Viable way to backup EX footage

L

Lor

Well-known member
In this page, it mentioned about using Blu-ray media for backup. However, when I checked on the price of these media disc, guess how much it cost? The price for a 25GB TDK brand is about $22. I don't think this is viable for many people. For double layer DVD, it cost anywhere from $.85 to $2 depending on brand and type. So here's my comparison.

Blu-ray = $.88 per GB
Double layer = $.1 to $.23 per GB
Hard drive = $.16 to $.31 per GB

And I don't think many will store on solid state drive or tape drive.
 
Lor said:
In this page, it mentioned about using Blu-ray media for backup. However, when I checked on the price of these media disc, guess how much it cost? The price for a 25GB TDK brand is about $22. I don't think this is viable for many people. For double layer DVD, it cost anywhere from $.85 to $2 depending on brand and type. So here's my comparison.

Blu-ray = $.88 per GB
Double layer = $.1 to $.23 per GB
Hard drive = $.16 to $.31 per GB

And I don't think many will store on solid state drive or tape drive.
Click to expand...

If you check a bit further there are some online stores where you can buy a 50 pack spindle of TDK BD-R's for $ 10.00 per disc. This works out to $.40 per GB - still more than twice as much for dual layered DVD but when you factor in nearly 3 dual layered DVD's for one 25 GB BD-R there is something to be said for convenience.
 
I use Seagate FreeAgent drives. I highly recommend them for storing your EX footage! Blu ray, I'm afraid, will be in the same state that DVDs are right now in about...oh...five to seven years. USB, however, will be around for a long long time.
 
matthew77 said:
This is the best way to back up footage. Use 750GB drive mechanisms in this gizmo - they're dirt cheap:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707127
Click to expand...

That's what I have right now; however, I have the version that's from Japan...not Startech although it does look exactly and functions the same, I assumed. I'm getting the version that has USB 2.0 and eSATA. But one thing I'm not sure is the life of hard drive versus DVD/DL media, tape, and solid state drive. I've read the average life of a hard drive is about 5 to 7 years. I hope I remember to check or backup my footage to a newer drive after that period.
 
I think the life of a hard drive sitting on a shelf is MUCH longer than 5-7 years (as opposed to spinning in a computer). No one really rates this things as an archive medium. And I've had drives that lasted over a decade spinning the whole time - non stop.

In any case, every 5 years you can copy your archives over to the new medium, whatever that is. It will be bigger and faster so it won't take long to copy, and all you stuff will easily fit on the big storage medium of the future, whatever it is.
 
Some hard drives only last 3 months. I've had two brand new SATA drives in my new workstation fail since August--the first in December, the second in February.

I've got some old hard drives in systems that have not been powered on for 13 years, and one of them (Seagate ST-251-1) won't spin up. The Everex 80286 computer just issues a Beep-beep and hangs there. So I don't trust hard drives with data except as a scratch workspace and even then I back up important work daily to three other devices.
 
13 years and you haven't powered them up! I would say if it is content that you really need I would re-back up every 6-8 years. Meaning you shoot your footage and put it on a harddrive then 6 years later pop it in and copy it somewhere else. But nobody has mentioned raid1 solutions. Cheap and very reliable. at least 75% more reliable than a single harddrive alone. I would backup raid1 and shelf it for 13 years.
 
Is it raid 1 the same as backing up to two drives? I prefer backing up to two different brand name hard drives. Some may suggest backing up to three different brand name hard drives.
 
Yeah, the system is 20 years old now. It's a '286 with 1.6 megaBytes of RAM and a $5,000 TARGA32 card with RGB to NTSC converter option card. The system has two 40-megabyte Seagate MFM drives in it, and, yes, I haven't powered it on in 13 years. Now the CMOS battery is dead and the Wyse WY-700 paper white phosphor monitor has died too. That kinda' stymied regular use of the machine, and of course now I have better tools for grabbing frames from video.. but back when I had my two Newvicon tube cameras (Quasar PK957), it was hot stuff. :)

But online hard drives can fail with a power surge. I have great results with optical media, but Blu-ray discs are pricey, so only important footage goes on those.
 
I would try turning on the old box, going into the BIOS, and manually setting the drive parameters based on the drive geometry information found on the label of the drive. The information should be retained even during a reboot until you turn the system off.
 
One of the major EX1 training DVDs recommends Dual-Sided DVDs for each 8gb card. That way, the organizing and cataloging are easy.
 
THoff said:
I would try turning on the old box, going into the BIOS, and manually setting the drive parameters based on the drive geometry information found on the label of the drive. The information should be retained even during a reboot until you turn the system off.
Click to expand...


No can do without a monitor. And once that CMOS battery goes, it is necessary to reset the drive params. Anyway, one of the drives is dead. The other spins up. Anything mechanical is not reliable for long-term storage.

As for dual layer DVD backup, I think you could back up faster to single layer discs at 16 times record speed, than dual layer at 2.4 times record speed. Takes near an hour to burn a dual layer disc, whereas I can burn a single layer in 3-4 minutes.
 
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