it's performance
with 7200 ?
 
Cards get copied to my internal HHD for editing. Raw files are run through cineform and live in the same project folder as the RAW data. RAW data also gets copied to two external drives and they are left untouched. After this the card is ready to be used again. Edit project, consolidate media used (which will be the cineform, not the .movs) archive that project to internal HDD storage, 1 external HDD and DVD. DVD lives off-site. Project dependent I also save all of the RAW data along with the project.

...is what I do for commercial projects. Those esata HDD docks that accept bare 3.5/2.5" drives are sweet, pop a drive in, back up, pop back to a safe location on the self. USB is way to slow for this I find. Online backup of projects this large isn't feasible until the pipes get a lot bigger.

If it doesn't exist in three places it doesn't exist at all. And you can buy cheap drives and storage backup solutions if you want but honestly this seems like the worst place to skimp on your money. Because if you loose your footage, ALL of the work you have done (pre production, production, post) is gone. Forever. And you will not get it back and you will not know how much this sucks until you do it. And if it is a paying gig I can't even imagine having to go to your client, tail between your legs and say your HDD with the only copy of the media when down.
 
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I dump everything on internal HDD (on a desktop though). I have an external SATA 2TB HDD that I sync with for backup every Friday (using SyncToy - it's free and convenient http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en). That HDD is used for backups only. BluRay backups happen monthly (go for dual layer disks, significantly reduces clutter).
For cloud sharing (can't really call it backup since speeds are significantly lower that what you'd get writing on a SATA HDD) I use Windows Live Mesh (5GB of seamlessly synced folder). That's for photos only. There are other options like ZumoDrive, DropBox ...
 
I have a 4Tb raid 5 server, all cards are copied into an project sub directory and then converted to cineform on an identically named folder on my main editing computer. Overnight any changes made to the project are backed up to the raid 5.
 
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