MOTUnation.com

This hasn't been a real problem for me so much to this point, but now that I find myself recording HD video with my Canon DSLR and dabbling in Final Cut Pro, suddenly the issue of a relatively inexpensive archival medium for squirreling away video footage that "might" be useful someday is presenting itself.

I haven't given it much thought at this point but two potential options come to mind:

1) One of those bare drive docks connected to my Mac connected to either existing FW800 port or perhaps a USB3 card I could install in my computer. I'd archive stuff on actual spinner drives.

2) BluRay? Could I maybe install a BluRay drive and use it primarily for backing up data? The capacity must be a great deal more than DVD-R and would the cost per MB for archiving be less than physical drives? Are there drives that are totally multipurpose that can handle CD, DVD and BluRay so I wouldn't have to relocate my SSD that is currently resting on top of my DVD drive which I moved to the lower bay?

Or...

3) I could get an expansion chassis that is PCI... get an old Audiomedia II card and use DATa to backup to DAT tapes with my old SV3700 that's in my closet?

Okay... the last option is a joke. But just throwing it out there to the brain trust... Mike H?

With 3T hard drives available for $117, that's the way many will go.

You can get an eSATA extender for $12.50
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MPQXES2/

eSATA docks with a cable can be had under $20 if you shop around. Even the cheap ones work well. I've been using them for nearly 5 years without a problem.

I like eSATA over usb 3 because you can run diagnostics on the drive with TechTool Pro. Especially with inexpensive drives, you need to know their health in case you get a bad one. Disk Utility's pass/fail for SMART status isn't good enough -- it can make bad drives look good. None of this is possible over usb 3 or even Thunderbolt.

Here's a dock with cable under $20. No reason this won't work as well as any other.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... lsrc=aw.ds

The usb 2/usb 3/eSATA docks are no faster with a spinner but they will work with a nMP if you ever go there. Many available in the $50-$90 range.

Here's an example of a drive with major problems that Disk Utility says is ok. SMART testing only works through SATA/eSATA or PCI/PCIe.

mikehalloran wrote:With 3T hard drives available for $117, that's the way many will go.

You can get an eSATA extender for $12.50
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MPQXES2/

eSATA docks with a cable can be had under $20 if you shop around. Even the cheap ones work well. I've been using them for nearly 5 years without a problem.

I like eSATA over usb 3 because you can run diagnostics on the drive with TechTool Pro. Especially with inexpensive drives, you need to know their health in case you get a bad one. Disk Utility's pass/fail for SMART status isn't good enough -- it can make bad drives look good. None of this is possible over usb 3 or even Thunderbolt.

Thanks Mike. I have a MacPro4,1 processor upgraded with a hexcore chip to a 5,1. It only has USB 2 connectivity I assume. I'd have to buy an eSATA card also I guess unless I could do FW800 which even though it's old, it would be faster than USB 2, yes?

That eSATA card extends the two extra ports on the motherboard of a MP which is why it's only $12.50. With a $20 dock, it's actually the least expensive solution. The cool thing about the dock is that the drive drops in and comes out in less than a second without tools-- the main reason I thought of it for archiving.

You also have the advantage that eSATA is 3.5x the speed of FW800 and you can check the health of the drive with a tool that does not work over usb or FW.

mikehalloran wrote:That eSATA card extends the two extra ports on the motherboard of a MP which is why it's only $12.50. With a $20 dock, it's actually the least expensive solution. The cool thing about the dock is that the drive drops in and comes out in less than a second without tools-- the main reason I thought of it for archiving.

You also have the advantage that eSATA is 3.5x the speed of FW800 and you can check the health of the drive with a tool that does not work over usb or FW.

Thanks... I did not know that! You see... that's why you're the guru!

James, with regard to the SATA extender from OWC, note this:

"The 2009 & 2010 Mac Pro comes stock with one available SATA port with the other used for the stock optical drive connection. This product can be used in lieu of a second optical drive."

