This has been by far the BEST digital storage tutorial I have ever seen, like starting off at content over footage to editing, just the total package!! I’ve been following you for a while now and I must say it is exactly videos like these why you are definitely one of my fave TH-camrs out there! I just had to wrtie this off my chest because I really can’t thank you enough!
I appreciate this. So many videos focus on NAS, or more complex storage systems that are not always economical for smaller creators. This is simple and fairly cheap. I already figured for something like this, but it's also great to see the workflow laid out which helps bring sense to what you really need. Thanks! 🤘🏽
After watching a ton of Videos on Storage for Video I found your method to be the most affordable and easiest to implement by a very large margin. Thanks so much for doing this video.
Thank you so much! Just started making videos and quickly realised that establishing a solid workflow/storage system was key. Appreciate your insight and clear info!
Love it! This is the system that most appeals to me as someone who isn't quite established enough to warrant a NAS. Thanks for the clear to follow video!
This is the best explanation, description, and instruction on the subject that I've EVER seen! Thanks so much for putting this together. It answers a million questions in just a few minutes.
These videos are helpful! I made youtube videos when I was in middle school/high school years ago, and I'm trying to get back into the hobby. Thank you for teaching me!
What kind of mic do you use ? It’s the best audio that I ever hear on TH-cam. Your voice is crystal clear and man your setup is really awesome to say the least :)
I’m about to implement my own RAID-1 NAS Setup. Already have each project nicely split into a separate folder, so when I set it up, I can offload it to the NAS. And I can finally have regular time machine backups as well.
@@benjohnsoncreative So far it's been good! I have around 50 GB in edited and unedited footage and I backed up 15 GB. This tutorial should help me a lot!
I don’t because it’s expensive with this much data and then ultimately your content is in the hands of a company. The peace of mind for me is having two back ups physical in separate locations
I get paranoid even when backups are secured in separate locations. I guess it all just depends on the kind of data one is trying to protect and the timing. For example, I am okay with only duplicating physical backups after a project/editing etc has been completed. My paranoia only heightens if I have not considered cloud backup while still in production and I'm still editing (I'm mainly into filming). My entire being literally 'clouds' for safer storage during this time, such that physical backups alone done give me enough peace of mind. By the way, some cloud providers offer fully encrypted options you know (I'm sure pCloud offers this)
Thankyou so much, Ben! I'm new to your channel, and I must say - I had no idea you could remove the Render Files by Showing Package Contents to make the library smaller!!! I've filled up 2 full hard drives to make space for new content and ended up just deleting my whole libraries 😭I'm going to start doing this - really appreciate it!
@@benjohnsoncreative thanks Ben - sorry to be annoying, but do you think it's safe to delete both the 'Original Media' and 'Render Files' (inside I've got 'High Quality Media', 'Peaks Data' and 'Thunbnail Media') safely and being able to relink them later? It's a massive file, and I'm about to take the plunge!
The big issue is that when you are working on a project with a non destructive video editor, it is best to store your source/working files on the fastest drive you have. If you have an SSD based computer, and it has the space, store the working files on your actual internal drive, because in the case of a MacBook Pro, the SSD will be very fast. We use a Mac and so this also means our footage is backed up using Time Machine. Once done, as Ben says, archive your video files on more affordable slower external drives. BTW, the Samsung T series SSDs are great, and ideal if you are needing to access your current video files on more than one device, such as an iPad. We use both Davinci Resolve (on MacBook Pro M1) and Luma Fusion on iPad Pro, so will use a fast external drive for files we need to use in both apps. (Luma for quick projects, Resolve for big ones.)
Thanks sir What kind of hard drive suggest you to my I am going recording video on my iPhone after recording I will save footage on hard drive so I will know which kind of hard drive is good for IPhone and computer I mean I am using for iPhone after recording saving to hard drive after hard drive to computer
wow. that ties up everything really well. what an awesome tutorial. so much value. i appreciate it ben. thanks for listening and making this video.liked and shared. i am a huge fan. sincerely daniel *love from malaysia
This is the best video I have seen yet regarding back up storage and utilization of physical hard drives. What is your opinion on using cloud storage like google drive, dropbox, iCloud?
I personally don’t, because it gets really expensive when you have as much storage as I do I think it’s good for people with less storage But video takes up a lot of space depending on if you’re keeping your footage And I always recommend that
This video is a good start to a lot of looking into this that I need to do and somehow i think I am going to come all the way back to this solution! Are there any Cloud solutions that are large and relatively cheap?
@@benjohnsoncreative yeah, I’m thinking it’s going to be some cloud, some external drive and some main drive. I saw a 12TB SSD yesterday for £88! I think that will last about 10 seconds, if it even mounts at all 😀 but it’s a nice thought..
What a great tutorial !! Thank you for not pushing us toward the cloud. I need a tutorial on best ways to share large files without using cloud subscriptions. What is the best way to provide a video to a client who does not want to use a cloud service, but needs the mobility of playing their content on various devices such as smart TVs or projectors for large audiences in various venues? In addition, another client asked for a flash drive to play on a TV for her father's funeral. I have uploaded the content onto a 64 GB exfat formated flash drive and verified that it would play on the TV she will be using. Another wants to play a wedding using DVD on an XBox and a Blue Ray player. Please let me know your thoughts on how to best meet the needs without pushing them toward cloud subscriptions, TH-cam or any other service that limits file size.
