What Are The Best EXTERNAL Hard Drives for VIDEO EDITING?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
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What are the best external hard drives for video editing? I'm gonna break it down based on FOUR types of editors I most commonly see as well as a hard drive's SIZE, SPEED, and EFFICIENCY.
CHAPTERS
0:00 | Opening
0:42 | Intro
1:32 | Types of Video Editors
2:23 | Mobile & Disorganized Editors
5:30 | Mobile & Organized Editors
6:41 | Immobile & Disorganized Editors
8:35 | Immobile & Organized Editors
10:06 | Recap of Best Drives for Different Types of Editors
12:18 | Hit Me Up In The Comments
12:32 | Don't Forget to Backup Your Data
12:53 | Closing
13:15 | End Cards
Links to all the hard drives mentioned:
Samsung T5 SSD 2TB | amzn.to/3r72y0S
Samsung T5 SSD 1TB | amzn.to/34jHAlT
SanDisk Extreme SSD 2TB | amzn.to/3mtnbkx
LaCie Rugged HDD 5TB | amzn.to/34kPw6g
Samsung 870 QVO SSD | amzn.to/384qE3G
LaCie Rugged HDD 4TB Thunderbolt | amzn.to/3nxLTBO
Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 Adapter | amzn.to/3r5bAfa
Samsung T7 SSD 2TB | amzn.to/34k1UmZ
SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD 2TB | amzn.to/38hJa9c
Samsung X5 SSD 2TB | amzn.to/2WjHvdA
Samsung X5 SSD 1TB | amzn.to/3gURUWn
LaCie Rugged SSD Pro 2TB | amzn.to/3oXQDAF
LaCie Rugged SSD Pro 1TB | amzn.to/37qz6eP
LaCie 1big Dock | www.lacie.com/products/big/1b...
G-Technology G-RAID 12TB Thunderbolt | amzn.to/3p2JVcC
Promise Pegasus32 R4, R6 & R8 | www.promise.com/us/Products/P...
G-Technology G-SPEED Shuttle | shop.westerndigital.com/c/ext...
LaCie 6big & 12big RAID | www.lacie.com/products/big/6b...
Links to Videos Mentioned:
Back Up Your Data with Chronosync | • How to Backup Your Har...
More Data Management! | • More Data Management! ...
Data Management & Archiving! | • Data Management & Arch...
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Canon EOS R | geni.us/J29mRB
Atomos Ninja V | geni.us/WAId4k
Canon RF to EF Adapter | geni.us/Y1Ct6Us
Canon 17-40mm f/4 L-Series Lens | geni.us/V3yj2S
Canon 24-70mm f/4 L-Series Lens | geni.us/Qt5L
Canon 24-105mm f/4 L-Series Lens | geni.us/8JFiYuL
Canon 70-200 f/4 L-Series Lens | geni.us/ud5ALz
Manfrotto Tripod & Fluid Head | geni.us/kgZB
Deity V-Mic D3 Pro | geni.us/1P2UAC
Rode NTG-2 Shotgun Mic | geni.us/zDLi
Tascam DR-10L Lav Mic | geni.us/G9bb
Tascam DR-60D MkII | geni.us/nhidp
Aputure Lightstorm 120D | geni.us/UkhVm
Aputure Lightdome II | geni.us/TlC8fd
MY VIDEO EDITING GEAR:
Mac Pro (2013) | Quad-Core, 32GB RAM, D300 GPU, 256 GB SSD
15" Retina MacBook Pro (Late 2013) | Quad-core, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD
Apple Magic Keyboard | geni.us/CxAHcZ8
Apple Magic Trackpad | geni.us/l4Kaq5M
Dell Ultrasharp U2718Q 27" 4K IPS Monitor | geni.us/X1Auwa
Dell Ultrasharp P2719H 27" IPS 1080p Monitor | geni.us/hAyI
Mackie CR3 Studio Monitors | geni.us/hIaR6zm
Sony MDR7506 Studio Monitor Headphones | geni.us/EgXC
Samsung T5 1TB | geni.us/MhL4AI
LaCie Rugged 1TB Thunderbolt / USB-C SSD | geni.us/CuHS6
Seagate 4TB (Archiving) | geni.us/kgA4p
Seagate 8TB (Archive Backup) | geni.us/LSrrXP
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#fcpx #finalcutprox #videoediting
A couple of things - did this video with my teleprompter and am very curious what ya'll think! Also, got a bit of a different look with this vid - I filmed it with my C300 MkII and used a custom-made LUT from our ol' friend Cody Jones! Lemme know what you think! Lastly - what hard drive are YOU using to edit your videos??? Thanks for watching!
