Need reliable external drive for editing

[Rob Perry]

Up until now I haven't been working on any big projects and have been getting away with using sub-1TB external drives for all of my work, connected via USB 2.0 most of the time even. However now I'm getting ready to start working on a feature length documentary and need a lot more room. The other thing is that I have been compiling footage for this project for over two years and have not backed any of it up... so I'm thinking I need to look into a RAID 1 setup, both for space and security.

I've never run any kind of RAID configuration before, so I'm leaning towards getting a G-Tech or Lacie drive that will just run straight out of the box. It seems like G-Tech drives get better reviews in general, however their G-Raid drives will only run RAID 0. I think the G-Raid mini will do RAID 1, but they top out at 750GB which is not enough; I probably need 2TB of usable space.

There's also the option of doing a DIY external RAID, but I would have no idea where to start and assume it wouldn't be as reliable?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Ryan Jones]

Hi Rob.

Did you end up buying anything?

I've got an Other World Computing Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 with 4 x 2TB drives in RAID5. It has served me well, however my friend bought one at the same time and had it crash and lose the entire array. Cost him about $2k to get it rebuilt as OWC use some kind of proprietary setup.

I'm running out of space on this now, so I'm looking at getting something bigger and more long term, and changing my approach to storing my footage. Looking at archiving the data cards only and deleting the imported footage when I've finished the edit. Otherwise my experience is the disks just fill too quickly.

Looking at something possibly like a Synology DS2411+, a 12 bay enclosure with twin gigabit connections. The specs indicate I could chuck 4 x 3TB drives in to get me started, then add later. 3 arrays giving me 9TB of usable RAID5 storage each is attractive.

Is anyone else running somethink like this, or a competitor?

Thanks,
Ryan

[Harm Millaard]

Why not use internal storage? I'm building a system with 4 x SSD, 2 x BDR, multicard reader and up to 31 internal 3.5" disks (at least without modding). I'm only planning for 27 disks now... See Intro Part 1

[Trevor Dennis]

An article on Tom's yesterday, says that HDD production is back to normal now.

Hard Drive Shipments Back on Record Track After Thai Floods

A good time to be thinking about a large raid array?

[Chris Medico]

Production is back up but prices haven't caught back up with that fact. Manufacturers will hold the prices high for as long as they can before someone gives in and starts them moving towards true market conditions. Watch the prices over the next couple of months. They should be relaxing and early next year will be a better time to purchase a case of drives for a RAID.

[Damian Heffernan]

I've been very reliably served by my WD mystudio II's. These have firewire 800 and 400 and there's a thunderbolt 6TB version now. I have 4 daisy chained 2TB units raided and these haven't missed a beat.
I'll be picking up a couple of thunderbolt ones for my new imac.