AWESOME VIDEO! Incredibly informative and helpful! One question: Do you still recommend the Samsung T5 drive as the editing drive? Any good alternatives? Thanks again!!
Concerning Duplicates: what if your storage unit collapses because of the earthquake oder burns down or somebody breaks in and steals all your stored harddrives? And shortly after that your house burns down?
Possible Video ideas: Best lens for beginners New vs Used Cameras Vlogging Camera Rig Ideas ND Filter Info( especially for outdoor video) The Right Framerate to Use on a Video( many people often don't know what to do) Hope this might help
Hi Ben. Do you still suggest everything you recommended in this video? I have 4 phones, 3 tablets and 2 laptops filled with over 2TB of family memories that I want to back up and store in a safe place. I also need to free up space on the phones so my kids could continue using them.
This is perfect, thank you! I just recently created my first two videos and they were already eating up so much space on my Mac, was wondering how TH-camrs stored them.
I didn’t quite get what you meant with the render files. Im assuming you’re talking about deleting those after you’ve completed the project. Could you give a little more detail?
hi, I don't understand please help to clarify my doubts 1. when you copy the original file from camera to the desktop it is the mac?? do u have Final Cut Pro installed on Mac? this is my current config cos i couldn't install Final Cut Pro in external hard disk. 2. so u move the mp4, audio files from the mac drive to Samsung disk? how does that help to edit footage faster? this is where i am confused if you have installed finalcut pro in samsung drive?
Two drives is a good idea. Wouldn't it be better to put the 2 drives into a raid, so it backs-up all the time? My problem has always been sudden Hard drive failure. I have about a dozen dead drives in a drawer. I think I should adopt your workflow there and only have two new drives connected - I already have three SSDs for project editing and grading, cache scratch and the software. Do you only connect the two externals when you need to access them? I think that might be why I have had so many dead drives over the years. I tend to have them all hooked up and running all the time. Might have to rethink this. Thanks for sharing your workflow.
Good video mate. Why do you copy to the HDD first then to the Samsung SSD after. Wouldn't it be better to copy to the Samsung SSD first then when your finished with the project cut and paste it all over to the HDD for long term storage.
Love it. I still need to storage a about 2000 hours HD videos online and give access to users, any suggestions? If possible how to make sure that users will not share the access? Many thanks man.
How do you feel about using RAID for external storage, rather than using the two separate devices and the cloning software? I imagine I could still separate drive locations (once full), for long term storage.
I've thought about it but haven't gotten into RAID yet. I imagine it is in my future, would be especially helpful if you have multiple team members woking on projects at different locations
@@benjohnsoncreative Yeah, it's nice for low maintenance confidence. Anything that is copied to the drive is already backed-up, on the fly. No schedules for backups. I have hot-swappable drives so if one fails I can just put another one in and it automatically copies the data to it and I have two copies again. 👍
Interesting video but i have a couple of questions. I assume you copy to the Samsung drive not move the files and secondly which is more important what do you do if you add some library footage for example or a voice over to the edit which was not on the main drive originally when you copied the footage across? Do you add these files to both the main drive and a copy to the Samsung for editing from?
Yes anything out onto the Samsung drive is copied While I’m working on a project, anything that is added to it will go into the Samsung drive where the project folder is Then when the project is done, all new assets get moved onto the larger drives for storage, and deleted off the Samsung drive so I have room again for edits
Which software do you use to organize video files? For photos, we have Photomechanic, LR, etc. For Video, I really need one this year! So what I do is shoot and dump all the shoot data into a single folder (photos, videos, everything). Then I drop the memory cards I've used into a pouch that will not be touched again until I get free. So these cards don't get formatted. In Between shoots when I have time to check these cards, I run a Python script I made to check each file in the memory card with each file in my main folder and all it's subfolders and see if the file exists or not. If it does not exist, I will simply copy those files into the main folder. If it does, I format the card and put it in another pouch to use. Now at this stage, I will make 3 backups of the data as it is. It's in a single folder, unorganized. Once the Backup is done in 3 separate drives, I bring the data into LR. In LR, I can sort the data according to date shot. Since all my cameras are running a time sync during the shoot, the times match perfectly. Then I create new folders through LR and move the photo data into date-wise folders. I can do lots of sorting using Photo Metadata in LR. Now I also have video files in the same folder. But LR just doesn't display video metadata the way it does photos. Remember I'm not just using Mirrorless cameras. Sometimes there are files from a Sony NX100, NX200, BM Ursa Mini, BMPCC 4K and stuff. These files don't show metadata in LR and I cannot organize them. Is there a way I can organize video files the same way and with the same easy that I can organize Photo files? Any Software for this?
Great setup; I have a similar one at home. But lately, I started wondering about my 8 Tb HDD and what if they fail over time. I mean, what if, at some point in the future, I plug it in, and it doesn't work. Then the backup system is worthless. Manufacturers only offer about 3 years warranties for those. How do you go about this? I see you have hard drives from 2014 and older. I know you have 2 copies of each, but they are meant to collapse at some point; these are not as durable as we think. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks!
what is your advice on, say when we have ten 30 mins RAW footage , and you have only used 10 secs on average from each of them. What is your usually practice if only want to keep say 1 mins from each of the 10 footages. do you makeshift a temp project and form a meaningless 10 minute video and export it as Prores, or????? please give me some light on this, thanks a lot, subscribed.
