Here is a test: Storage of a S**t load of HD video files

[Lesley NZ]

:?: Hello,
I am in my finial year of PhD: Marine Science and have got alot of HD video files I need to store (in case there is a question about my results etc)...

Brought 3 x JVC Everio GZ-HD7, when they first came out...
Have to Export them in Quicktime to AVI (which means I lose most of the HD) to allow me to track the animals on PC software..

I need to store the .TOD files and the .AVI files works out to about 6TB.
Getting 6 x 1TB external Hard Drives seems mad and I'm sure there is another way.. But I'm a biologist and computers files are just taking up to much of my memory, time and money.. :shock:

If anybody as any suggestions that would be great..

Thanks :)
L

[zoobie]

how about four 1.5tb drives?

[edDV]

Hard disk is the cheapest way currently. I recently plugged another 1.5TB drive ($117 at Fry's) into my media server for a total >5TB.

So in your case, you would need four 1.5TB drives.
You should also save a backup set (four more drives).

How is the video saved now?

[Lesley NZ]

All my video footage is on Hard drives now..

But the problem is that I'm still collecting video and need the that space to do editing etc...

I was wondering if there is a safer way to save data, I've been told that External Hard Drives aren't the best option for long term storage..

I'm in NZ and the cheapest 1TB is $189, 1.5TB are way more expensive.

But if that's what I need then, that's what I'll do..

Thanks

[Lesley NZ]

Thanks zoobie..

Also, looked at 2TB HD.
:lol:

[zoobie]

Western Digital plans on releasing a 3TB hard drive next year...heh heh

[JohnnyMalaria]

Per the others, you should just dump everything as-is to external hard drives. Your videos are your raw scientific data and should keep them in their original state at least until your (hopefully!) successful defence. But I could barely afford a box of floppy discs so I know that the cost of multiple external drives may be hard to justify/achieve.

[SingSing]

Why not a Blue Ray dual layer burner and a fistful of disc ( 50GB per disc ) ?

[jman98]

I was wondering if there is a safer way to save data, I've been told that External Hard Drives aren't the best option for long term storage..

Don't believe everything you hear. What on earth do you think is better than hard drives? Hundreds of BluRay discs? Note that burnable disc failures are significantly higher in the short term than disk drive failures. If you simply dump stuff to a hard disk and unplug the disk and store it somewhere where it's not exposed to temperature and humidity variations, it should last for years. How long do you really think you'll need this stuff anyway? A year or two? Hard disks will be fine. And we currently have no idea what the long term storage ramifications are of today's BluRay discs. Given how DVDs turned out, it's hard for me to just assume that everybody who makes BluRay burnable discs is making high quality discs and like many people have found out with low quality DVD discs, you might easily find in a year or two that your BluRay burns have serious problems because the quality just isn't there. I've got hard drives form years ago that I can still read from.

Because hard disks change technology all the time, there's some thinking that down the road it may be difficult in say, 10 years, to read a hard disk using today's technology, but that doesn't mean it will be impossible. You can always copy the material to whatever is the latest and greatest type of drive from your older drives. You can also do things like make 2 copies of everything, store them in different locations, make PAR recovery files of your data and so forth to increase the chances of data survival.

[yoda313]

Because hard disks change technology all the time, there's some thinking that down the road it may be difficult in say, 10 years, to read a hard disk using today's technology, but that doesn't mean it will be impossible

Don't forget the power of USB! You can still use floppy drives thanks to USB.

You can also use any number of older technology thanks to usb adapters. And with something as common as pata or sata harddrives are today you can sure bet that there will be a usb option that is still viable in the future.

THat is one good thing about sticking to a more common format like a regular harddrive. Future retrieval should not be a problem regardless of whatever new standard comes around.

[Seeker47]

I haven't looked into this myself, but in another thread (unrelated, other than that it dealt with storing video) someone said that there were Western Digital external drives that included the SMART integrity checking, and software for accessing this. If he was right, and I'm remembering this right, it might be worth investigating.