Your set up is cool. I tried using that stream deck but the learning curve was taking away from the 11th hour editing I was scrambling to finish. Ha. I’ll get back to it. How’s the track pad for editing over mouse?
But I’m interested in the upper monitor set up.
Lucky to get a LG CX 55 and I haven’t figured out how to rearrange things yet. Trying to find the time between streaming life and editing deadlines. Oh and coordinating uploads between worldwide google crashes...that was briefly fun.
The flow was great. I always wondered how do you guys remember all this remarkable information :-). Great job too! Question do you have a video on what to do with the FCPX backup folders that's in the movies of the apple computer?
New look is great!
@@ENTERTAINER88 Thanks for saying so! And I hear ya on the learning curve with Stream Deck - not a good time to tackle it when you've got videos that are due. Maybe later!
I love the trackpad over the mouse - mostly because the trackpad is SILENT. I can't stand the sound of a clicking mouse while I work. Give it a try!
@@llrhinc It helps to script it and read it off the teleprompter! All of my previous vids are done off of an outline and made to seem more precide though editing - there's definitely a lot that gets cut out because I go on tangents or can't figure out how to say something the way I want to say it. Haha.
I don't have a dedicated video to the FCPX Backup Folders ... but I regularly go through mine and simply delete them for projects that have long been archived. Great idea for a video, though!
LOVED everything about this video! The thumbnail, title, intro, and everything! Hope more people come across your channel!! Thanks for being so organized & sharing with us your knowledge! Definitely subscribing!
Thanks so much for taking a moment to comment! So glad my quirky intro didn't put you off - I think it may make quite a few viewers hit the ol' back button on their browser pretty quickly. Definitely hoping more viewers and subs come to the channel - liking, substring, and sharing helps immensely. Thanks for subscribing and welcome to the channel!
Absolutely awesome video Matthew! I really appreciated your cozy setup and lighting, together with that intro and just all of the valuable information you provided. Thank you so so much, this has been very helpful!!
Thanks so much! Glad the intro didn’t weird you out. 🤣 Glad it helped!
As someone who only edits with a laptop in less than optimal locations, I appreciate how you broke down and specialized this video!
There are sooooo many editors in the same situation as you - how can one hard drive possibly match everyone? Appreciate you watching and commenting!
This was indeed very organised ! Truly appreciated!
You're welcome, Daniela! Thanks for watching!
this video needs more attention, great job!
Appreciate that! Checked out your channel and LOVE what I'm seeing over there. Liked a few vids and excited to see more from both of you!
Well.....I was going to make a video all about storage options for editors, but I think you covered everything that could possibly be covered. So eloquently explained and incredibly put together Matthew!
Haha .... yeah, I kinda covered a lot in this one, didn't I? 😬 A great subject to get multiple opinions on, though!
A legend with another legend in the same place. You are amazing guys
Thanks, Gabriel! 🤘🏻
Just wanted to say THANK YOU so much for this video. I was trying to find a simple answer for my hard drive questions, but was only finding tech TH-camrs yelling at me with crazy hand motions and loud music and never getting to the point. You're like a breath of fresh air. 😩
I'm definitely the Immobile Disorganized creator and it's been extremely frustration. I'm not technology minded at ALL and don't even know the basics of computers, so basically everything I do I'm learning as I go. I use an iMac, and my internal storage is almost full with 4k videos and photos, which is slowing down my computer greatly.