SO THE PROCESS IF 1ST GO MAKE A VLOG THEN YOU COME HOME AND TRANS VLOG TO SAMSUNG T5 CARD FIRST. ?? SO HOW DO WE BEGIN TO EDIT THE VLOG TO UPLOAD IT AFTER ?? NEWBIE HELP??
One question: the part where you mentioned you should always keep one drive with you and the other one at a safe location, how could you do that if both of them always have to be connected to your computer for CCC to run and do its thing? Or did I misunderstood something? I mean you will replace the two each year, so maybe the old ones are the ones you are referring to?
@@benjohnsoncreative Thanks for your quick reply! On another note, do you use or can recommend any docking station? I am using a MacBook Pro and I calculated that I will need 4 different docks. How do you solve this? Or I guess you don’t struggle because you use both an iMac and a MacBook right? I am just worried my MacBook won’t survive this many devices being connected to it, but it is a new one with the M1 Pro chip and 32 GB. But I have read that the docking stations may also get overheated so I thought you may know any solution.
Super helpful! Please make a more in-depth video walking through your Workflow in more depth. I don't know where I should keep the files while editing and then after I'm done with the project. Also, how do you store B-Roll to make it easier to find later on?
What system do you use to upload and organize your 4K videos? Do you rely on offline portable hard disks or cloud storage? Given that each of your TH-cam videos likely ends up being around 20-25 GB, I'm curious about your storage solution. I use a iMac with 512 GB internal storage, but that literally kills me.
I thought I'd already made a comment here. But anyway. I've got a very similar setup with TimeMachine and CCC. But what I'm interested in is how you sort your footage on the external drive. For my weekly show I create new FCPX Libraries for each season and put all the footage and clips into that. The season is then edited on an external NVMe drive via USB-C. Once I'm finished with that season I delete all the render (and other) files and move it to a HD for longer storage. That's how I've done that for 48 season. What I have trouble with is my own personal footage. I've got a mismatch of folders by date, event, and even camera, an no logic to the way I sort things. If you could do a video on how you sort (and stay on top of) your footage, that would be great.
Yes absolutely! In short, I’d recommend making a separate folder for each podcast. I’d label it as follows: (YYYYMMDD) for example if it’s June 8th 2021: 20210608 Then inside each date labeled folder, I’d have separate folders for each device: camera, audio, etc
@@benjohnsoncreative Wise choice there Ben, as ALL computers do dates in screwy ways UNLESS you specify YEAR first. When I discovered that 10 years ago, I have used just that format since. Only difference is that I label it 2022AUG3 as an example as it helps me with my "chemo brain".
This video is misleading I thought he was going to show how to get 100TB of storage space, like new affordable way but the video what about something else
@@benjohnsoncreative thanks dude. I currently edit off of Sandisk SSD’s but I need more space and still be able to edit. So looking for over 10TB to be able to edit off of without having lots of portable SSD’s
Great video! Having backups is so important. Do you keep all your footage and projects on the external HDDs long term? I'm just asking because HDDs are not known to live very long when not in use. Bitrot and file corruption can also be a problem. Since you were asking: personally I'm using a NAS with one disk of redundancy. From there all my files go into the cloud as well. Additionally, for really long term storage, I burn everything onto blu-ray discs. BRDs are optical and are said to live for 100 years plus. I store them in a different location in case of a fire or some other disaster. Again, great content and keep it up!
I do keep everything on external Hard drives but I always have multiple copies on multiple hard drives in separate locations in case of corruption. I think I'll eventually move to a NAS system but haven't made the switch yet
Great explanation for the storage. Also like your video on the fcpx workflow. What do you do with the original footage. I use the dual hard drives like you do. I use Chronosync. I keep all the original footage on the dual hard drives.
Hey Ben, Thanks for the video. I'm just getting started on youtube. I find it interesting no one is using the Icloud storage that I seem to have plenty of. Can you explain why this is not ideal?
Slower to upload and access would be a main reason, also you have to keep paying for it and the rates could change, and as you need more space it’s more and more expensive
Great video Ben. Just found you and Subscribed. When editing in FCP where location do you use for cache? I film in 4K with a NinjaV so each wedding is 450-600 GB. I’ve had to start using two T5 2TB drives for each project. I can have 1.5TB of cache on a single wedding. Do you have any suggestions or am going to have to use / buy two ssd’s per wedding? 2 editors and we work on 4-5 wedding at a time.
My personal advice would be to not work at multiple at once and do one at a time, that’s what our team does and it works well for space. Or, buy another t5 and have one on each etc
Is it $2 per tb monthly? If so, for 150tb it would cost over $3,000 a year which is much more expensive than purchasing 2 hard drives per year for a total of $300 not to mention it’s faster to access files and you have full control of it
Hello Ben 👋 Karan here I am fan of your editing 😊 woul you love to suggest me to use the software which has no price for the beginning and could be done editing like your .. 🙂
@@positivelife3729 I’m not doing any one on one mentorships at this time but plan to offer that soon, in the meantime you can check out my website and sign up for the email list for additional resources / courses www.benjohnsoncreative.com
i financially wanna just make 250 gb of storage on my laptop work. i film evidence as i am an investigator, as a side hobby. and so small videos of like 2 minutes take up 250 mb of storage, this means i maximum can store only 200 minutes or less of mp4 on my laptop. i was wondering if there is a way to film mp4 or mp3 with alot less storage space used.
