Proper way to backup captured video ?

I have been capturing 60 min digital video tapes (random family events) via firewire to iHD so I can reuse the tapes. I typically wind up with a ~15 Gig sized project file. Without any editing, what is the best way to backup these unedited clips so I can edit at a later date. I have a 320 Gb external hard drive that I would like to use in order to save space on my internal 80Gb drive. Using a Macbook by the way.

SaH67 said:

I have been capturing 60 min digital video tapes (random family events) via firewire to iHD so I can reuse the tapes. I typically wind up with a ~15 Gig sized project file. Without any editing, what is the best way to backup these unedited clips so I can edit at a later date. I have a 320 Gb external hard drive that I would like to use in order to save space on my internal 80Gb drive. Using a Macbook by the way.

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Just copy the files to your external drive. Then delete them from your Macbook.

Or are you looking for something a little more complex?

mrplow

mrplow said:

Just copy the files to your external drive. Then delete them from your Macbook.

Or are you looking for something a little more complex?

mrplow

Click to expand...

No, I just want to be sure that if I copy that project file over to my external drive that it will be compatable with future versions of iHD for editing. My worry is that a few years down the road my collection of clips will become unusable stored in these large single project files. Would there be a benifit to store them individually as .avi files ?

AVI is not more future proof than your import. Also you could loose some quality in any convertion. Why do that now if you don't have to. Worse case is that in the distant future you will have to do a conversion. That is the time to do it. Not now.

Also, you really should back up to a more permanent backup medium. Hard drives DO go bad. Your backup options are DVD, Blu-Ray, a second hard drive, or tape.

Lastly, most serious video people say you shouldn't reuse those tapes because those are your original source masters. They like to be able to go back to it. Second, when they have finished a project, they export to another tape for backup of the completed project.