Do you mean Raid 0 + 1?

Data loss on one results in data loss on both. In terms of any real world speed advantage the increase in data transfer rate will not be matched by the rest of the system or the software in most cases. There is also a greater risk of system crash and a shorter hard disk life span.

For Raid 1 only, why bother when most video is transferred from the computer to another medium for mastering anyway. If you need a backup of your file system and programs drive get two 40GB drives and just periodically back up from one to the other using Drive Copy or some other inexpensive software.

John

True... but that's why there's RAID 0 + 1.
Or, you could back up your files onto an external drive if you only have RAID 0. That's always struck me as the best solution...

David.

and RAID-10 for high performance and high reliability (minimum 4 drives and usually a dedicated hardware offload controller). This is the ideal choice if you want RAID-1 but don't want to miss out on higher performance. Also better than RAID1+0 if you want to be able to tolerate more than one concurrent failure.

Bewarned that many hardware implementations of RAID are using smoke and mirrors by saying that they are hardware solutions. Often the support is in the BIOS of your CPU+memory, not the IDE controller. To say it again, many use your main CPU, so you don't really get the extra throughput when you are already working a CPU hard. The digital graphics/video workstation is a lot different to the enterprise back office server. Check out 3ware/RAIDCore for pure IDE solutions and Medea RTR for hybrids. (hybrid being a SCSI interface but IDE drives - striped to meet the budget. (I'm not in sales BTW!))

> 1. Will it slow down access times?

I don't think so, so long as your 2nd drive is a matched set for your first. However, i'm not an expert on the RAID drivers; they might use some CPU or slow down your PCI bus. I use SATA RAID0, which takes about 10% CPU sometimes.

2. Will it increase render times (make them longer)?

Nope.

3. Will it require more processor power?

See answer to (1).

4. Will my 380Watt Antec True Power Supply be able to handle 4 hard drives, DVD burner, CD burner, Vantec Aeroflow heatsink fan, two 120mm fans, and a media card reader?

Sounds like little to no safety margin. You'll find out immediately, or over time with increased instability of your system.

5. How much of a problem is heat?

Significant, depending on where you place the extra HD. In my original case, I had both HDs right next to each other and without a direct fan. They always run identically so they share heat. When I was doing large file copies, they got HOT. I got another case which had a fan dedicated to the HDs, and have no problem now.

6. What are my options for piece of mind?

Let me get this straight: You have one single 160GB drive and that's it? That is not a great setup because the OS and apps will conflict with your video file access. But wait, you said you'll have 4 HDs, so this sounds wrong.

RAID1 is a bit overkill. For my money, I'd buy a backup HD and use backup software instead of a RAID1. One nice thing is you can turn the backup HD off to reduce noise and power usage (I use a firewire enclosure, which you could consider instead of a new power supply). Also, good backup software will compress all your non-video files, then only update the changed files. FWIW, I know of only two good backup software apps: Veritas and Retrospect. Veritas is pricey but the tool of choice for sysadmins in larger setups. Retrospect is also pricey (just over $100, I think) but I have used it since 1989. I've had all kinds of problems backing up to CDRW, but its flawless to a 2nd HD. At times I have been really pissed off with Retrospect and gone looking for other tools, but I've tried practically everything else available and they're all POS. *Good* backup tools are invaluable.

As an example, I currently have a 320GB RAID0 system, with video file usage ranging from 50GB to 200GB. I exclude my avi files from backup because I can recover them from tape. This lets me get away with a 40GB backup HD. Just barely, I admit: It would be better to have a larger backup HD, but 40GB is what I had lying around and it is sufficient...veg files aren't very large. OTOH, if you're a pro, with security, recovery speed and convenience as your top priority, you'd want to get much larger storage for backup. Note that you can just chain HDs to your backup system, so pick the best pricepoint rather than the largest drive.

DELETED

Try Prozac--great for your kind of anxiety!

I would go with a Raid 5, that way you can have lots of space, and a backup if anything were to go wrong. You'll need at least 3 drives for this setup though. It's basically the same as Raid-0, but it also includes a drive setup to store parity information so that if something were to happen to your drives with the data on them, the 3rd drive could re-build all the information that was lost.

DELETED

If you capture using Vegas Vidcap then you just save your capture project (.sfvidcap). You can then recapture (to the exact frame) anything from that capture session.

If you like to name your clips, then use Advanced Capture and set in/out points with custom names. Then batch capture all your clips. As long as you don't change the names after you capture, you will be able to recover everything off the tape exactly as it was by selecting the clips in the capture application (bottom window) and marking them for recapture - then running the batch. It will prompt you to insert the appropriate tape. (so make sure you name your tapes correctly whenever it prompts you during the capture process).

"If you capture using Vegas Vidcap then you just save your capture project (.sfvidcap). You can then recapture (to the exact frame) anything from that capture session."


Doesn't work so well with analog capture though which a lot of us are still stuck with. Unless Vegas 5 FINALLY allows the capture of timecode from a 9pin-serial from analog decks.

Just a week ago I had unrecoverable hard drive failure (Raid 0) and lost everything. (I'm never gonna let this happen to me again). Now I'm going with Raid 1 Mirroring on 200 gig drives. Since I just got it back from the shop so I have yet to re-install Vegas and fire it up. I'll keep you posted on performance.

"Doesn't work so well with analog capture though which a lot of us are still stuck with."

The vidcap application is pretty much independent from Vegas so maybe there is another capture application on the market that can handle analog capturing in the same way. Even if you use mirroring and backups, being able to recapture stuff with precision is a nice fallback to have.

Another nice thing is you can recover a project that you worked on years ago. You'd just need the VEG file and your batch capture file (both of which might fit on a floppy diskette :) and the source tapes.

On another note, something to remember about mirroring is that it only protects from a physical failure, not a mental one! :oP`` If you accidentally overwrite a critical file - it's going to be overwritten on your mirror as well. So I am using two methods. I mirror to protect from physical failure (I'm just using Dynamic disks in Windows 2003 - I haven't detected a performance hit), and I make manual periodic backups of my project files (and .sfvidcap files of course).

The next step would be to get some automation happening. All I have is Veritas Backup Now! or something. Is that any good?

DELETED

I think start frame verification helps deal with Timecode breaks. Vidcap warned me that the frame wasn't a match and suggested it might be because of a timecode break. So I manually repositioned the tape (there was a break). Then it worked.

DELETED

Does anyone "stripe" their DV tapes with timecode by recording the whole thing with the lens cap on? I'm tempted to start doing that but it seems like a pain in the butt. In this situation I guess it's better than having timecode gaps.

>>> 4. Will my 380Watt Antec True Power Supply be able to handle 4 hard drives, DVD burner, CD burner, Vantec Aeroflow heatsink fan, two 120mm fans, and a media card reader? <<<
I'd say it depends on your video card. Some of the newer ones can suck a lot of power. 380W should be a lot for your system. Antec power supplies will also go over its rating a little bit.

striping tapes? Why not avoid timecode breaks in the first place?! Use the end search feature on your camera if you ever need to review footage, or manually cue up the camera into a section with TC. If you do get TC breaks, make a dub of the DV tape. New TC will be generated (some decks will clone TC which you have to avoid).

RAID 1? Not worth it IMO. Make regular backups of your important data on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs (meritline.com has DVDs for under $1/each). You get multiple backups and are protected against things other than hard drive failure, such as user error. 50 DVDs or CD-Rs for backups once/week doesn't cost much. I think it's easiest to keep everything in the my documents folder and back that up on a regular basis. I tried making a backup partition but not everything goes there.