Also, completely unrelated, but where'd you get those desk lamps? They're super cozy!
It’s easy on those iMacs even with a 1TB hdd to fill it up quickly with 4K footage. One of the most overlooked tools for video editing is data storage and it’s often the one that folks try to cut corners with most. It’s not very fun to spend $1k on a big, used RAID array but if if you’re doing this for a living you have to. I hope you’ve been able to come up with a solution!
Here’s the link to the lamps I bought for my studio! amzn.to/3ErkHN9
I use it with this dimmer switch: amzn.to/3BgVP8Q
And these halogen light bulbs: amzn.to/3pvt2Ld
Halogen bulbs are best for dimming because they don’t buzz when dimmed and they get warmer the more they’re dimmed (unlike dimmable LEDs which i loathe). 👌🏻
Fantastic recommendations. Fantastic video. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Carlos!
Great info, just what I needed!
Awesome!
Great video, thanks mate 🔥🔥🔥
You're welcome!
this video was amazing exactly what i needed thank you so much
You’re welcome! 🤘🏻🙌🏻
Thanks for the promised episode. Been hanging out for it. Love your content. I’ll watch this a few more times after the kids go back to their mum for a couple of weeks
You’re welcome! And thanks for the kind words. Glad the content is helping!
Awesome video! Very informative and thorough. Thank you sir.
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
Thank-you!! I’m immobile disorganized and trying to figure out what to do, as I just got the Canon R5 and omg 😱 file sizes... The “1-dock” is perfect for me, and I had no idea it existed.
I do like the 1-dock as well, but just be aware of its speed limitations. The 1dock is good for 1080p video editing but once you get up into 4k you may want to either look at getting one outfitted with an SSD (very expensive and really only capable of 4TB capacities - which may not be enough for you) or going for LaCie's 2big Dock configured at RAID0 which will get you close to 500 MB/s - a speed that's much more compatible with 4K video editing from your R5.
Let me know what your'e thinking as far as what resolution you're going to use for the R5 - again, if you're committed to 4K the 1big is most likely going to be too slow for reliable playback. An 8TB 2big Dock with Thunderbolt 3 starts at $649 for 8TB. To me, that's a really great value. And it has the USB-A port and the CF and SD card readers. A great all-in-one option.
thank u for making such a detailed and thorough video!
You’re welcome! I hope it was helpful! Thanks so much for watching.... 🤘🏻🙌🏻
Best thing about this video is the very helpful breakdown between organised or not & mobile or not, never heard it explained that way. I was able to figure out exactly what to look for. Thanks
So glad that was helpful for you! Glad you know what to get for your hard drive needs! Just curious - what drive did you decide is best for you? Thanks for watching! 🤘🏻🙌🏻
@@matthewTobrien I have a bunch already & I'm mobile & desk based as well as disorganised but wanting to get organised so I'm putting a qnap NAS in my office (which I can sync remotely to) as well as a well as a SanDisk Extreme Pro when I'm on the road. I love to back up my SD cards before I leave a client site, it's saved me quite a few times. Thanks for asking
Gotta do it! I do the same thing (using Hedge).
Utterly, utterly priceless. Thx so much Matt. 💛🙏🏼
You’re welcome, Glen! Glad it was helpful. 👍🏻🙌🏻
Excellent & thoroughly thorough approach
Soooo thorough. 😋
This was a lot of help. It helped me understand why ppl might beef with certain drives on Best Buy’s reviews as well lol
Haha - yeah, I hear that, Fabiano. Thanks for watching!
That intro was perfection
Hahaha - glad you enjoyed it! I stopped doing it because I think it was tanking my audience retention. 😢 A lot of people thought that’s just how I am. 🤣🤷🏻♂️
Love the way you color grade!
Thanks, Barbara! 🙌🏻🤘🏻
@@matthewTobrien please do a video on how you colo grade your videos
Thanks for this useful information. 😺
Great information buddy!
