How do you store you raw footage and completed projects?

[cara_starr]

Just wondering what your routines are. Do you put it back onto dv tape? do you simply store it on a second hard drive, etc...

[cdanteek]

Most turn it into a DVD Video, burn it to DVD media for storage and viewing on TV.

 

cdanteek

[golinux]

I only keep the current project on my computer. Once it's completed, I save both the ISO images and files on two external hard drives. In addition to the DVD Video, I also store some of the files on DVD. You can never have too much backup.

[vid2man97]

I have to agree with sisterscape. Discs fail, harddrives fail, accidents happen... You can never, ever have too much backup.

 

I usually make at least two DVD videos, save files on DVD, and on a storage harddrive.

 

And you might want to look around in the forum for the most recommended media brands. Especially important if you're using them for backups of important files.

[Guest mlpasley]

It depends on how valuable I consider the footage.

 

If it's irreplaceable family video......

1. I burn 2 DVDs and put one in my safe deposit box and make extra copies for relatives. (They don't take up much room in a paper jacket.)

 

2. I take out all the transitions and special effects from the original production, and make the production into another DV AVI file that I......

a. put on a second hard drive.

b. export back to a new DV tape.

( I take out all the transitions and special effects so that I have raw, cut video that I can use in the future. You lose some of the original video when you add transitions. If you don't think you'll ever edit the video again, just burn the movie itself.)

 

3. If I think I'll need more copies in the future, I burn the 'image file' (.iso) that I use to burn the DVD to a DATA DVD. ( It's faster to copy the .iso file back to the hard drive with Windows Explorer and burn copies with Disk Copier. )

 

 

If it's not irreplaceable......

- I burn 2 DVDs and just give one to a friend who keeps them for me at their house.

- I burn an .iso file to the second hard drive or a DVD so that I can burn more DVDs in the future.

 

And yes, I'm super cautious about losing all my hard work because one media failed, so with important footage, I take the extra time to use DVDs, hard drives and DV tape to preserve irreplaceable memories.

[malatekid]

It depends on how valuable I consider the footage.

 

If it's irreplaceable family video......

1. I burn 2 DVDs and put one in my safe deposit box and make extra copies for relatives. (They don't take up much room in a paper jacket.)

 

2. I take out all the transitions and special effects from the original production, and make the production into another DV AVI file that I......

a. put on a second hard drive.

b. export back to a new DV tape.

( I take out all the transitions and special effects so that I have raw, cut video that I can use in the future. You lose some of the original video when you add transitions. If you don't think you'll ever edit the video again, just burn the movie itself.)

 

3. If I think I'll need more copies in the future, I burn the 'image file' (.iso) that I use to burn the DVD to a DATA DVD. ( It's faster to copy the .iso file back to the hard drive with Windows Explorer and burn copies with Disk Copier. )

 

 

If it's not irreplaceable......

- I burn 2 DVDs and just give one to a friend who keeps them for me at their house.

- I burn an .iso file to the second hard drive or a DVD so that I can burn more DVDs in the future.

 

And yes, I'm super cautious about losing all my hard work because one media failed, so with important footage, I take the extra time to use DVDs, hard drives and DV tape to preserve irreplaceable memories.

Great suggestion!

 

I learned the hard way; I lost a lot of my early work due to corruption of the external hard drive where I backed up my source files and completed projects.

[golinux]

I lost a lot of my early work due to corruption of the external hard drive where I backed up my source files and completed projects.

Sure wish you hadn't said that. Do you know how the corruption occurred? I'm putting a lot of faith in my two backup drives.

[malatekid]

Sure wish you hadn't said that. Do you know how the corruption occurred? I'm putting a lot of faith in my two backup drives.

it's 250gb USB external hard drive (actually, the drive is an internal one--Western Digital-- but I bought an external case). It was filled to almost its 200th gb. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my defragment software was doing a smart scan automatically on my external hard drive, moving files around. I have a lot of huge files (ISO, multimedia, etc) and my guess was there was not much space to shuffle files around. The process hanged up and the PC froze. I had no choice but to do a force drebooting. My bad! When I logged in, I couldn't read anything from the drive; so I launched the utility software hoping to do maintenance on the hard drive. Guess what? One of the choices was to format the drive (big mistake--I chose this and of course my entire drive got wiped out!).