Here are the questions that I don't have an answer to. Why in the world am I keeping old work files for videos that sit on TH-cam that I will never edit again? With everything from graphics, ATEM Mini Pro ISO, Rodecaster Pro, and the DAW recordings, these are 50GB folders. Should I keep only one copy of the final MP4, one copy of the final audio MP3, the final graphics, and nothing else, which keeps it at about 4GB What are other TH-camrs keeping in a backup archive?
VERY helpful and clear video. Thank you! I use Davinci Resolve but I expect my question is relevant to PP as well. When I drag a clip into the media pool does the program duplicate those files or are they just linked to the original location?
Great video Ben. I actually have a question for you. I shoot in 4K over several hours of footage (and timelapse it), so my storage needs are enormous (most recent footage was 460GB). Would you keep buying HDDs with that large expense, or delete the raw footage and just keep the output (I render out in H.265)?
@@benjohnsoncreative Thanks Ben, I've been mulling it over, probably will keep the raw for 2 or 3 videos past the upload (in case I've missed something) then just remove it. It'd be just large of an expense in the long-term.
I moved everything off a gopro to a t7 hard drive and then deleted everything from my gopro folder and then everything was gone from the t7 folder aswell
Finally! A video for people starting out. Simple, not overly expensive, easy to understand.
Glad it was helpful!
This has been by far the BEST digital storage tutorial I have ever seen, like starting off at content over footage to editing, just the total package!! I’ve been following you for a while now and I must say it is exactly videos like these why you are definitely one of my fave TH-camrs out there! I just had to wrtie this off my chest because I really can’t thank you enough!
Thanks Ultrayolet! Appreciate the support!
I appreciate this. So many videos focus on NAS, or more complex storage systems that are not always economical for smaller creators. This is simple and fairly cheap. I already figured for something like this, but it's also great to see the workflow laid out which helps bring sense to what you really need. Thanks! 🤘🏽
Definitely! I’ve thought about switching to NAS in the future but not ready just yet
After watching a ton of Videos on Storage for Video I found your method to be the most affordable and easiest to implement by a very large margin. Thanks so much for doing this video.
Thanks for watching Pat! I’m glad you found it helpful!
Thank you so much! Just started making videos and quickly realised that establishing a solid workflow/storage system was key. Appreciate your insight and clear info!
This mans one of the top channels that have really helped me to step up my video creating! Thanks Ben!
Thanks Grayson! 🙏🏻
Great. #seffadjei
Love it! This is the system that most appeals to me as someone who isn't quite established enough to warrant a NAS. Thanks for the clear to follow video!
Thanks Connor! NAS is cool for sure but this is ultimately safer and more affordable :)
This is the best explanation, description, and instruction on the subject that I've EVER seen! Thanks so much for putting this together. It answers a million questions in just a few minutes.
Thanks Nancy! Glad you enjoyed the video and found it helpful!
Could not agree more!!
I can't tell you how much I appreciated this video my brother. thanks for sharing your wisdom and your workflow.
You're welcome Rick! Thanks for the support!
You put stuff in a easy compact to the point format for anyone to understand. Thank you for this.
These videos are helpful!
I made youtube videos when I was in middle school/high school years ago, and I'm trying to get back into the hobby. Thank you for teaching me!
Finally a video that explains this rather important topic in a comprehensive way, thanks for that!
Thanks Travelmentary! Glad it helped
Thanks SO Much! Your VDO is by far the best on this topic!! Thank YOU!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Terrific overview in a very concise video.I’ll watch it again and take written notes as a road map.
What kind of mic do you use ? It’s the best audio that I ever hear on TH-cam. Your voice is crystal clear and man your setup is really awesome to say the least :)
Thanks Sylvain! I use an audio recorder: amzn.to/3a1rRKA
And here’s how I process it: th-cam.com/video/6R1Hr2f_rCQ/w-d-xo.html
Clear, logical, simple, beautifully edited with clever footage reuse. Thanks Ben
Thanks for watching David!
THIS!
same from me too....
love from India
This was so useful man, thank you! I've been trying to figure out a workflow for a while but I think the Main storage -> Backup + SSD is perfect 🔥
Glad it helped!
I’m about to implement my own RAID-1 NAS Setup. Already have each project nicely split into a separate folder, so when I set it up, I can offload it to the NAS. And I can finally have regular time machine backups as well.
Awesome! NAS set ups are dope!
Just saw the thumbnail! Great thumbnail! I recently got a Harddrive for 2TB so this tutorial should help me! Thanks Ben! - Your friend, Mark Antao!
Thanks for watching Mark! 2TB Should be a great option to get started with!
@@benjohnsoncreative So far it's been good! I have around 50 GB in edited and unedited footage and I backed up 15 GB. This tutorial should help me a lot!
@@CreativeCoding awesome!
Same way I do. I always buy 2 drives and backup from one to another. Basicly folders with dates, descriptions and names of the cameras.
Yup! Sometimes simple works best
Do you not add the extra layer of security and peace of mind by backing up to a cloud as well?
If you do, which ones do you use and love?
I don’t because it’s expensive with this much data and then ultimately your content is in the hands of a company. The peace of mind for me is having two back ups physical in separate locations
I get paranoid even when backups are secured in separate locations. I guess it all just depends on the kind of data one is trying to protect and the timing.
