Metadata in CS5 across harddrives

[custerc]

Hi all....so, being a fan of data redundancy and a dude who doesn't trust any kind of hardware these days, I am storing all the footage for my documentary on three separate external HDs (my internal HD isn't big enough).

Each time we shoot, I connect the HDs one by one, and copy the files to each of them directly from the card. I do this so that (1) if there's some kind of copy error and the footage gets messed up when I'm copying to one HD, I don't then copy that error-footage to the next two HDs and (2) because one of the hard drives also has some other stuff on it

So, I don't want to just copy to one HD and then back that up on the next HD, etc.

BUT, I am wondering about metadata. I need to start going through the footage, sorting it and adding metadata and stuff via bridge so that I have an easier time when it comes time to edit. But if I do that with one external HD attached, that means when I plug in the next one, all that metadata is gone, right?

Is there any way to deal with this or am I stuck either (1) doing the metadata work three times, one for each HD or (2) just keeping the metadata on my primary drive and hoping it doesn't crash, and then in the worst case scenario that it does I have to redo all the metadata work on drive 2 or 3?

Forgive me if this is an obvious question, I just switched to Premiere and still don't really know my way around CS5...I don't even really know how to do all the metadata stuff I need/want to do yet.

 

[Phil1076]

I'm fairly sure that any metadata changes make in Bridge are stored inside the file itself, so if you make changes, you'd need to backup that file to a new location.

This can be easily tested with a single file (I'm not at my editing PC at the moment so can't test).

Also, copying the data from the card 3 times is a little extreme. If there's an error in the copy process, you'll know right away as it will tell you. I'd copy from the card, editi my metadata, and then copy the metadata'd files to their new locations.

 

[Jim Simon]

I agree with Phil. NTFS is a pretty robust file system and includes error correction. If there's a copy error that can't be corrected, Windows will tell you right away.

You should be fine copying to one HD, adding metadata, then backing that up to others. Even better if the first copy is to a RAID that includes data protection (RAID 1, 3, 5 or 6).

 

[David Jimerson]

If you're talking about the CS XMP metadata, just make sure the .xmp file is transferred with the footage. That's where the metadata is stored.