Keep All Raw Files or Give Up Hoarding Hard Drives?

[LoneWolfer]

Like many of you, I have been saving my footage for a long time and I am starting to wonder if it is worth having piles of external hard drives littering my desk, book shelf, window sill, etc? Also, the money part seems like a waste at this point.

Who here has decided to stop storing all of their footage? Are you only keeping the final output file of the rides you decide to post on social media? Do you even keep those after you have uploaded the vlogs? What are the pros and cons of not hoarding old ride footage?

 

[Hippo-Drones]

I store my edited videos on YouTube, I do have a few folders on my PC HDD with old vids in, but I never watch them or use them, just not got round to binning them yet. I don't keep any raw footage after making the video from it.

 

[CalmBiker]

I used to keep them. At the start on DVD and then later on my NAS and external drives. Then one day I thought I'm wasting my time. I'll never upload them all again and they're too big. A rendered video for me nowadays is 4K 60FPS and gigabytes in size and too expensive to keep with no particular future purpose. I cleaned up the NAS and binned the DVDs.

 

[L. Bilious]

This is something I'm thinking about. I've kept all raw files just in case I may want to do something else with them, but I haven't done so far. If I'm honest with myself, I never will do anything with them.

I think from now on I'm keeping raw footage for one year then deleting it.
The exception to that rule will be footage from long bike tours, as there is so much not used, great footage, that had to be cut for sensible youtube vlog lengths. (Boring motorway bits will be deleted)

 

[throttleup]

I, for one, have not edited enough footage for this to yet be a problem.

However, I'm thinking that the threshold at which one re-uses hard disks is decided on a personal basis.

When I can no longer shut the front door of my house, maybe I'll consider it.

The cons of keeping the archives include the aging of the technology. For instance, who here uses ATA disks? 3.5" floppies? Maybe SATA/USB will go the same way one day. At that point you'll need to keep a PC around that can read them and interface with whatever replaces it.

 

[R-Rated]

I keep nearly everything I record. Why?

Well one day I may not be able to ride so there is tons of B roll to go back through and create from.

Since doing this motovlog thing I have 10 portable hard drives full of raw and edited work that range in size from 2 to 5 TB. They take up 1/3 of my underwear and sock drawer.

So some days I go commando.

 

[Slorida]

I keep very little, largely because I don't want HDDs littering the house, also because HDDs cost money.

I have kept most of the videos I have rendered in the last year or two, but even those I am considering if it is worth it.

Currently the only raw files I have are for current and future projects.

 

[Drakhen99]

I keep videos for 6 months or so, and then start culling them. If it's a commuting ride, or somewhere I go regularly, bye bye footage. If it's a destination ride, I'll keep it. I keep all my rendered videos on a separate drive, since YT crushes them with its compression. I often use clips from finished videos as B Roll in other videos, so that comes in handy.

All that said, I have 29 TB of storage connected to my laptop... and I am thinking about getting another 14TB drive to store footage on. I generally have to delete older footage once a quarter to make room.

-John

 

[scooterwuf]

I keep all of my footage, which means I have a lot of externals in my studio. I do it because I’m a filmmaker and teacher, so the hard drives have my personal work, teaching materials, content for a public Access TV show I produce, and more. I may one day use the footage to make an ebook or a few documentary films.

- Wolf

 

[R-Rated]

I may one day use the footage to make an ebook or a few documentary films.

- Wolf

I am hoping to see the movie - Bear Mountain, Epic saga of two bikers making the harrowing journey from NYC to CT via Albany.

 

[CalmBiker]

I've been in IT too long to rely on HDDs. The pain when an 8TB drive fails has happened to me at least half a dozen times.

 

[Drakhen99]

I've been in IT too long to rely on HDDs. The pain when an 8TB drive fails has happened to me at least half a dozen times.

So what do you store your footage on?

-John

 

[scooterwuf]

I am hoping to see the movie - Bear Mountain, Epic saga of two bikers making the harrowing journey from NYC to CT via Albany.

We might have to go back to get more footage.

 

[Hippo-Drones]

So what do you store your footage on?

-John

I think he said earlier he doesn't save anything anymore after it has been posted on YT

 

[Drakhen99]

I think he said earlier he doesn't save anything anymore after it has been posted on YT

Well... had I been slightly more observant, I would've seen that. Thanks

-John

 

[throttleup]

I've been in IT too long to rely on HDDs. The pain when an 8TB drive fails has happened to me at least half a dozen times.

I've got to ask whether these were all plugged-in-and-spinning drives, or drives that spent a long time on the shelf?

My impression is that hard drives fail after long usage, so the chances of failure reduce dramatically if they're not spinning.

So I need to know if I'm wrong.

 

[L. Bilious]

I've got to ask whether these were all plugged-in-and-spinning drives, or drives that spent a long time on the shelf?

My impression is that hard drives fail after long usage, so the chances of failure reduce dramatically if they're not spinning.

So I need to know if I'm wrong.

I think the newer portable storage are SSD not HDD, so no moving parts. And supposed to be faster because of it.
Still relatively expensive, so I haven't got one yet.

 

[Drakhen99]

I think the newer portable storage are SSD not HDD, so no moving parts. And supposed to be faster because of it.
Still relatively expensive, so I haven't got one yet.

Yes, SSDs are solid-state [the SS in SSD], so no moving parts, and VERY fast compared to spinning platter drives [HDDs]. They're expensive, but oh so worth it for actively editing footage. Less so for long-term storage, from what I've read.

I have 2 SSDs, each 1TB, for actively editing footage. Nothing like having 5 video streams from 2.7-4k each on-screen at once

-John

 

[L. Bilious]

Yes, SSDs are solid-state [the SS in SSD], so no moving parts, and VERY fast compared to spinning platter drives [HDDs]. They're expensive, but oh so worth it for actively editing footage. Less so for long-term storage, from what I've read.

I have 2 SSDs, each 1TB, for actively editing footage. Nothing like having 5 video streams from 2.7-4k each on-screen at once

-John

What are the issues with using SSD as long term storage?

 

[Drakhen99]

It's the difference between electronic vs magnetic storage. SSDs hold a charge, and it's usually only guaranteed for a year. HDDs store data magnetically, which, while susceptible to magnets being placed too close, holds its data longer. The SSD's charge can weaken over time, losing data. That's cold storage, for when the disk [either type] is powered off and disconnected from a computer. If the disks are always powered on and connected to a computer, you run into mechanical failure on a HDD perhaps, or too many read/write cycles on a SSD [but this should be a relative non-issue at this point, with current SSD technology].

There's some apprehension by the IT folks I know that we don't have the empirical data surrounding SSDs like we do HDDs, since they haven't been around nearly as long.

Last year, I found a HDD circa 2007... plugged it in and it worked flawlessly. USB sticks were in their infancy at that point.

-John