Storage can kill you

Alexa

Alexa

Veteran
suppose this is part just blowing off steam, but just wanted to remind y'll that video storage is part of your time and expenses...

time to buy it, and a reliable solution at that*
time to maintain it
time for it to F*&# up on you

when you get into a lot of projects and a needing to save your work and access it quickly, you need to have it on hand ( $$$). I have several terabytes now.

I had a lacie drive that crashed. sent it to lacie get "fixed" under warranty. got it back. a few months later ( tonight) it crashed, again. no further details but it sounds horrible all of the sudden. like a freakin' car crash, but hey, its just data. I lost a lot of work, pretty much all of it which is recoverable with time or money. i still have the project files, amen.

video storage becomes a big issue with you are dealing with huge projects ( ie. any program over 45 minutes) or an ongoing client project ( sits on your drives probably). video takes a lot of storage and that is one reason that differentiates your computer time-work from that of, say, graphic design, photo editing, web design.

back up, back up, back up

where?

of course on more storage ($$$$$$$$$$$)

*not all lacies crash. there are just tons of them out there. but man, they sent me BACK a lemon, dammit!
 
Speaking of storage and back up, I've got a quick tid bit to add....

I've always been pretty paranoid about data backup.
Client's footage is always properly archived, project files are burned to disc every week, etc.
The thing I never thought of backing up before (like an idiot) is my system drive.

Well, of course, a few months back my system drive crashed as I was in the middle of a project for a client with a pressing deadline (is there another kind?).

I had to get a new system drive, reinstall the OS, all my software, drivers, plugins, etc. Like I said, I always back up my project files so I didn't really lose any work....but I did lose about a day and a half of time (which wound up with me working two 15+ hour days over the weekend to get the job done in time, on top of which I had to cut the client a slight discount due to time lost).

My point is, when you think about backup and storage...don't forget about your system drive.
I now keep a ghosted copy of my system drive sitting on a shelf.

If my system drive were to crash again, I could just plug in the backup and be up and running within the hour, with all my software in place, and my project files loaded in.
 
Luis Caffesse said:
I now keep a ghosted copy of my system drive sitting on a shelf.

If my system drive were to crash again, I could just plug in the backup and be up and running within the hour, with all my software in place, and my project files loaded in.
Click to expand...

great reminder.

I got an estimate from www.drivesavers.com for several thousand dollars to recover the data..fyi. I decided to just recapture and re-render.

so, today, I purchased the second half of the SATA system I should have bought a few months ago.

want to add that LaCie has a ONE YEAR warranty.

many brands of drives have a FIVE YEAR warranty...
 
I've had problems with Lacie in the past two years. Two drives crashing after only about a year of use. Was able to get footage off before it went down, but I had that carcrash sound on both drives.

I will never buy another Lacie drive again. They look great but are terrible for backing up data.
 
Anybody suggest an alternate to Lacie?
I've been just buying swappable hard drives and as they fill up,---get another.
Is this too simple? Too stupid?
 
Peabody said:
Anybody suggest an alternate to Lacie?
I've been just buying swappable hard drives and as they fill up,---get another.
Is this too simple? Too stupid?
Click to expand...


It is my impression ( via what I've heard from LaCie) that they buy the cheapest drives they can get..and even that is not consistent. Even if that is so, MOST of my drives have been pretty good..

hot swapping SATAs is my solution. ..expandable, too. The drives are cheap! I buy them on zipzoomfly.com.

(a system for macs)
http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/sata/hotswapsataguide_1.php

Sirius_Doggy said:
Build your own.
http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_info.php/products_id/1027 - $258.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148064 - $140 x 2= $280

Total is $538 for 600Gigs and drives that can easily be swapped out.
Click to expand...

sirius- I bought the seritek system and returned it. the fan on it is not nearly as good as the burly box with the link above. compare the power draw too. I forget how we compared it, but felt the burly box was more substantial. I'm sure the set up for the seritek is a lot easier, though. I'm sure the seritek will do a fine job, but I ended up need a 4 and a 6 bay..so reliable, beefy fans was something that appealed to me. we returned the enclosure, but kept the host card.
 
I just installed a hot swap SATA bay in my PC that appears to be the identical hardware used in the burly box.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817122105

They sell the cartridges as well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817122106

The portion that's permanently mounted in the case fits in a standard 5-1/4" drive bay. The tricky part is that it's longer than a standard 5-1/4" driver so you need to make sure you have the clearance behind the drive bay.

I don't need all the storage on line at once so I bought just the single rack and two extra drive cartidges for less that $120. Newegg has the Seagate 250Gb drives for $110 each. Works great so far. I like it a lot. I've tried the USB and firewire external boxes and this is a far better solution.

-Dan
 
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