Before we begin...
Hard drive recommendations
Before you get started, you'll need a hard drive. Think of this purchase as an investment in your electronic portfolio that you will use for years to come for academic and professional projects.
There are three critical considerations when comparing hard drives: capacity, drive speed, and throughput.
• Capacity: Video generates large amounts of data. I have recommended 500GB drives below in the interest of affordability, and that should be plenty of space for your AM&I projects this semester, but if your budget allows for a larger capacity drive, then I'd recommend going as big as you can, up to 4TB.
• Drive speed: this number measures how fast the spinning discs spin and access your data. The higher the RPMs, the faster the drive. Common speeds are 5400 and 7200. You need 7200 for video. Do not settle for a 5400RPM drive. It will be cheaper but will not be an effective drive for video editing
• Throughput: this measures how fast data can travel back and forth from the drive to the CPU and is largely determined by the connectivity interface. Firewire 800, USB 3.0, and Apple's Thunderbolt if you have money to burn, are all competent interfaces for HD video editing. Avoid outdated interfaces like USB 2.0 and Firewire 400.
There are three critical considerations when comparing hard drives: capacity, drive speed, and throughput.
• Capacity: Video generates large amounts of data. I have recommended 500GB drives below in the interest of affordability, and that should be plenty of space for your AM&I projects this semester, but if your budget allows for a larger capacity drive, then I'd recommend going as big as you can, up to 4TB.
• Drive speed: this number measures how fast the spinning discs spin and access your data. The higher the RPMs, the faster the drive. Common speeds are 5400 and 7200. You need 7200 for video. Do not settle for a 5400RPM drive. It will be cheaper but will not be an effective drive for video editing
• Throughput: this measures how fast data can travel back and forth from the drive to the CPU and is largely determined by the connectivity interface. Firewire 800, USB 3.0, and Apple's Thunderbolt if you have money to burn, are all competent interfaces for HD video editing. Avoid outdated interfaces like USB 2.0 and Firewire 400.
LaCie 500GB Rugged Triple Interface USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive
7200rpm disk speed / 500GB capacity / USB 3.0 + FireWire 800 Ports / Backward compatibility with FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE mini Portable Drive
7200rpm disk speed / 1TB capacity / USB 3.0 Port / Backward compatibility with USB 2.0
7200rpm disk speed / 500GB capacity / USB 3.0 + FireWire 800 Ports / Backward compatibility with FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE mini Portable Drive
7200rpm disk speed / 1TB capacity / USB 3.0 Port / Backward compatibility with USB 2.0
Now that you have a drive, where is your backup?
Now that you are all set with your external video editing hard drive, you need to plan for a catastrophic drive failure. It happens. I lost a 2TB external just last week.
You have a few options for backup: your computer's internal hard drive, the cloud, another external hard drive.
• Internal hard drive: Does your internal hard drive have a ton of free space? It's easy to backup your video work from your external drive to your internal drive. Try Intego Backup for Mac, or Genie Backup Manager Pro for PC from LaCie. Potential downsides to backing up to your internal drive? You will eventually fill up your computer's internal drive and their capacity isn't as easy to upgrade as an external drive. Also, you'll probably carry your laptop and your external together, so if you lose them, your work is gone.
• Cloud: Duke’s Box is a cloud-based storage and collaboration service for all Duke University and Duke Medicine faculty, staff and students. Best of all: you get 50GB of cloud storage for free. 50GB won't last long. I'd recommend Dropbox Pro, they will give you 1TB (or 1,000GB) for $9.99/month or $99/year. Potential downsides to backing up to the cloud? You'll need a fast internet connection and potentially a third party piece of software to make the backup an easy process.
• Another external drive: This is the easiest, most trouble-free backup solution. It's easy to backup your video work from one external drive to another. Try Intego Backup for Mac, or Genie Backup Manager Pro for PC from LaCie. Potential downsides to backing up to a second external drive? None. Store your backup external in a safe place, away from your computer so in the event of fire, theft or loss you will still have your data.
You have a few options for backup: your computer's internal hard drive, the cloud, another external hard drive.
• Internal hard drive: Does your internal hard drive have a ton of free space? It's easy to backup your video work from your external drive to your internal drive. Try Intego Backup for Mac, or Genie Backup Manager Pro for PC from LaCie. Potential downsides to backing up to your internal drive? You will eventually fill up your computer's internal drive and their capacity isn't as easy to upgrade as an external drive. Also, you'll probably carry your laptop and your external together, so if you lose them, your work is gone.
• Cloud: Duke’s Box is a cloud-based storage and collaboration service for all Duke University and Duke Medicine faculty, staff and students. Best of all: you get 50GB of cloud storage for free. 50GB won't last long. I'd recommend Dropbox Pro, they will give you 1TB (or 1,000GB) for $9.99/month or $99/year. Potential downsides to backing up to the cloud? You'll need a fast internet connection and potentially a third party piece of software to make the backup an easy process.
• Another external drive: This is the easiest, most trouble-free backup solution. It's easy to backup your video work from one external drive to another. Try Intego Backup for Mac, or Genie Backup Manager Pro for PC from LaCie. Potential downsides to backing up to a second external drive? None. Store your backup external in a safe place, away from your computer so in the event of fire, theft or loss you will still have your data.
