Very basic question: is a RAID setup the option for backing up lots of HD footage?

O

oxband

Well-known member
I'm going to make the leap from buying enclosed external hard drives to creating a setup that in the long run will be cheaper and easier for saving the large amount of data I'm accumulating by working in HD.


I know nothing about this topic and I've been trying to teach myself what to do going forward. So, this might sound painfully obvious but help me out: is a RAID setup the only option here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but a RAID setup seems like, essentially, a game plan for backing stuff up and then I just need to decide what kind of RAID and what particular hardware to buy to implement this. Am I right here?


If anyone has links to any articles or threads on the internet that discuss this topic really well, let me know too.
 
Sure, buy a RAID. But back up the RAID to your external hard drives as well.

Personally, I backup from one RAID to another RAID periodically. And I also have a 3rd RAID set off-site which I swap out every month.

If you want an easy step up to RAID-ness, look at OWC's Qx2, which is behaves like an external drive, but you can stick 4 drives in it and set it to RAID5, so if one of those drives dies, you're still okay. Only $299 for a bare unit - though their prices for hard drives aren't too bad so maybe just get a preconfigured 12TB model.

If you want to go up a step in performance (and also price) check out Thunderbolt stuff, PCIe RAID controllers, etc.

Most important thing though is to get your data organized on a nice drive with enough space (big 12TB RAID is helpful for being organized) - and then back it up to another set of drives!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
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