Storage workflow advice for one starting out one man business?

[Jon Furtado]

I'm a small video editor/shooter who's been expanding his work load and has begun to worry about storage security.

I have a new 2.6 Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro and currently use a G Tech Q Drive external hard drive to edit my footage via Firewire 800.

I have been editing standard definition video, but am soon moving on to HD. I plan on purchasing the Panasonic HPX 170 P2 HD Camera to shoot my projects with.

My problem is storage and backup. I'm a one man band with a limited amount of money. And i'm getting my business off the ground so I don't have a massive amount of capital. I'd love to buy a Mac Pro and do it right, but at the moment, my 17" macbook Pro will have to do.

Could anyone suggest a storage workflow? I'm thinking of purchasing a small 4 drive RAID array to run a RAID 5 or 10 array on it. But I don't have any experience with RAID's.

I'm well aware that the sky is the limit on RAID's. But, i'd like to keep a decent solution with good data security that will edit HD under $1000. Is this feasible?

What are my archive options? I can't afford a proper tape backup system like a post house. I was thinking of purchasing one of those SATA bare hard drive docks, purchasing bare hard drives and copying my work to the bare drive and shelving it. I realized it won't last forever, but if it'll last 5 years, that will do for the moment.

Can anyone help me out? Big Post house solutions won't work for a small time guy like me. I just need to get a working, safe, fast enough solution where I don't break the bank of my fledgling business.

[Robert Lane]

Although your questions are valid and reasonable they're also one of the top-ten questions asked on this forum and have been covered literally dozens of times in countless threads, and to answer them fully could take up an entire page.

My suggestion is that you use the "search" feature and do some research on the terms "storage", "archiving options" and related terms. You'll find more info than you'll have time to look at. In fact because everything my company shoots is P2-based I've posted several threads about exactly the things you're asking for - many of them are more than a year old so you'll need to search them out - but will give you a quick and easy method for shooting/archiving/backing up P2, especially when in the field.

There is no perfect solution but thankfully with todays plethora of hardware options you will definitely find a solution to fit your budget.

A word of advice: Learn the difference between and "archive" solution and working drives (a RAID is not an archive solution). You won't need to fuss with tape drives; HDD solutions are by far the most cost effective especially in your situation.

You'll love the output from the HPX170 - perfect choice.