On Set HD Backup Recommendations

[Sam Roberts]

Now that I'm on the list it's time to start thinking about what I will need for on set backup. Most of the time I'll use the cards but for formal sit down interviews it will have to be the Drive. Either way I'll be swapping cards in and out and also reusing the drive after it's been copied. I can easily shoot 4 to 6 hours of stuff in a day.

I have a Mac Book Pro so I'd appreciate some recommendations on back up hard drives. It has to be small and light..no big arrays as we need to travel light. Around 300GB and as rugged as possible. Firewire 800 rather than USB. Are the LaCie's any good?

http://www.lacie.com/ca/products/product.htm?pid=10821

[Oskari Sipola]

We use the LaCie Rugged 320GB "All Terrain hard drive" on set and no problems so far. LaCies have a bad rep but I have a 250GB drive on my desk that's three and a half years old, have been lugged all around Finland in not-always-so-safe bags, and it's still working like it's brand new. I also have two 500GB drives and no failures and no problems.

[Paul Hazlett]

We have 5 lacie drives and 2 of them crapped out. not a good track record
for us. I opened one and found maxtor drives, like with any HD, you takes your chances.

take a look at this. http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fusionf2.html

have not used it but is getting good reviews.

[George A.]

LaCie has a bad rep for their Desktop drives (d2 etc). I had a few and had problems - especially with burned interfaces, not with the drives themselves (the data was not affected).

I believe the rugged LaCie drive is ok and sturdy. Phaz, did you have problems with desktop lacies or with the rugged version?

[George A.]

As for workflow, here's what I'm thinking:

- buy one Nexto device - but I don't know if I should buy the Nexto 2523 (http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/Pro...180-1179840782) which has Firewire connectivity or the newer Nexto 2700 (http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/Pro...70B-1208441113) which has an eSATA interface.

So, once a card is full, I will download it to the Nexto device first. I will also make a second back-up, through a different method. Either download the card through the Lexar FW800 CF reader (http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/Pro...267-1186149598) to an eSATA mobile external drive, or through the Delkin adapter (http://www.delkin.com/products/adapters/expresscard34/) to an external firewire drive like the LaCie rugged unit. Again, I'm not sure which is better in terms of speed/reliability. Will do tests when I get my RED, but if someone else already did that, they are most welcomed to shed some light.

Back from the field, you download the two back-ups to two different desktop drives.

It's time consuming to do two back-ups through two different methods but you decrease the odds of losing data. It's worth the trouble.

[dewaldaukema]

Go for Sonnet Fusion F2. 640GB

[Paul Hazlett]

LaCie has a bad rep for their Desktop drives (d2 etc). I had a few and had problems - especially with burned interfaces, not with the drives themselves (the data was not affected).

I believe the rugged LaCie drive is ok and sturdy. Phaz, did you have problems with desktop lacies or with the rugged version?

it was the desktop D2's that bit us.

[Filipo]

I recommend to buy LaCie Rugged Hard Disk 200GB 7200 rpm with firewire 400/800.

If you have laptop with firewire 800 that would be the fastest way to backup !


Also it is scratch-protected aluminum shell & shock-resistant rubber bumper.

[Mark L. Pederson]

Go for Sonnet Fusion F2. 640GB

Yes. The F2 rocks hard. sexy - bus powered - eSata, etc.

HIGHLY recommend.

[George A.]

Mark,

I was leaning towards the F2 as well. However I'm still thinking about it.

Like I said, one back-up would be to a Nexto. The second back-up on set should go to a drive, through the laptop. Now, to offload the cards through the laptop to a hard-drive, that means you have to occupy 2 of your outputs on it. That means the speed of the data transfer will be bottlenecked by the slowest interface. Either you offload the cards through the eSATA port (through the Delkin adapter) and then to a Firewire 800 mobile drive, or offload the cards through the Lexar Firewire 800 reader to a eSATA drive like the F2. In BOTH cases the speed will be limited by the FW800 port.

In that case, why use the F2 on the set? (the overall speed of download won't be higher, so the eSATA connectivity is not such a major advantage anymore). It makes more sense to use a LaCie Rugged Hard Disk 200GB 7200 when doing back-ups - it seems more rugged, smaller, and much cheaper.

Again, this is only for on-set back-ups. One can use the F2 in a controlled situation, but the capacity is not that great - although RAID is great and the unit seems amazing.

PS By the way, how about the two simulatenous LCDs idea? Any progress?