Google Drive

[Rte80west]

Revisiting archival methods again after a recent HDD crash. Ridiculous.

DUal HDD backup? BR DVD backup? Cloud storage? All of these? What is teh group consensus? If cloud is an option, is Google Drive the best? Logically, I would think dual drives containing the exact same info and then updated wvery 2-3 years SHOULD be failsafe, but who knows? Any ideas appreciated.

[Rte80west]

The more I think about it, doesnt it make pretty solid sense to just use 2 even 3 of my own hard drives to backup material? Then replace them every few years. They cant ALL crap out at teh same time right? Am I oversimplifying this? Currently, I have been starting to back stuff up on WD 2 TB Passport drives in duplicate. Thinking maybe I will take my own advice and back them up in triplicate then change all every 3 years. Pricey? Maybe a bit. But if its a safeguard I really dont care. If I do this would it make sense to buy the drives from different sources (sellers) in case of batch defects or am I REALLy overthinking things now?

Funny, when you get burned paranoia takes over. STill, I'd rather be safe then screwed.

Only edge I can think cloud would have over my above described method is they probably use some sort of RAID system and maybe have more reliable drives?

[IanPearson]

My personal view is more in line with your second note.
I save all my raw data and completed projects to external HDD’s. This has several advantages, some of which are listed as follows
1. The raw (unedited) data I save in AV format so it is uncompressed. This not only saves the original material, but any re-editing is at the highest quality.
2. I save all my completed projects in HDV, (PAL) which is HD TV quality, which is quite acceptable for my needs.
3. Saving the completed projects in HDV, allows me to file and play all my output directly to any PAL TV with a USB input, in full HD. The projects are listed in the TV menu, under “Recorded”. This means for personal or family/friend use I do not need to burn a DVD or BD. Since I put all my personal material for TV viewing on a separate HDD, this gives me an additional HDV backup.
4. I tend to use 1TB HDD’s, or at maximum 2TB, since this limits my archive loss in the event a drive fails.
5. The use of external HDD's allows the archived material to be imported to any Bogart machine.

Bogart Sentry, which I think will soon be out in NTSC land, can deliver both of the archive options above, plus it has other glitch repairing features.

I have written a comprehensive document on Cassie backup options, including Sentry, which is now 10 pages and therefore too long to include in this reply. If you are interested you can contact me on my personal email address and I would be happy to send you a copy, in Word docx or PDF.

Ian

[BobFoster]

I too have become more conscious of backups. I always save and clean off the projects as soon as they are finished. I use the "Store N Share" backup to 1 of 3 WD 2TB drives. (recently added 2 more 4 TB WD Drives) In reality, I have only needed to go back and change or re-edit a 3 or 4 of projects in several years. The good feature of SNS is that when you pull up the saved project, it is like you just finished the edit minutes ago. Every thing is just as you left it. I erase the oldest hd when I run out of space and start the recycle process of hd's.

[Rte80west]

Thanks guys