For example, I am okay with only duplicating physical backups after a project/editing etc has been completed. My paranoia only heightens if I have not considered cloud backup while still in production and I'm still editing (I'm mainly into filming). My entire being literally 'clouds' for safer storage during this time, such that physical backups alone done give me enough peace of mind.
By the way, some cloud providers offer fully encrypted options you know (I'm sure pCloud offers this)
It's almost like you're reading my mind! Amazing video and great suggestions for keeping data usage low and get the most out of your hard drives!
Thanks Allan!
😂 YT tells creators other videos his subbies r watching. Not a coincidence. YT snitches
Thankyou so much, Ben! I'm new to your channel, and I must say - I had no idea you could remove the Render Files by Showing Package Contents to make the library smaller!!! I've filled up 2 full hard drives to make space for new content and ended up just deleting my whole libraries 😭I'm going to start doing this - really appreciate it!
Glad it helped, definitely a massive space saver!!
@@benjohnsoncreative thanks Ben - sorry to be annoying, but do you think it's safe to delete both the 'Original Media' and 'Render Files' (inside I've got 'High Quality Media', 'Peaks Data' and 'Thunbnail Media') safely and being able to relink them later? It's a massive file, and I'm about to take the plunge!
The big issue is that when you are working on a project with a non destructive video editor, it is best to store your source/working files on the fastest drive you have. If you have an SSD based computer, and it has the space, store the working files on your actual internal drive, because in the case of a MacBook Pro, the SSD will be very fast. We use a Mac and so this also means our footage is backed up using Time Machine. Once done, as Ben says, archive your video files on more affordable slower external drives. BTW, the Samsung T series SSDs are great, and ideal if you are needing to access your current video files on more than one device, such as an iPad. We use both Davinci Resolve (on MacBook Pro M1) and Luma Fusion on iPad Pro, so will use a fast external drive for files we need to use in both apps. (Luma for quick projects, Resolve for big ones.)
Yeah I recommend editing either direct or off a SSD then simply storing the footage on the drives when dones
Thanks sir
What kind of hard drive suggest you to my
I am going recording video on my iPhone after recording I will save footage on hard drive so I will know which kind of hard drive is good for IPhone and computer I mean I am using for iPhone after recording saving to hard drive after hard drive to computer
Are you planning to edit off your computer and then transfer to the hard drive or are you going to edit off the hard drive?
Thank you for this video. It was so easy to understand the process.
Glad it was helpful!
wow. that ties up everything really well. what an awesome tutorial. so much value. i appreciate it ben. thanks for listening and making this video.liked and shared. i am a huge fan. sincerely daniel *love from malaysia
Thanks Daniel! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thanks for keeping it simple but thorough! 👏
Thank you for this video ! Helped so much i know where to start now !
Glad it helped!
I follow you from your 5K subscribers for your work skills.
Thanks for hanging! Let me know what type of videos you’d like to see this year!
@@benjohnsoncreative offcourse liting setup video🙂
@@AbdullahRahim Can you describe what you mean by off course? Do you mean like, on location? Outside shooting on projects?
What’s up man first again!
YOU WIN!! 🏆
This is the best video I have seen yet regarding back up storage and utilization of physical hard drives. What is your opinion on using cloud storage like google drive, dropbox, iCloud?
I personally don’t, because it gets really expensive when you have as much storage as I do
I think it’s good for people with less storage
But video takes up a lot of space depending on if you’re keeping your footage
And I always recommend that
This video is a good start to a lot of looking into this that I need to do and somehow i think I am going to come all the way back to this solution! Are there any Cloud solutions that are large and relatively cheap?
I like to use Google Drive to keep track of photos and thumbnails but not for videos and full projects. It works for some, just not my preference
@@benjohnsoncreative yeah, I’m thinking it’s going to be some cloud, some external drive and some main drive. I saw a 12TB SSD yesterday for £88! I think that will last about 10 seconds, if it even mounts at all 😀 but it’s a nice thought..
What a great tutorial !! Thank you for not pushing us toward the cloud. I need a tutorial on best ways to share large files without using cloud subscriptions. What is the best way to provide a video to a client who does not want to use a cloud service, but needs the mobility of playing their content on various devices such as smart TVs or projectors for large audiences in various venues? In addition, another client asked for a flash drive to play on a TV for her father's funeral. I have uploaded the content onto a 64 GB exfat formated flash drive and verified that it would play on the TV she will be using. Another wants to play a wedding using DVD on an XBox and a Blue Ray player. Please let me know your thoughts on how to best meet the needs without pushing them toward cloud subscriptions, TH-cam or any other service that limits file size.
AWESOME VIDEO! Incredibly informative and helpful! One question: Do you still recommend the Samsung T5 drive as the editing drive? Any good alternatives? Thanks again!!
I still use and love the T5! I’m sure there are lots of other great ones out there but the T5 works well for me
5:14 was my favorite shot of the whole video! Another great video!
Thanks Christian, mine too!
Concerning Duplicates: what if your storage unit collapses because of the earthquake oder burns down or somebody breaks in and steals all your stored harddrives? And shortly after that your house burns down?
Awesome.👍🏾
Thanks Bracket!
