My Backup Strategy – From Drives to LTO Tape
And so it starts – the LTO 2018 set… from G-Technology Shuttle XLs to LTO tape the never-ending data backup continues. Hits 8K RED Digital Cinemausers and anyone shooting 4K RAW as well I’m sure.
Been lazy going to cold storage for almost a year but with close to 250 Terabytes of drives online in my office w only 20TB of the critical files on the cloud via Dropbox you gotta be safe.
I have my drives organized as:
ONLINE – In Progress (Fast SSDs)
ONLINE – Projects less than 1 year old
OFFLINE – actually online but 1+ year old and can be deleted at will
ARCHIVED – for my most common stock request and also deletable. But not worth going to tape for a commonly requested asset…
Obviously everything is backed up to LTO-6 Tape ASAP in the initial phase (so it’s actually ALL archived – but this naming convention has worked for me to know where to put things in relative levels of priority.)
Critical in progress files are on DropBox
Trimmed R3Ds and Proxies SELECTS are shipped toNimiaa for stock sales and backed up there too. (And backed up to tape here too eventually.)
And ALL project files are on DropBox – I currently have 22TB on the cloud w their business plan and am super happy to have access to them on any computer or iOS device instantly from anywhere (easily downloadable or shareable.).DaVinci ResolveeFinal Cut Pro XAdobe Photoshop Lightroom Adobe Premiere Proo
My DropBox copies files to the cloud, a computer w Studio XL (64TB) in LA and a third copy in NYC on another Studio XL (64TB)
I already have 100+ LTO drives and am starting my 2018 set this week – my version of “spring cleaning.” Used to have a server w 14-tape LTO drive back in the day but now things have gotten so much simpler and more compact (and affordable!)
This is the least fun part of the gig but one of the most critical. And it feels good when it’s done right – one should NEVER delete a file … Just in case ONE request comes in for a sale it usually pays for the drive …
Wonder if anyone knows of a service that will economically make dupes of the LTO tapes …
What’s your workflow? We don’t all have Full Time DITs …
What LTO software are you using? Been a big issue for us.
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Vincent Reply:
March 10th, 2018 at 5:31 pm
@Michael Yaremchuk, I’m formatting them as LTFS. Used BRU Server for quite awhile but ultimately don’t like a proprietary format.
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Not related to backup, but how do you organise your video files? Do you organize them same way as photos with keywords or just store them in projects? I got plenty of clips and struggle to find right ones.
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I offload with ShotPutPro and bring it into CatDV where I have setup watch folders which brings in metadata and proxies. And through CatDV I also archive to DLT tape. Then I bring material into fcpx where the clips are copied into the fcpx projects. Master files a sent to watch folders so they also a brought into the CatDV – and when the project a finished the project file itself is also archived to DLT tape.
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Great post! Thanks!
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Do you trim the .r3d files in RCX upon ingest, getting rid of shaky footage and/or bad exposure and focus footage, then into an NLE? Or do you only trim the .r3ds after you’ve done the initial import into an NLE, then choose the clips and trim from your timeline?
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Wow, as a wedding photographer I’m always on the hunt for better ways to backup my photos and video, and now shooting more films, it seems like I’m always having to find more space. That said, reading this article really puts it into perspective!
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