Years ago I had a 12TB array hooked to my ethernet. For 5 years it required software updates and disk drive replacements until one day it errored out and I wasn't able to recover the contents. Fortunately, I had backed everything up to Amazon so all was not lost.

After that, I kept my stuff on various drives and backed it up to both Google and Amazon. A few of the drives have failed and sadly, so did my Google Drive account. Amazon to the rescue again.

Now I can't get good internet anymore and with 4K video and huge megapixel counts, I have enough trouble backing up to Amazon, much less Google too. So. Back to buying a big array for my home? Synology? I have 25TB of stuff and now I'm doing YouTubes for ADVrider and my own channel, so looks like I should get maybe 45TB?

Anyone know what they're doing with this stuff?

Dunno. ADV I understand, but are you being a bit OCD with video? I was.

I've changed my mindset of late. Now, once a video job is done I just let it go.

I stick the finished product on You Tube or wherever, keep the master edit, dump the source files and move to the next job.

Unless the client is willing to pay for storage - which is rare.

I don't have anything that big to save but was curious enough and if I'd needed a "never lose" option would be combination of off line local hard disks (not fancy - rather a one time simple copy) and an online service of choice.. deciding on strategy should be about how often you back up and how fast you need it retrieved. 25 TB can be backed up once, then you only need incremental backups.

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Of course it's only going to get worse storage-wise too. I'm my own worst enemy sometimes.

I'm in the process of changing over to recording in Pro Res 422 from the 10 Bit HDMI output on the Z6 for client videos.

As noted a while ago I have installed an Atomos Ninja V monitor/recorder into the workflow for use with N-log output. I've got a 1TB SSD on the recorder and a dock on the iMac. Transfer of big files is easy, but the workflow is more complicated because it requires the LUT to be applied in FCP or Premiere or it all looks washed out.

The Dock:

www.davidcohen.co

It will all work with Pro Res RAW too, but the file sizes are just too hideous for stuff that will ultimately end up on Facebook or You Tube.

It's been a learning curve of LUTs and codecs - but the results are encouraging.

Here's the rig now:

www.davidcohen.co

As we're getting over the worst of lock down here now, the Grand-kids came over for Sunday lunch for the first time in months and I shot some test footage on two of the four.

25 seconds recorded and rendered in Pro Res 422 yields a 2.3gb .mov file.

But anyway - my point was where to draw the line and the cost of 'keepage'.

Your proposed Canon big gun will record RAW video in body (Did you get it yet BTW?) As opposed to the Z6 that will only output RAW via HDMI.

If we do go to ProRes RAW in the future - HQ (2,388mb/s) = 17.91GB file per 60 seconds.

ProRes 4:4:4:4 (2656mb/s) = 19.9GB file per 60 seconds.

Ei ei ei!

I've heard too many synology horror stories from the local pro photo group to go with them. My backup solution is pretty simple, multiple on site, one off site just in case for everything and a spreadsheet to keep track of what's been updated. Then a cloud backup for the finished worked.

The price of storage is getting so low with a 12TB drive being about 200 bucks it wouldn't be hard. The big question is how often do you think that you'll need access to older footage?

Mr Potato Jet always is good fun.

As you can probably tell, now you've got me thinking about how much storage I really do need going forward.

I was going to upload 10 seconds of Pro Res 422 - but it was 692mb - for 10 seconds!

So I crunched it with H.264 and it's still a 70mb .mov

So I put it through Compressor and saved as mp4 and it's 35.6mb - naturally the quality suffers accordingly.

Thanks a lot Chris 🤑

Be very careful when choosing an online backup service. Some of the services delete files from the backup that have been deleted from your computer.

When I was choosing a backup I looked at BackBlaze but I found this:

Deleted Files
Backblaze will keep versions of a file that changes for up to 30 days. However, Backblaze is not designed as an additional storage system when you run out of space. Backblaze mirrors your drive. If you delete your data, it will be deleted from Backblaze after 30 days.

In the end I chose CrashPlan for my external backup; it doesn't delete deleted files from the backup.

Dunno. ADV I understand, but are you being a bit OCD with video? I was.

Yeah, I’ve wondered a lot about this. Most of my 25TB is family — kids growing up — and I do legit go back to it for retrospective hilarity. But maybe with the YouTube raw footage for motorcycle reviews and stuff I should just dump the clips when I’m done.

One thing I do like about Synology is the face detection software they have. Very handy for finding family clips and I haven’t even been able to get that with Google drive.