Possible Video ideas:
Best lens for beginners
New vs Used Cameras
Vlogging Camera Rig Ideas
ND Filter Info( especially for outdoor video)
The Right Framerate to Use on a Video( many people often don't know what to do)
Hope this might help
Great ideas, I’ll add those to my list!
Awesome video! Love the attention to detail, do you edit your own stuff?
I do!
Awesome Tips Ben, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you Ben, how to render videos with great quality and size?
Look into “proxies”
Hi Ben. Do you still suggest everything you recommended in this video? I have 4 phones, 3 tablets and 2 laptops filled with over 2TB of family memories that I want to back up and store in a safe place. I also need to free up space on the phones so my kids could continue using them.
I still use the same process
This is perfect, thank you! I just recently created my first two videos and they were already eating up so much space on my Mac, was wondering how TH-camrs stored them.
Haha yes they can DEF take up a ton especially the render and original media files
I didn’t quite get what you meant with the render files. Im assuming you’re talking about deleting those after you’ve completed the project. Could you give a little more detail?
Yes after the project is done and exported, delete the render files
Love your plan, definitely going this route!
I’m glad you found it helpful!
hi, I don't understand please help to clarify my doubts
1. when you copy the original file from camera to the desktop it is the mac?? do u have Final Cut Pro installed on Mac? this is my current config cos i couldn't install Final Cut Pro in external hard disk.
2. so u move the mp4, audio files from the mac drive to Samsung disk? how does that help to edit footage faster? this is where i am confused if you have installed finalcut pro in samsung drive?
Two drives is a good idea. Wouldn't it be better to put the 2 drives into a raid, so it backs-up all the time? My problem has always been sudden Hard drive failure. I have about a dozen dead drives in a drawer. I think I should adopt your workflow there and only have two new drives connected - I already have three SSDs for project editing and grading, cache scratch and the software. Do you only connect the two externals when you need to access them? I think that might be why I have had so many dead drives over the years. I tend to have them all hooked up and running all the time. Might have to rethink this. Thanks for sharing your workflow.
The two external are always connected, one is a back up of the other
Awesome as always ☺️
Thanks Aanosh!
Good video mate. Why do you copy to the HDD first then to the Samsung SSD after. Wouldn't it be better to copy to the Samsung SSD first then when your finished with the project cut and paste it all over to the HDD for long term storage.
I copy to the HDD first because I’m not always sure when I’m going to start the project and currently have other projects on the SSD
@@benjohnsoncreative thankyou, your a ledgend 👍
Love it. I still need to storage a about 2000 hours HD videos online and give access to users, any suggestions? If possible how to make sure that users will not share the access?
Many thanks man.
So you find the Samsung USB 3 SSD fast enough and do not need a Thunderbolt device?
The SSD is a USBC connection
Wow I was literally just thinking about this! I have so many clips that I need a larger storage unit than just a flash drive!
It Inevitably happens haha
How do you feel about using RAID for external storage, rather than using the two separate devices and the cloning software? I imagine I could still separate drive locations (once full), for long term storage.
I've thought about it but haven't gotten into RAID yet. I imagine it is in my future, would be especially helpful if you have multiple team members woking on projects at different locations
@@benjohnsoncreative Yeah, it's nice for low maintenance confidence. Anything that is copied to the drive is already backed-up, on the fly. No schedules for backups. I have hot-swappable drives so if one fails I can just put another one in and it automatically copies the data to it and I have two copies again. 👍
Hey Ben,
Why you don't store on the cloud? DO you have anytips to also store online a recovery?
For me it would be very expensive and when you store on cloud you’re often subject to price changes etc
Interesting video but i have a couple of questions. I assume you copy to the Samsung drive not move the files and secondly which is more important what do you do if you add some library footage for example or a voice over to the edit which was not on the main drive originally when you copied the footage across? Do you add these files to both the main drive and a copy to the Samsung for editing from?
Yes anything out onto the Samsung drive is copied
While I’m working on a project, anything that is added to it will go into the Samsung drive where the project folder is
Then when the project is done, all new assets get moved onto the larger drives for storage, and deleted off the Samsung drive so I have room again for edits
Which software do you use to organize video files? For photos, we have Photomechanic, LR, etc. For Video, I really need one this year! So what I do is shoot and dump all the shoot data into a single folder (photos, videos, everything). Then I drop the memory cards I've used into a pouch that will not be touched again until I get free. So these cards don't get formatted. In Between shoots when I have time to check these cards, I run a Python script I made to check each file in the memory card with each file in my main folder and all it's subfolders and see if the file exists or not. If it does not exist, I will simply copy those files into the main folder. If it does, I format the card and put it in another pouch to use. Now at this stage, I will make 3 backups of the data as it is. It's in a single folder, unorganized. Once the Backup is done in 3 separate drives, I bring the data into LR. In LR, I can sort the data according to date shot. Since all my cameras are running a time sync during the shoot, the times match perfectly. Then I create new folders through LR and move the photo data into date-wise folders. I can do lots of sorting using Photo Metadata in LR. Now I also have video files in the same folder. But LR just doesn't display video metadata the way it does photos. Remember I'm not just using Mirrorless cameras. Sometimes there are files from a Sony NX100, NX200, BM Ursa Mini, BMPCC 4K and stuff. These files don't show metadata in LR and I cannot organize them. Is there a way I can organize video files the same way and with the same easy that I can organize Photo files? Any Software for this?
