Need Vegas project storing recommendations

FightingIllini1977 wrote on 9/14/2007, 8:16 PM

I'm now starting to get heavily involved with using vegas for family events and small side projects. I would like to get some suggestions on how to organize my projects on a hard drive. I would like to correct any flaws in my vegas file organization before it's too late. Here are the current hard drives that I use:

- 250 Gigabyte internal hard drive (Primary)
This HDD has windows Vista installed and I create my projects and publish them to DVD from this drive. Projects are stored in a folder structure of year and then month under the user video folder. I keep the videos on here until I publish the DVD and then I cut it to the 750 and external drive.
- 750 Gigabyte internal hard drive (Secondary)
This HDD has windows XP installed and the OS is only used when something will run under XP only. I also use this HDD as a secondary storage for my pictures and videos just incase my external goes out.
- 500 Gigabyte external (Backup)
This HDD is strictly used to back up my videos and pictures just incase the 750 Gigabyte HDD goes out. I also back up on the pictures on to CD once a month but I haven't started doing Video backups because I"m waiting to get into HD DVD or Blue Ray a year down the road when it's a little cheaper.

As a rule, I never edit from the secondary or Backup so I always know the 250 gigabyte is the safe source if it exists.

Any recommendations on how to better organize would be appreciated (sorry for the lengthy type up for such a simple but IMPORTANT topic)

Comments

Cheno wrote on 9/14/2007, 8:41 PM

Well first of all, I find it odd that you're running OS's off of two different drives, rather than partition one drive to run both. Having a 750 gig secondary drive and a 500 gig back up seems like an large waste of drive space if you're not using them regularly.

Secondly, editing and video storage ideally should never be from the same drive you use as your primary C: / OS drive.

My suggestion - Partition your 250 gig to run both Vista / XP (I'm not a Vista fan so I'm not sure why one would even want to run it ;) ) but then you've got both OS's on the same drive. - that leaves a 750 gig drive for you to use for editing / render if needed - probably more than enough room for family or small projects - the 500 gig extra drive could be used for back up of crucial footage / data. Rather than run your projects from your system drive, I'd store all of your media on the 750 gig and then back up to the 500 for archival after you burn DVD's like you say.

I'm sure others will chime in - this would be my recommended flow -

-cheno

FightingIllini1977 wrote on 9/14/2007, 11:09 PM

Thanks for the tips. So far, I like your strategy. have two different OS's off of two different drives because I had the 250GB hard drive for a long time running on XP and I didn't know how to partition a drive in use. So, I just installed Vista on my new 750GB hard drive.

Is there a way I can still add a second partition to the 250 GB hard drive without having to wipe it out and reload everything for the XP OS?

Kennymusicman wrote on 9/15/2007, 2:47 AM

There are a few programs that will let you simply alter partitions. Partition magic is one. Vista is another, and since you already have it...

FightingIllini1977 wrote on 9/15/2007, 10:36 AM

I got to thinking about putting both OS systems on the same hard drive and I have come to the conclusion that's not a good idea. If my one hard drive crashes, then I would lose access to both OS systems and in my business, I can't be down for long. So I"ve decided to go buy a 3rd internal hard drive to install Vista on.

ddm wrote on 9/15/2007, 11:09 AM

I'm a big fan of using separate drives for different operating systems. Using the bios as a boot manager has eliminated the few problems that I've experienced using software boot managers. Keeps things nice and clean. Hard drives are so cheap, I really don't see any downside to using separate drives.

As far as organization goes, I do lots of different projects throughout the year and I've found it simplest to create a folder for every project and keep ALL related files in that folder. Doesn't really matter what drive it's on, as long as it's in it's own folder. I have way too many projects to fit on one drive so I've got them all over the place. I try to keep current projects on an internal sata drive for speed, but once they go somewhat inactive, I can move that folder over to an external drive. If I need to open that project again, Vegas finds all the files. So you must be somewhat dilligent about making sure you save all your veg files to that project folder as Vegas always defaults to the last saved folder.

Also, I never keep any project data on the boot drive.

FightingIllini1977 wrote on 9/15/2007, 11:50 AM

Do you save copies of the orginal pictures and videos in the project folder or do you move the orginal pictures and videos to the project folder?

rmack350 wrote on 9/15/2007, 12:15 PM

Vegas projects seem to work best when all the assets are in the same folder or in subfolders. Vegas just finds the media faster this way if you happen to rename a folder.

Getting the project and media on a different drive has a couple of advantages: you don't have page file read/write activity interfering with media read/write, and you don't run the risk of filling your boot drive by mistake.

I think you're right to have the second OS on a second physical disk. It may not be as space efficient but it's a lot more secure. That said, you probably don't need a 750 GB drive for the boot drive. One thing you can do is get removable bays for drives so that you can easily completely disconnect that second boot drive from the system. You can also do backups to hdd this way.

I've used a couple of tools to make copies of drives and to change their partitions. One is something called 7tools and the other is CasperXP. Both do similar jobs as Ghost or Partition Magic. I'm not recommending one over the other, just mentioning their names so you know their are choices out there. I'd actually probably make copies with Ghost or Casper before trying to change partitions. This way you have a backup if something goes worng.

rob

ddm wrote on 9/15/2007, 3:54 PM

I don't save copies of things, per se, as most of the stuff I use is video, so I capture directly to the new project folder I've created for the new project. If you're doing a stills project, you might want to keep your photos in their original locations, there's something to be said for that, but if you end up doing a batch down res as you were talking about, you might want to put all the down rezzed photos into your project folder and keep your originals in their current folder.

I use some media over and over again, and if it's small (like a photo for a lower third) I'll just copy it into the current project folder. It's just so much easier, after years of projects with stuff strewn all over several drives, to go back to a project and open it up and vegas just finds every thing it needs instantly.

Soniclight wrote on 9/15/2007, 5:51 PM

FightingIllini1977,

Yes, definitely put files and OS on different drives, not just partitions. Since drives ar so cheap these days, get a smaller, i.e. 60-80 Gb. just for the OS (and you can use what am suggesting below to transfer both of your current OS drives to it).

As to having two OS on different hard drives also, well, that does seem like a bit overload. Here is another way to go:

A) Stick to one OS as primary working system with secondary on same drive, second partition..

B) Go get TrueImage drives and partition backup -- I used Ghost before, but TI surpasses it in stability and speed hands down IMO.. It's only going for $40 at Newegg (link provided at end here).

I don't know what I would do without having TI -- it has saved my butt countless times. It's a tiny investment compared to the peace of mind I get is, well, priceless :) The company has been around a long time, so it's a robust app.

Yes, as others have suggested before at this board, there are other ways to backup such as doing capturing the OS as image, etc.

But TI is very easy to use.

I still have v.9 and haven't seen the need to upgrade to 10 because it does what I need.
Maybe you can find a v.9 at lower cost somewhere.

C) Backup your main OS regularly, your secondary as you see fit **to whatever external drive has the space for both (if you keep your OS streamlined -- i.e. put all Vegas, media and other large files on different drive). It won't be much.

(** Note: As far as I recall, you can backup and/or restore

That said, one obviously has to have TI or any other such app installed on a drive other than the one you are trying to restore, For example I have a virgin copy of XP sitting on an old 20 Gb. drive with TI on ready to go.

If/when needed, I can use that drive as primary boot and restore my OS to where it should be.

Advantage: You'll have backups of

Last, but not least:

--- As alluded to above, you can use TI from one of your current OS drives to transfer them to the suggested newer/smaller OS-only drive, if you choose to go that way.

My 2 cents. Use suggestions as per your needs and circumstances.

Acronis TrueImage 10: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200003