Thanks, John!
the best video on storage for editors. Thank you!
Thanks for saying so, Otto! And thanks for watching.
Great video thank you so much man!
You're welcome - thanks for watching!
This definitely helps! Thank you
So great to hear that. Thanks so much for watching!
ok 3rd video i watch from your channel, and get better and better, my english is not well enough but you defintly hit the nail on every subject i was wondering about. don't want get emotional, but i love you :D
Haha, too funny. I love FCPX and this community!!!
I like your style! Thanks for the great video
Thanks, Peter! Glad it was helpful!
One thing I'll add specifically for the stationary organized user using RAID storage - Make sure you are using the USB 3.x or Thunderbolt interfaces for connectivity. If you have to use Ethernet because you have a traditional NAS or need to share your storage with other workstations, then make sure you get one with 10Gb/s Ethernet (and 10Gb/s for your video editing workstation). 1Gb/s Ethernet can be a chokepoint that a lot of people don't realize until it's too late.
Excellent point!
Your intro scared me but turned out to be super informative! I like the way you broke down the users. I am mobile and fall between the 2 so I will probably get a 2TB Samsung T7 or SD pro. Another decision! Thanks and really enjoyed it.
Yeah, I've got a few videos on my channel with my weird intro like that. Just had an impulse one day to tee off a video with "that guy" and have done it a few times since. I wonder how many viewers I lose at the beginning because they're like, "Who is THIS guy???" Haha. Thanks for hanging in there Stebo!
My first time watching you and with that intro I almost stopped, but happy I finished watching as your information was helpful.
Yeah, the intro - I’m sure - has made quite a few viewers hit the ol’ back button on their browsers. Appreciate you sticking with it!
Absolutely loved that Intro, the music, the lighting hahahaha
Haha - I know...I went out on a limb with the weird humor for that one. I'm sure a lot of people tune out when they see it because it seems strange, but for those who don't and get my humor, I love it!
@@matthewTobrien you nailed it hahaha
Super helpful, thank you!
You're welcome! Thanks for watching! 🤘🏻🙌🏻
Thanks a lot for this video 🙏🏽
You're very welcome!
Looks and sounds great. Super good info!
Thanks, Chris! And thanks for watching!
Thanks, Chris! And thanks for watching! 🙌🏻
Very helpful thank you
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
SUPER Helpful!!!!
So glad to hear that! 🤘🏻🙌🏻
This was very well laid out and explained 👏
Thanks, Tyrone! Hope it was helpful. 🙌🏻👌🏻
@@matthewTobrien yes it was very helpful! One quick question. How would compare the Promise Pegasus to a similar QNAP or Synology setup in terms of performance?
There's a lot to unpack there, and that makes it not a simple answer. QNAP and Synology (if they're connected via 10Gb/s ethernet) are limited to 1,000 MB/s. This isn't a big deal if you are using 7200 RPM spinning disk drives because you're not going to really be able to configure those to get to 1,000 Mb/s. But if you had SSDs you could go _faster_ than 1,000 MB/s but, again, the 10Gb/s ethernet connection limits you to just 1,000 MB/s. Which is plenty fast to handle most HD and 4K workflows. A Promise Pegasus32 R4 will get you similar speeds to a QNAP if you use spinning disk drives (traditional HDDs) but you have the potential to go even faster because of the combination of Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and SSD drives. Speeds can potentially reach 2800 MB/s on the Pegasus32 depending on how you have it configured and which SSds you're using. Of course even an R4 with SSD drives is incredibly expensive. And you can't connect additional workstations to it or treat it as a server you can access from anywhere (as long as you have an Internet connection).
So the key thing here is to ask yourself what's most important to you?
Convenience | Do you need to access your media from anywhere?
Scalability | Do you need additional editors to be able to access the drive at the same time because you're in a multi-user environment?
Speed | Does your workflow need drive speeds above 1,000 MB/s?
