Backing up the backup.
 

I've got a 2TB Raid 1 set-up for the archived video clips library. It's now got 200G on board and to back that up, I was using a 500G external drive.

But it's a pain waiting for the incremental back up each time.

So I'm looking to get a 1TB single external and format it each time, before backing the whole 200+G up; after I get like 800G up, it'll be much quicker..I hope. Any thoughts?

Cheers.

Why use Raid1 if you are going to back it up anyway? What are you using to back it up incrementally?

Hi Mike, I'm producing programs for the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society and I've got 18months of archival clips used in making the programs.

I keep the tapes and have got those catalogued but I've seen the aftermath of catastrophic drive crashes so a second backup is vital for me to stay on schedule.

I have Win XP and use the Western Digital backup program with their drives, hence the slow incremental backup... I guess.
Cheers.

This gets into proper project organization and such. Captures should be backed up once and then untouched. Easiest to do that manually. Exports only need to be backed up once unless you commonly overwrite files with the same name. Still images and project files are usually the only thing you actually "edit" so those should be backed up in their entirety. For example my backup would look something like this, but depends on the structure. Sort "Captures" "Audio" and "Exports" folder by date. Manually copy the files made since the last backup to matching folders on the external drive. Copy the entire "Stills" and "Adobe" (Projects) folders to the external drive, and append the date (Adobe080214). It is entirely a manual process, but very efficient in terms of disk space and time. Copy captures last, and walk away for that part. The other folders should all be small. I have used the WD backup program (Retrospect) and it works well for business executives and such, with small amounts of important data, email and docs. The efficiency goes way down for larger files like video captures etc. I would stay organized and do it manually.

Allan-

We have a bunch of 750gb hard drives set up as RAID-50 for editing 10-bit SI-2K footage(digital 16mm). For back up, we save the raw data on REV drives and save the edited content on disk and another separate internal hard drive.

-John

Thx Mike and John. I'm nowhere near the size of your rigs, but it is getting bigger. I archive the captured video files in carefully set up Media Bins on VMSP 8c. After 18 months I can find any particular file in about 10 secs.

I setup a HP Compaq nw8440 as a location post editing rig a while ago but there's certainly less of that than straight post prod., so I'm anticipating a larger system soon. Very interesting site Mike.

Cheers.