For the video tapers out there:
I was wondering how you archive your raw video masters.
Recently I purchased lifetime pCloud storage (10 TB) but that's about 100 shows in 4k quality.
I already have 350 shows or so that need archiving.
Right now I save them on 2 different external hard drives and M discs.
Any ideas?
I bought a NAS (networked attached storage). It has four 16TB drives in it, and can store up to 42GB, even if one of the drives craps out. Currently, I've got 26.5GBs stored in the NAS; so it will probably start getting close to full in a few years. Maybe not. Just depends on how many shows I go to. But it doesn't really matter, because I can pull one of the four drives out and replace it with a (much?) larger drive anytime I want. So, increasing storage is a relatively easy process. And what happens if the NAS box itself craps out? Just buy another NAS box, swap the drives, and voila - you're up and running again. Another really nice thing is that I can transfer large files back and forth between my video editing work station computer (in my downstairs man cave) and the NAS (upstairs) at super fast speeds. It probably helps that they are both hardwired to the router. But I'm talking about transferring 80GBs of video in 15 minutes - going both ways. I hope to work out an arrangement with a good friend or two where we have our NASes backed up with with each of the other NASes in a group. As storage costs go down - that becomes more and more feasible.
Last thing on the NAS -- Thanks to my youngest son, I am pretty good at video editing and a few other things on the computer. But I am in my 60s and definitely NOT a computer geek; especially when it comes to hardware. So, I approached the whole NAS thing with a bit of trepidation. But setting it up was ridiculously easy. I literally just plugged the four drives into the drive bays in the NAS box, connected the power cord, connected the NAS to my internet router (with an RJ45 cable), and turned it on. I watched a 15 minute Youtube video on how to set it up, and since then (July 2022), it has run flawlessly in the background. FYI - the NAS box was $370 and the four drives were $820, for a total setup cost of $1,190.
I also back most of my collection to Backblaze. And I keep everything backed up on 4 or 5TB external drives.