The above is better for a 2008, which has two "secret", unused SATA ports. Probably better to get a PCIe card for your 2009, like this inexpensive one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-PCI-Expre ... 4d1d21b677

I have successfully been using a card like this for several years.

Or get a USB3 card and use cheap external drives for archiving. Or live with slow native USB2 and the cheap externals, but USB2 mIght be awfully slow for video archiving.

5TB (!) for $135:
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion ... +plus+2+tb

True. It works if you have an available SATA port–you just tape over the unavailable external port. If not, you need a PCIe - eSATA card and there are many out there.

Inexpensive drives have become more of a crap shoot than they were, say 8 years ago (probably better than 15 years but still...). For that reason, I still recommend eSATA over USB 3.

TechTool Pro is currently available for $25 f you have the right link from their recent sale. As of today, it's still good.
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?optio ... cle&id=438

Most of the tools in TTP have been useless for years. Like Onyx, they look interesting and generate reports but don't actually do anything except waste time. As Apple gets better, there's less use for many of these. Apple stopped using TechTool Deluxe in 2012. Still...

Checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of hard drives with a full graphic readout is the one of three very useful things TTP does. None of the free/shareware I have tried is nearly as good–or worse, gives you a false sense of security like Disk Utility's Pass/Fail Status. Drives can have major problems that affect performance and pass DU.

Don't get me wrong on Disk Utility. It's the only tool that actually works to restore a problem drive so that you can get the data off – but then it will tell often tell you the drive is OK when TTP tells you the truth. The truth gets you replacement drives so that you don't risk your data (often under warranty).

Another useful TTP function is its ability to torture RAM and VRAM while testing. It finds bad sticks that other tests pass as good. I found some bad RAM over Christmas on a client's system–it happens.

The third thing I use it for it to diagnose crashed FW, USB and Ethernet ports if a peripheral stops functioning. This ends the guesswork or allows you to have a clear idea where to proceed from there. Resetting the NV RAM/PRAM will restore crashed ports unless your motherboard has a problem. Often the keep alive battery is the culprit.

mikehalloran wrote:Don't get me wrong on Disk Utility. It's the only tool that actually works to restore a problem drive so that you can get the data off – but then it will tell often tell you the drive is OK when TTP tells you the truth.

I've been able to get files off a disk that Disk Utility was unable to repair after many attempts, using Disk Drill.

About 4 months ago, a friend suggested I buy a used drobo enclosure off of eBay. (http://www.drobo.com) I bought a five drive enclosure for under $200 with esata, usb2, and fw800 ports. I downloaded the latest raid-like software from the drobo site and installed it. The software will create a single massive drive from multiple non matched HDs with redundancy of different levels if so desired. The software also lets you drop in larger drives as drives become full. (Check out the videos on their site.) You also don't need to fill all five bays; you can start with 2 drives and just add more when you have them. The software will expand the virtual drive dynamically.

I had a couple of older 2Tb drives around and splurged on three 5400 RPM 4Tb drives (amazingly cheap from microcenter) and installed them. These 5 drives provided 10 Tb of usable backup space. (The other 6TB is used by the software for data protection of some sort.)

I then set up a backup routine with carboncopycloner to back up all drives (samples, projects, and main HD). It took the better part of several days to create the clones on the drobo, but it has been "set it and forget it" since. The drobo software is intelligent and manages the disk space on the unit flawlessly. There are lights and indicators on the physical unit to indicate remaining drive capacity and drive health and the software allows you to go Into more detail about the drives and the unit.

The only issue I had was that I couldn't get the FW800 connection to work reliably and had to use the USB port. Other tha that, it has been a fantastic experience with this purchase. If you have older drives around, the total investment would be under $200.

Incidentally, before this I too used an external enclosure with 4 drives and carboncopycloner. I would run into trouble with drives filling up over time or other drive management issues. They could be addressed, but it created vulnerabilities for me.