Raid Assistance

[straightryder]

Hi, I was wondering if someone could guide me in the right direction with a question i have.

I do a lot of video editing, visual effects and photos using dslr. PS, Premiere Pro, AE, LR. This is my first time building a raid drive with a MacPro...

Currently, I have everything on my 1TB and just purchased 2, 3 TB Seagate Baracuda drives and was wondering what are the best options and ways to go about setting up the Raid.

3 of the 4 slots are full at the moment... I will eventually get a forth. Now If looked into online tutorials regarding to set it up... but so many mixed views on it.

Are there any editors/ graphic artists that would be able to tell me what the best route is?

Thank you.

 

[nanofrog]

I do a lot of video editing, visual effects and photos using dslr. PS, Premiere Pro, AE, LR. This is my first time building a raid drive with a MacPro...

• Is this a hobby or a profession (i.e. you're earning a living with the content you're creating)?

I ask, as RAID is quite complicated (the details not only matter, they're absolutely critical).

Fundamentally, it comes in two flavors; software and hardware based implementations. Software of course is cheaper, but it's riddled with compromises that will burn you at some point (matter of when, not if).

Hardware OTOH, is far more robust than software implementations (faster too, especially when you exceed the drive count than is possible off of the main board's drive connectors), but you pay for it. Now if you're earning a living with this system, this almost certainly is the right way to go.

Now what you seem to be interested in, is software RAID, but I highly recommend you spend time researching this (start with Wiki's RAID pages, including reading up on the levels - click the links). Then come back here in MR and search for RAID threads.

This will take a fair bit of time, but you'll pick up a massive amount of useful information that should help you avoid mistakes (I've typed volumes on all of this already, so I'm not going to redo all of it here).

BTW, RAID is not a replacement for a proper backup system, no matter the implementation. Things can still go wrong, and user error easily creates total disasters (complete data loss). So you still need backup of some kind that's suitable to your specific circumstances.

 

[joaoferro37]

Few questions here:
1. How do you transfer from your memory card to storage? On site or back to studio.
2. What is your final product and how do you deliver it?
3. Do you have clients came back to you 6 months or sometime and ask you to edit it again?
4. How long do you what to archive your projects?
Most of our clients use a two bay portable RAID 1 FireWire bus powered to off load media to the RAID on site and reuse memory cards.
They use high speed RAID 6 as the scratch drive in post.
They also use a RAID 1 or two single drive (with carbon clone copy) one drive goes to customer and one goes to locker.
Some use a RAID 5 or RAID 1 as offline backup.