 

Anyway, before the misfortune above happened, I already had problem writing new files to that hard drive. Light didn't stay lit when you expected it to be when saving files. Also, saving/copying files was unbearably slow.

[vid2man97]

Sure wish you hadn't said that. Do you know how the corruption occurred? I'm putting a lot of faith in my two backup drives.

 

 

And unfortunately drives sometimes simply fail. Sometimes they last for ten years, sometimes not. I had an internal 250Gig drive fail on me twice. Once it lasted six months, the replacement lasted two. The seals broke and moisture got in. You might be able to imagine my frustration. That's why I now have three drives, with important data on two and OS and programs on one. Don't let it get you too paranoid though, I just mention it because so many people out there think it can't happen...just realize there's the remote chance.

That's why everyone is recommending multiple backups on various media as well.

[golinux]

And unfortunately drives sometimes simply fail. Sometimes they last for ten years, sometimes not. I had an internal 250Gig drive fail on me twice.

Someone in the business was telling me that the failure rate on larger HD was much higher than smaller ones. He recommended 160GB as the upper size limit for stability and longer life. I haven't done any research but wonder if there is any data to support that conclusion.

[Beerman]

Someone in the business was telling me that the failure rate on larger HD was much higher than smaller ones. He recommended 160GB as the upper size limit for stability and longer life. I haven't done any research but wonder if there is any data to support that conclusion.

I've read about this too and it was strongly suggested to partition the larger drives for that very reason.

[REDWAGON]

Well, I might not be quite as cautious as ml but I try and burn one DVD of my really good productions, then when I burn I also burn an ISO file and save that to an external HD along with all of the other production ISO's and also to another Data disc that is used for just backup. Using good media as has already been suggested has to be a given (And NOT an RW).

 

I guess I'm just really lucky or something, as I have never had a HD go out on me and so far I have not had a backup disc I have burned go bad. Now I'm sure someone will tell me "well, you are way past time for that to happen", and they are probably right. One thing that probably helps is that I change computers about every 2 or 4 years so that helps too.

 

Frank....

[Guest mlpasley]

I don't trust any media exclusively.

 

While DV tapes will fade in a few years, it's still a good idea to backup to the tape (as long as you keep the camera to play the tape and check them once a year for quailty.) f

[rriehl71]

You all have some great suggestions. One question, when you say you burn the ISO file, how is this done and what is the benefit?

 

Also, I have gigs and gigs of raw footage, some clips are over 8gb. How would I back up these large ones? Just split them?

 

Thanks

[Guest mlpasley]

You all have some great suggestions. One question, when you say you burn the ISO file, how is this done and what is the benefit?

 

Also, I have gigs and gigs of raw footage, some clips are over 8gb. How would I back up these large ones? Just split them?

 

Thanks

 

You use Creator Classic and burn the .iso file to a DATA DVD just like you would any other data file. The advantage for me is that it seems to be faster to copy the .iso file back to the hard drive with Windows Explorer and use Disk Copier to burn multiple DVDs than to copy the original movie DVD. ( I frequently have people who need additional copies of DVDs I've made in the past.)

As to the gigs and gigs of raw footage, it depends on a few things.

 

Are those gigs and gigs, avi or mpeg2 ?

 

If you've got a dual (double) layer DVD burner, you should be able to fit 8 GB on a DVD, and use a second hard drive as backup storage.

 

If you have a single layer DVD burner and you want to store mpeg2 files, you will have to split it by putting the footage in 2 different productions, split each one in two, then do a File\ Output production to.... Video File\ DVD Authoring \ Best. That will give you a new movie which you can then burn to DATA DVDs with Creator Classic. And, of course, use another method as a backup. Hard drives on sale are pretty cheap.

 

If it's avi that you want to keep, then you can store them on a second hard drive, tape, or split them into around 20 minutes or less to put on a 4.7 GB DVD (File\ Output production to..... DV Camcorder, and burn it to a Data DVD.)

 

Of course, all that is a lot of work and depends on the value of the video.

 

I frequently just keep my original video tapes and burn the finished movies to DVDs and use the second hard drive to store the .iso file and a copy of the DVD.

 

For me, it's just too much work to back up the original avi raw footage to DVDs and take the finished movie back to another DV tape. However, I frequently do backups to two different hard drives (one internal and one external). The chances of both of them failing is hopefully less than the chance of one failing.