C200: what type of storage solutions do you recommend when shooting raw for editing?

E

echo44

Member
I have the canon 200 and I am a rookie.
Using raw requires a lot of data as all 4k editing.
Just bought an iMac pro looking to add external storage.
was thinking about a 24TB raid from la cie. Stripped as raid 6
that would also serve as backup?
Other ideas were to use single drives and back them up conventionally with other single drives.
Are single drives fast enough to deal with canon 4k video?
Thanks
 
You're on the right track. The LaCie raid will work well. I haven't used their RAID device but I've used other LaCie products and have always been happy with them. The other product you might want to look at is the Promise Pegasus3 RAID device. I've been using their older, Thunderbolt 2 device for the last few years and it's been great. Most single drives are fast enough to use for C200 raw but there's no real benefit if you've got a fast RAID.

Backup is tricky, given how much data you'll be creating. First, the LaCie (or similar) isn't a backup. A backup has to be separate from your main device and, ideally, it's got to be something that you can physically remove from your studio. I live in the Bay Area, about 200 yards from a major earthquake fault, so there's no way I'm going to rely on a backup that's in the same building. I'm lucky that my location is served by AT&T's cheap, 1 GB Internet service. My backup solution is a combination of three different Internet backup services. Three might seem like overkill but I like the security. 1 GB is fast enough to backup everything I create on my C200.

If you don't have fast Internet, you might want to:

1. Get a NAS device
2. Use external hard drives for off-site backup

The NAS device is convenient, because it's accessible via Ethernet so you can put it as far away as possible from your iMac Pro and LaCie RAID. In doing so, you'll reduce the chance a thief will take everything and you'll reduce the chance that a localized problem (small fire or burst pipe) will take out everything. The NAS can backup your RAID device. Your iMac Pro has 10 GB Ethernet, so if you get a 10 GB NAS, backup will really fast.

A NAS backing up your RAID is good but it won't help when your entire building goes up in smoke (or, in my case, slides down the hill!) so external hard drives to use as off-site backup are a good idea.

Lastly, how big is your iMac Pro's internal SSD? I ask because I've got a Mac Pro with a 1 TB SSD, my Promise RAID but I've also got a third SSD. It's small - only 500 GB - but I find it useful as a location for the cache from my editing apps and as a temporary place for things I don't care about. I like keeping just the OS on my internal drive, all my important media and project files on the RAID but for anything unimportant or that can be easily and automatically recreated (e.g., render files), those go on the external SSD. I might not bother if I had an iMac Pro with a bigger internal SSD (which I'd partition into two drives) but it's a setup that's worked well for me.

Good luck and feel free to ask more questions!
 
Personally, I don't like using RAIDs as backups. As fhammond wrote, a smarter strategy is to store project footage and projects on small, cheap USB 3.0 drives, multiple drives, stored in multiple locations. With USB 3.0 speeds, it's not that painful to restore a project, clip or reels to your eidting RAID from these cheap drives. Someone steals your RAID or if a natural disaster occurs, you could be out of luck, RAIDs are for editing, not storage. That said, the RAID sounds sweet but I don't know if you need a 24TB one unless you need to keep several projects constantly on-line and ready to edit? For me, it's usuually just one or two projects at a time.
 
One RAID is not a backup, you have to have two of them if you want to be secure. I have 2 x Lacie 5BIG Thunderbolt 2 in RAID5, so I got 4 times the protection and 20TB storage faster than regular SSDs, never have to think about backup, everything is on "SSD" and everything is backed up crazy fast.

I really don't count for natural disasters demolishing my whole house and everything in it including my equipment, in that case I really wouldn't think about my projects, but how to survive with my family :) Off course I have good UPS with a bunch of protections for all the computers and RAIDs, that is mandatory..
 
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guru said:
One RAID is not a backup, you have to have two of them if you want to be secure. I have 2 x Lacie 5BIG Thunderbolt 2 in RAID5, so I got 4 times the protection and 20TB storage faster than regular SSDs, never have to think about backup, everything is on "SSD" and everything is backed up crazy fast.

I really don't count for natural disasters demolishing my whole house and everything in it including my equipment, in that case I really wouldn't think about my projects, but how to survive with my family :) Off course I have good UPS with a bunch of protections for all the computers and RAIDs, that is mandatory..
Click to expand...

One is none, two (with one off-site) is one...

Having just evacuated for the Thomas Fires, followed by the Montecito Landslides 30 miles up the 101, I am going to increase the amount of my off-site storage of raw media at least. Both of my docs, I have two copies of all camera masters and my producing partner keeps a copy at his place 40 miles away. S**t happens as 2017 has proven for me.
 
puredrifting said:
According to the listing, may not support RAID 6 but will support RAID 5?
Click to expand...

that is correct. I called La Cie and they said you need more than 4 drives for raid 6, I think raid 5 will be ok as long as everything is backed
up? Other option is to run raid 10 which is extremely redundant. with raid 10 the 24TB turns into 12TB which is enough for my use.
The maximum speed slows down from 1000mb//s to 500mb/s which is still sufficient.
 
brettsherman said:
For backup, consider a OWC drive toaster - https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/external-drives/owc-drive-dock

Then I buy 10 TB HGST drives (I always recommend HGST): https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1354329-REG/hgst_0s04037_10tb_3_5_sata_internal.html

Then partition your RAID to 10TB volumes. That way you get a 1:1 match between your RAID and backups and can do a simple drive mirroring. This eliminates a lot of possibility for errors.
Click to expand...

I have the same OWC Toaster. With Thunderbolt, it's surprisingly good, it benchmarks at around 200 Mbps. You will only get the claimed 522 Mbps with SSDs, whcih are still too pricey for everyday use.
I have a small 4TB RAID, transfer camera masters to the RAID for editing while keeping a couple of backups of the RAW media on the bare drives. It's a workable, if not ideal solution. Shooting Cinema RAW Light for two documentaries, I am swimming in drives but I know down the road when we go to on-line and grading, I will be so happy I shot it all on CRL. Using 2K proxies for cutting everything, CRL will be for the final edit.
 
RAID 6, while technically possible with 4 drives is kind of silly with 4 drives.

If you have a RAID 6 with 4x4TB drives, you lose two drives' worth of storage for a usable space of 8TB.

It's much faster and safer to create a RAID 10 with those 4x4TB drives... and you end up with the same amount of usable space and no parity calculations (which slow writes).

That's why a lot of 4-bay RAID controllers don't bother with RAID 6.
 
So, what do you guys use for editing? Not for backup.

Would you recommend that g speed 4 bay drive in raid 0? Is it fast enough?
 
Followed your link to B&H for the G-Speed Shuttle the price was listed a $1,400. Took a screen save at 12:07 PM 1/19/18.
Went back to B&H to check the specs and the price was now $ 1,899.95. Thats quite a change! I might have considered it at the $1,400 but at $1,899.95, I'll look at the Lacie 20TB Thunder 3 $ 1199.00. Thanks for posting the link.
 
Is Raid 10 fast enough for editing? The peopel at G drive told me if you select raid 10
the 24 TB will turn into 12TB drive at roughly 500mbs read and write?
 
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