Great setup; I have a similar one at home. But lately, I started wondering about my 8 Tb HDD and what if they fail over time. I mean, what if, at some point in the future, I plug it in, and it doesn't work. Then the backup system is worthless. Manufacturers only offer about 3 years warranties for those. How do you go about this? I see you have hard drives from 2014 and older. I know you have 2 copies of each, but they are meant to collapse at some point; these are not as durable as we think. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks!
Do you see potential performance issue directly creating FCPX library on the external ssd ?
Editing off of the SSD is faster performance
what is your advice on, say when we have ten 30 mins RAW footage , and you have only used 10 secs on average from each of them. What is your usually practice if only want to keep say 1 mins from each of the 10 footages. do you makeshift a temp project and form a meaningless 10 minute video and export it as Prores, or????? please give me some light on this, thanks a lot, subscribed.
Peace ✌️. Thank you. Another hit. 🔥🔥🔥
Thanks Arnold!!
Great tips as always👌🏻
Thanks Hue!
Nice intro😍
Thanks!
@kian : Looks cool, but not functional bc animation interfered with legibility
I wish this would have covered cloud storage options
This is my method of storage, not every method of storage. I don’t prefer cloud storage and don’t use it for my footage
SO THE PROCESS IF 1ST GO MAKE A VLOG THEN YOU COME HOME AND TRANS VLOG TO SAMSUNG T5 CARD FIRST. ?? SO HOW DO WE BEGIN TO EDIT THE VLOG TO UPLOAD IT AFTER ?? NEWBIE HELP??
One question: the part where you mentioned you should always keep one drive with you and the other one at a safe location, how could you do that if both of them always have to be connected to your computer for CCC to run and do its thing? Or did I misunderstood something? I mean you will replace the two each year, so maybe the old ones are the ones you are referring to?
Yes, the old drives. When a year is finished I keep one drive at the office or house and move the other to a different location
@@benjohnsoncreative Thanks for your quick reply! On another note, do you use or can recommend any docking station? I am using a MacBook Pro and I calculated that I will need 4 different docks. How do you solve this? Or I guess you don’t struggle because you use both an iMac and a MacBook right? I am just worried my MacBook won’t survive this many devices being connected to it, but it is a new one with the M1 Pro chip and 32 GB. But I have read that the docking stations may also get overheated so I thought you may know any solution.
Super helpful! Please make a more in-depth video walking through your Workflow in more depth. I don't know where I should keep the files while editing and then after I'm done with the project. Also, how do you store B-Roll to make it easier to find later on?
I will do a more in depth file organization video later on
@@benjohnsoncreative Would it be applicable to FCPX? Just curious ;^)
What system do you use to upload and organize your 4K videos? Do you rely on offline portable hard disks or cloud storage? Given that each of your TH-cam videos likely ends up being around 20-25 GB, I'm curious about your storage solution. I use a iMac with 512 GB internal storage, but that literally kills me.
Hey Ben, why is it you use an SSD to edit your videos instead of your computers internal storage before you move them over to your backups?
At the time the SSD was faster than my computers internals
I thought I'd already made a comment here. But anyway. I've got a very similar setup with TimeMachine and CCC. But what I'm interested in is how you sort your footage on the external drive. For my weekly show I create new FCPX Libraries for each season and put all the footage and clips into that. The season is then edited on an external NVMe drive via USB-C. Once I'm finished with that season I delete all the render (and other) files and move it to a HD for longer storage. That's how I've done that for 48 season. What I have trouble with is my own personal footage. I've got a mismatch of folders by date, event, and even camera, an no logic to the way I sort things. If you could do a video on how you sort (and stay on top of) your footage, that would be great.
Yes absolutely! In short, I’d recommend making a separate folder for each podcast. I’d label it as follows: (YYYYMMDD) for example if it’s June 8th 2021: 20210608
Then inside each date labeled folder, I’d have separate folders for each device: camera, audio, etc
@@benjohnsoncreative Wise choice there Ben, as ALL computers do dates in screwy ways UNLESS you specify YEAR first. When I discovered that 10 years ago, I have used just that format since. Only difference is that I label it 2022AUG3 as an example as it helps me with my "chemo brain".
This video is misleading I thought he was going to show how to get 100TB of storage space, like new affordable way but the video what about something else
Just sharing the way I store footage!
@@benjohnsoncreative Was it hard to be honest and authentic and avoide clickbates
Is this an option for someone that still needs to edit off of storage drives? Or will they be to slow to edit 4K or 5K? Thanks.
I wouldn’t edit off of these drives
You could do a similar system with faster drives
Too slow to edit off of, as mentioned in the video I use the Samsung t5 to edit off and then simply store things when I’m
done on the WD drives
@@benjohnsoncreative thanks Ben
@@benjohnsoncreative thanks dude. I currently edit off of Sandisk SSD’s but I need more space and still be able to edit. So looking for over 10TB to be able to edit off of without having lots of portable SSD’s
hey Fan HERE !
Hey thanks for hangin!
Great video! Having backups is so important. Do you keep all your footage and projects on the external HDDs long term? I'm just asking because HDDs are not known to live very long when not in use. Bitrot and file corruption can also be a problem. Since you were asking: personally I'm using a NAS with one disk of redundancy. From there all my files go into the cloud as well. Additionally, for really long term storage, I burn everything onto blu-ray discs. BRDs are optical and are said to live for 100 years plus. I store them in a different location in case of a fire or some other disaster. Again, great content and keep it up!
