Storage management
 

Hi,
hopefully in the next weeks I will be the proud owner of an EX3. One aspect is provoking headache: How to store/achrive the material? Tapes made it easy. Name on it and into a box. But how can I use the full advantage of file based archive without risking a full loss due to HDD dead?

I think, HDD based is a nice solution but I am thinking in RAID-solution. HDD because I want to have my archive just a click away, not putting again DVD or Bluerays and searching on them.

But sure, which architecture allows starting less expensive and putting more HDD the more I film? I am sure that some of you allready found practical solutions.

Markus

I decided to go DVD-DL and BluRay. Given the historical price model of optical storage, it seemed the best option to me. 25GB BluRays are hovering around $15 right now, and should be $8-10 this time next year. That's MUCH cheaper than tape (unless you're talking about mini-DV) so it was the easy solution.

Sony's large XDCam's already record to BluRay (Sony Professional Disc) so that was another reason to go this route.

-P

Well, that's a - call it -classic option. The great thing would be to have it reachable and searchable within seconds. So who's using harddisks?

Markus

You might want to look at a drobo or similar Data Robotics, Inc.
Install 2 drives and it will mirror your data giving an instant backup. As it fills up just add bigger drives and it will manage your data.

Thanks Alister,

that looks to me like a real nice and safe solution. What about your Ex3? I am close to buy it. Are you still happy?

Markus

Love the EX3. I have an F350, EX1 and EX3. The EX3 is the one that's getting the most use by a long way.

Please can you let us know which BluRay burner you recommend?
I am going to use my EX3 with the Flash XDR recording at 100Mbs - will the BluRay be still a reasonable solution considering the huge files I am going to end up with or should I consider another route?

Thanks!
Ofer

If you planning on shooting at 100Mb/s then a 25Gb Blu-ray disk will hold around 20 mins of material.

While Blu-ray and Sony Professional Discs both use Blue lasers they are not compatible with each other in any way.

I would look at hard drives. Drives are so cheap that you can afford to keep dual copies of all you material so should a drive fail you have a backup. With 2x 250GB usb drives costing around $180 US that works out only a little more than 10x Blu-ray discs at $15 each. The drives will be sooo much faster and you could keep them at different locations for added security. Also you won't have to worry about wastage if you have long clips that won't fit on the Blu-ray discs wasting big chunks of space.

Thank you for the good advice Alister ! Can you recommend good quality hard drieves ?

Just get known brand name drives. Lacie, Freecom, Western Digital are brands I have used and had no problems with.

Thanks mate !! (-: