Storage Solution?

F

fleaguit

Active member
Hi guys,

We just got our new HVX200 last week and have been having a blast shooting with it. P2 truly is a pleasure to work with and after the initial kinks (learning to shoot exclusively in 24 pN comes to mind) we're truly happy with the camera and we're excited to be shooting our first feature film with it.

I am a bit concerned about storage though. I'm an A+ certified computer tech, so I know my way around building pc's and stuff, but I'm trying to figure our the most cost effective storage solution for us. I'm considering buying or building a Raid system, but was hoping to get some opinions from members of this board on what to use, etc. Any suggestions or comments from your experience with storage options for DVCPro HD is most appreciated.

Thanks in advanced,.

-Steve Dispensa
 
fleaguit said:
I'm trying to figure our the most cost effective storage solution for us. I'm considering buying or building a Raid system,
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're mixing apples and oranges. A RAID is worth the money and effort only if you plan to edit directly from the MXF files. What editing software are you using that edits directly from MXF without conversion?

If you're not working off the drive -- if you're using it only for storage -- than even a USB drive will do. (Well, OK, maybe that's TOO slow.) But you don't need a RAID. Just a shelf full of TB drives.

As Barry has pointed out, disk drive prices have plummeted. Disk drive archiving surpassed tape archiving long ago for digital files.
 
I'm storing source files onto a level-1 (mirrored) RAID. It provides an instant backup for the MXF files.

I then import these into FCP and they're converted to Quicktime files for editing. The all-important MXF files are kept on SATA drives which comprise the mirrored RAID. Relatively low cost, compared to other drives, easily expandable because it's set up in a hot-swappable system, and fairly secure against any particular drive going down unexpectedly.
 
Sounds like a good, conservative approach, and sounds like you're on the right track. Your posting cinched our decision.

Until today, we had been backing up with a roll-your-own RAID 1. That is, all P2 folders on identical (cloned) 1TB FireWire 800 drives. It's a good system. But this weekend, one of those drives emitted the scraping sound of sharpening knives and died an operatic death. It was 4 weeks old! LaCie offered to exchange for an identical drive no questions asked, but I decided to upgrade to essentially your SATA system.
 
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Hatchmo...

Lucky you had a mirrored RAID! Nice having a parachute when you need it most.

I know of one company that had thousands of photos stored on a -single- drive, despite warnings to put them on a level-1 RAID as you guys did.

Eventually the drive crashed and took thousands of photos with it.

The tech staff then installed a RAID as they'd been warned. But too late. A lot of work from a lot of photographers was lost due to the carelessness of two guys who thought they knew it all.

By the way, the SATA system I'm working with is from Firmtek.

I can pull and replace a drive in about 30 seconds. Real handy for either routine project changes or quick repairs -- knock on wood it hasn't happened here yet!!
 
Dean,

Are you using the 4-bay or 2-bay enclosures? How "full" are your disks before you pull them out for storage?
 
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