Budget | Do you need to go with the best but _least expensive_ option?
Also, how's your tech aptitude? A QNAP or Synology has the potential to require a lot more "work" to setup and maintain in comparison to a Pegasus32 which is more sort of "set it up once and forget it" (in my experience).
@@matthewTobrien thanks for detailed reply. I really appreciate that. 👍 👍
My pleasure! Hope it helps. 🤙🏻
I still barely understand what you’re saying but I you’re the first person to get me to that point, so thank you!!! Hahaha I appreciate you breaking it down on all levels!
Haha - yeah, it's a lot. Glad you're making progress! It can take a while, but you'll get there! Let me know if you have any questions. 👌🏻🤘🏻
thank you for this excellent comparison! I've been debating between upgrading storage options as even after deleting my transcoded & render files since my cloud storage offloading finished projects for archiving is filling up rather quickly...this was very helpful & well-organised! :D
So glad to hear that! Let me know if you decide to buy anything!
@@matthewTobrien will do! Thanks again! :D
Matthew, Such a great video! Happy to be a part of the community! I've been living through a nightmare for several weeks. I'd love to get someone's input on how to establish a solid media management workflow. To summarize my situation, I purchased a Qnap NAS Raid system 4 or 5 months ago. Its 16TB's of storage is filled to capacity now. Not understanding Raid systems entirely, I simply purchased one additional 6TB hard drive, thinking "6TBs should hold me up for this month". I come to find out I must buy all four new hard drives and format the system to continue using it properly. As it stands, I replaced all four drives but have not formatted the system because I'm finishing a Documentary that is within the Raid. This is causing a bottleneck in my workflow because I have nowhere to offload the day-to-day shooting drives that I use with my cameras. I consider myself the "Immobile & Organized" Editor, but over the last month, I've slowly turned back into a hot mess with about 10 Samsung T7s laying around the office *cue anxiety! Anyone with helpful input that could lead me toward a resource to help build a cost-effective and time-efficient workflow would-be killer! Thanks in advance.
I think you're actually well on your way with your QNAP NAS RAID. The biggest issue was underestimating your data needs with your documentary project. I'd recommend getting an additional RAID with 24TB or higher storage and offloading your QNAP to that and then upgrading the hard drives in your QNAP to the 6TB drives you purchased. Once that's done copy the media from the 2nd RAID back to the QNAP and then use the 2nd RAID as a backup for the QNAP moving forward.
My current setup is ONE 24TB Promise Pegasus2 R8 - this stores all of my client work, personal photos/videos, and my TH-cam channel. Then I have a SECOND 24TB Promise Pegasus2 R8 that backs the first R8 up. I use the app Chronosync to do daily backups of the main R8 to the backup R8. This is scheduled to happen every day at 1:30 AM.
Unfortunately the solution to your problem is going to be expensive but not as expensive as having all of your data disappear because it's strewn across multiple hard drives.
I hope an upgrade of the QNAP from 16TB to 24TB is enough. It sounds like you're creating a lot of data with the footage you're shooting. What are you shooting? 4K RAW?
I want to hear about workflow using external drives too!
Thank you very much for your analysis. Do you have any suggestion for cloud based back-ups?
Backblaze seems to be the go-to solution. I have yet to use it, but I hear great things. 🙌🏻
ok, the quality of this video was amazing. As someone who isn't tech-literate, you made me feel really comfortable taking in this knowledge. I tend to be really organized, but my laptop is now struggling to free up space. I do plan on living in another state half of the year soon, so I imagine something mobile but organized would be for me???
Oh wow, thank you so much for that feedback. Definitely look at something for Mobile Organized. For me I'd either SSD a small capacity LaCie Rugged (upgrade to 4TB - but opening a brand new one voids the warranty) or snag a 2TB Samsung T7 (and then another drive of equal size to act as a backup). Thanks for watching my vid!