I do keep everything on external Hard drives but I always have multiple copies on multiple hard drives in separate locations in case of corruption. I think I'll eventually move to a NAS system but haven't made the switch yet
Thank you, super helpful and well made video!
Glad it was helpful!
Great explanation for the storage. Also like your video on the fcpx workflow. What do you do with the original footage. I use the dual hard drives like you do. I use Chronosync. I keep all the original footage on the dual hard drives.
I keep all my original footage
The best channel ever. Thanks Ben. In Final cut, do you have 1 librairie or 1 event
per video? Thanks
I do 1 library per video project
@@benjohnsoncreative Thanks Ben for your answer.
Super useful as always, Ben!
Thanks Jimmy glad you found it useful!
thanks for this video!
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey Ben, Thanks for the video. I'm just getting started on youtube. I find it interesting no one is using the Icloud storage that I seem to have plenty of. Can you explain why this is not ideal?
Slower to upload and access would be a main reason, also you have to keep paying for it and the rates could change, and as you need more space it’s more and more expensive
@@benjohnsoncreative Thank you!
Hi , is the Samsung T5 iMac compatible?
Yes I use it with mine all the time
@@benjohnsoncreative thank you very much.
Hey Ben, GREAT VIDEO! Q: What format did you reformat the My Book ? To: APFS? Mac OS E? ☮️
Great video Ben. Just found you and Subscribed. When editing in FCP where location do you use for cache? I film in 4K with a NinjaV so each wedding is 450-600 GB. I’ve had to start using two T5 2TB drives for each project. I can have 1.5TB of cache on a single wedding. Do you have any suggestions or am going to have to use / buy two ssd’s per wedding? 2 editors and we work on 4-5 wedding at a time.
My personal advice would be to not work at multiple at once and do one at a time, that’s what our team does and it works well for space. Or, buy another t5 and have one on each etc
You can store your data in a cloud. Google Cloud Storage archive would cost like $2 per terabyte
Is it $2 per tb monthly? If so, for 150tb it would cost over $3,000 a year which is much more expensive than purchasing 2 hard drives per year for a total of $300 not to mention it’s faster to access files and you have full control of it
Facts @Ben. Google storage isn't practical at a large enough scale imo. Plus, I don't trust Google lol
Hello Ben 👋
Karan here I am fan of your editing 😊 woul you love to suggest me to use the software which has no price for the beginning and could be done editing like your ..
🙂
I’d check out iMovie if you have a Mac it’d be closest, If not then I’d check out Adobe premiere rush
@@benjohnsoncreative thanks of bunch
@@benjohnsoncreative after watching your all video i considered you to be my a mentor 😇 I believe you are supposed to assist me little a bit ,Ben
😔
@@positivelife3729 I’m not doing any one on one mentorships at this time but plan to offer that soon, in the meantime you can check out my website and sign up for the email list for additional resources / courses www.benjohnsoncreative.com
what editing app do u use?? please tell me
Final Cut Pro x
Thank you for this!
Thanks for watching Brittany!
good stuff!
Thanks for watching!
i financially wanna just make 250 gb of storage on my laptop work. i film evidence as i am an investigator, as a side hobby. and so small videos of like 2 minutes take up 250 mb of storage, this means i maximum can store only 200 minutes or less of mp4 on my laptop. i was wondering if there is a way to film mp4 or mp3 with alot less storage space used.
You know... You remind me of the early 2000s except I had a cell MIFI device velcroed to my Mac not an SSD :-)
Love the Thumbnail!!!!!!!!
Thanks Andre! 🤘🏻
Here are the questions that I don't have an answer to.
Why in the world am I keeping old work files for videos that sit on TH-cam that I will never edit again? With everything from graphics, ATEM Mini Pro ISO, Rodecaster Pro, and the DAW recordings, these are 50GB folders.
Should I keep only one copy of the final MP4, one copy of the final audio MP3, the final graphics, and nothing else, which keeps it at about 4GB
What are other TH-camrs keeping in a backup archive?
VERY helpful and clear video. Thank you! I use Davinci Resolve but I expect my question is relevant to PP as well. When I drag a clip into the media pool does the program duplicate those files or are they just linked to the original location?
On the road to 100K
🙌🏻
I dont get why you need an editing drive? isnt that what the computer is for?
Depending on the computer, the drive will be much faster to work off of
Great video Ben. I actually have a question for you. I shoot in 4K over several hours of footage (and timelapse it), so my storage needs are enormous (most recent footage was 460GB). Would you keep buying HDDs with that large expense, or delete the raw footage and just keep the output (I render out in H.265)?
Id just keep the output on something like that
@@benjohnsoncreative Thanks Ben, I've been mulling it over, probably will keep the raw for 2 or 3 videos past the upload (in case I've missed something) then just remove it. It'd be just large of an expense in the long-term.
Meanwhile I make gags short enough to fit on an SD card...
👏🏼
4:43 where do you find the uselss data ??
What about cloud storage?
Its not my preference, can be unreliable and they can raise the price at any time, if everything is stored there than I have to pay no matter the cost
I moved everything off a gopro to a t7 hard drive and then deleted everything from my gopro folder and then everything was gone from the t7 folder aswell