My weekly live stream with ADV this week was with Itchy Boots, who has become a huge YouTube star for her adventures riding around the world. She pays for her trip by posting every-other-day 15-minute episodes as she travels. Somehow during quarantine she made a blooper reel and a highlight reel, so I asked her about it. She has never lost footage and it took her a week of poring through old footage for each reel. 😱 I don’t think I’d ever do that for bike review footage.

Yep, and when you decide to do a compilation and have to find all your footage again ... sigh.

Do you have all your data up there? I remember Crashplan used to slow to a crawl after a TB and I'm just wondering if it's still an issue.

Most of my 25TB is family — kids growing up — and I do legit go back to it for retrospective hilarity.

That's quite interesting, a lot of my family video collection is mostly on mini DV Sony tapes! So that now has me shopping for something to convert it into an easier, Sumgmugable format.

images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com

This also brings me back to the old idea, of using tapes for data backup as they're one of the longest media in use for such purpose with great cost effectiveness as long as access isn't required often or fast. And look what is available today, to hold 185 TB data on a single cartridge! I haven't checked the price for media and drive unit yet...

Sony's 185TB data tape puts your hard drive to shame | EngadgetIt's hard for magnetic data tapes to stand out from the crowd in an era when it's easy to load up on legions of hard drives. However, Sony might have managed that rare feat with nano-sized tape tech that stores much more than off-the-shelf hardware.www.engadget.com

..and then this

Sony, IBM develop a 330 TB magnetic tape storageThe 50s called and they want their tapes back. Forget crystals, holograms, or even DNA. The storage solution of the future might come from the pass. And that's not an exaggeration either. Sony and ...www.slashgear.com

I do. I remember when it did that, doesn't seem to be a problem now.

But when they switched from having both personal and business accounts to having only business accounts I needed to say I was a business to continue using the service.

George Lucas shot the Episode II on CineAlta in HD. I am definitely not as talented as him, neither I shoot Planet Earth-style videos, so I sold my 4K camera that I bought five or so years ago, and use two HD cameras shooting at measly 17 Mbps. I have no need for 200 or 400 Mbps at 14 bits, therefore I still back up to 1TB external drives and have plenty of space. I tell myself I need to have a second copy on Blu-ray and keep it outside of home, but I am too lazy to do it.

I shot only a couple of videos for someone else. After I delivered them I did not care for the original files. But my home videos, this is the stuff that I should take more care to preserve. Some of the people are not with me anymore... but they are on the videos.

You only need a FireWire port to convert tapes into files. At 25 Mbps I would not bother converting them into another format, but if you do you can at least deinterlace them into progressive.

I did not expect from Engadget to post such an idiotic picture for a 185 TB tape streamer. Anyway, I would not use tape for backup. Yes, tape is known for longevity, but you need a tape drive to read that tape, and this may be a problem. IMHO, files are much safer in this regard: you switch media, but older files are usually readable by newer software.

Yeah. Tape. :-)

need a FireWire port to convert tapes into files

Problem is, I no longer own any DV camera. Maybe I should get one, if they cost cheaper than a player. I haven't really put efort into this research but this conversation spurred the idea.

As far as big tapes, I agree, they're not for home use, but in reading the second article it seems most cloud providers use them, simply because once past the initial hardware investment they're the most cost effective storage media for the enormous amounts of data that needs archival and infrequent access.

remember the good stuff?

I remember when porn took ... never mind.

Mao or Lenin, suits?

Have you considered something like B2 from Backblaze?

The first link describes the service, the second link provides a calculator.

Dormant storage is $5 per terrabyte, so if you plan on storing 25TB, your dormant cost before subsequent uploads is going to run about $125 per month.

Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageHigh performance cloud storage at a fraction of the price.www.backblaze.com

There's also a recovery cost of $.01/GB so on top of that 125/month would be a 250 dollar charge for 25TB. And then another $400-500 in drives to recover the data to so you're at 650-750 dollars out of pocket if you need to use it on top of 1250/year just for them to store it on the cloud.

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html

I realize all that. This is a "cold storage" solution. If one wants constant access to their content, they would use a different service such as Backblaze. But most people who have several terrabytes of data are only accessing a small percentage of the data on a frequent basis.

If one downloads less than a Gig in a given day, there is no charge.

The recovery cost only occurs if necessary.

@Chris 25 Tb would all fit on maximum two tapes. (may fit on one)

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The drive would be a bit of an investment at first.. but over years compensate. Plus you are holding your own data, and can have as many copies off site as needed - cartridges are not expensive.