@@matthewTobrien thank you again for the helpful advice. I think I’m gonna end up going for two Samsung T7s. I’m on my way to watch your backup guide now! 😀
@@matthewTobrien Samsung 870 QVO is technically shitty product. I don't understand why you recommend it for anyone. Flash used in QVO is not durable and its slow. After drive's buffer is full it is slower than HDD.
Good recommendation. I normally edit on external SSDs like T5, T7 or others from Samsung. Or when I shoot with my FS5II and Atomos Shogun Inferno (ProRes Raw) and there is still enough space, I edit on the SSDs I filmed with. It fast and very handy - so easy to work with. I always connect using USB-C. In addition I of course always backup all footage locally and on two cloud platforms (Dropbox and AWS). I normally import all footage into the FCPX library - which is very handy for backup-purposes. I never edit locally or on an HDD or NAS - it is simply too slow an annoying ;)
Sounds like you’ve got a great workflow that works really well for you. And yeah, the drives that I use with my NinjaV are pretty dang fast even with USB 3.0. I don’t work off of them myself, but that’s because I’m working on my desktop with that big ol’ RAID. Good for you for doing cloud backups, especially with the amount of data you have to be making. I’m still doing a 3rd physical backup offsite, but as soon as I can get a fiber connection I’m going to be backing up projects to Backblaze for sure. And I agree about slowness of HDD or NAS. I much prefer my Pegasus2 R8 or my 2TB Thunderbolt LaCie Rugged if I’m mobile. Thanks for watching and sharing your process!
@@matthewTobrien apologies for digging up this older video, but how has the support with the Promise Utility been for you on Ventura? I'm thinking of going down this road.
Dude, Thank you.
You're welcome! Glad it was helpful. 👍🏻 Thanks for watching! 🤘🏻🙌🏻
Such a great video! Thanks! Just set up my 32TB thunderbolt - for a 5 year documentary in 3 1/2 years into - going to spec it up to SSD once I’ve data managed the Initial 3 years of content that was very much mobile/ disorganized lol
Sounds like a great plan, Cameron! Just be sure to check with the manufacturer that SSDs are compatible with your RAID array. Worth double-checking before you purchase expensive SSDs. And good luck with that huge doc project! Thanks for watching!
@@matthewTobrien Thank you for your helpful video! You mentioned in the video that it's possible to make the G RAID drives even faster by configuring them with SSDs for workflows that can support above 4K footage. Could you explain how to do that..? Do you know which kinds of SSDs work with witch kinds of RAIDS?
@fannytexier The G-RAID Shuttles have drive sleds that I’m fairly certain can be fitted with adapters to allow for the smaller footprint of SSD drives. Perhaps not NVMe drives but more likely the 2.5” SSDs. You typically use 3.5” spinning disk drives in them, but if you’re okay with spending a lot more money on SSDs for faster speeds (while ultimately having less total storage space) then SSD is the move.
But G-Technology also has SSD RAIDs for the last 5 years now so you could just buy one of those.
If you have an older G-RAID that’s out of warranty, and you want to open it up and swap out the 3.5” spinning disk drives for SSDs I have to imagine someone out there makes a kit or adapter that allows you to do that.
Ultimately it’s probably easiest to just purchase a used or new drive that already has SSDs in it. We don’t want to step over a dollar to save a dime.
I swapped out the spinning disk drive on my LaCie Shuttle drives for SSDs and they work great, but they’re not a RAID.
Thanks so much for this, I've been loving your videos! Would you consider a fellow up video explaining how to become an organized editor with the setups explained in this video?
I have the SanDisk extreme tb mentioned in this video for my editing, but find that I don't know the best solution for organizing it when it fills up and then moving those files to a bigger storage drive when I'm done with them. Again thanks for your content really find it informative!
Check out the other videos I’ve made that are linked in the description. They’re all about Data Management, Backing Up, etc. And you can watch this video about how to use my project folder tree to better organize your media and project assets.
th-cam.com/video/GET0s8-lUhg/w-d-xo.html
Definitely looking at producing a video that covers the end to end process of organizing and managing data from the start of a project all the way to archiving. 👌🏻
Brilliant video- I like the way you broke it down into user archetypes. Have you got a recommendation for the organized mobile shooter that needs portable RAID?
Thanks so much, Faysal! I'm glad you responded to the user archetypes - it's so hard to pick ONE drive for everyone. I don't think it works that way. As far as a portable RAID goes.... This is a tough one. To me, with portability, you need two essential things: convenience & reliability. For convenience, you need something that's bus-powered. Can't be dealing with an AC adapter or looking for outlets. So that rules out A LOT of RAID drives. You also need reliability. And there are three levels of that for me: 1. SSD (most reliable) 2. HDD but housed in an enclosure that can handle portability 3. HDD (least reliable)
So LaCie makes a portable RAID that's bus-powered. Here's the link: amzn.to/3aSFCMX
This drive is only $249, it's USB-C, and it has a built-in SD Card slot - which is great if you're a photographer and you're using a newer MacBook Pro on your shoots.
Biggest issues with this drive? It's slow. 250MB/s - great for photography, not great for transferring large amount of video quickly. And it has HDDs instead of SSDs.
What would I do? I personally would probably crack open the enclosure (my older LaCie Ruggeds are very easy to open - just 4 screws) and look at swapping out the HDDs for SSDs. Now this will VOID your warranty, so do your research before you buy it to self-upgrade.
I personally would probably start here if looking for a portable RAID. Thanks for watching, Faysal!
@@matthewTobrien thank you so much for your detailed reply and recommendation! You bring up some really valid points. I considered the LaCie with the SSD swap - I like that it has an integrated SD card slot. But then getting more granular with our use case - the drive will almost always be moved out of our base (long term Airbnb) every few months. It still has to be easy to travel with and laptop powered but it’s not out and about often.
So we went with the 10TB MiniPro Dura RAID USB 3.1 (USB-C) Portable Rugged Hard Drive (circa $420 imported to Australia via Amazon US). It’s cheaper than the 8TB LaCie RAID Shuttle, is just as fast, has better reviews and more storage. Hopefully it was a good choice!
I'll have to check that one out - always curious about hard drive options outside of the big manufacturers. Let me know how it works out!
Great tips.
Thanks Baard! 🙌🏻👌🏻
I use a mix of the solutions you mention. I am a mobile warrior and love my MacBook Pro. I use a 2TB WD Black NVME SSD over USB-C which gives me the ability to edit directly from the drive, but I tend to make a copy of the raw files locally just in case. These files are backed up to the cloud via Back Blaze and I sync over to a 100TB NAS running RAID6 using rsync with versioning. This way, I have the security and enormous archiving space, as well as the super fast local speeds for editing. Might not be the most efficient or cost effective, but I always have a backup somewhere to rely on in case I do something really stupid (which does happen). Oh, I fall into a category called "Not very mobile, semi-organised"
That sounds like an awesome Mobile setup, Tim! Those NVME SSDs are screaming fast and 2TB is a great, affordable size for mobile editing, even in 4K (as long as you don't have too many projects/clients to serve!). And you're on your A-game with that 100TB NAS - dang! I'm looking at switching my main Pegasus2 R8 to RAID0 (from RAID5 - to get a bump in speed now that I'm editing in 4K for my client work) and my 2nd Pegasus2 R8 (for backing up the main one) to RAID6 (from RAID5). I definitely need to get Back Blaze worked into my workflow for 2021 but will need to raise prices for clients in order to upgrade my residential Internet plan to something faster and with unlimited data (I hate that Cox and other cable companies adopted the telecoms' model of tiering their data packages - I get it from a business standpoint but MAN is it frustrating to be paying more for less).
I wouldn't knock your setup as not efficient or cost effective - sounds to me like you are ready for years to come for whatever is thrown your way regarding post-production. I've avoided a NAS because I feel like they can be a nightmare to troubleshoot sometimes, but it would be incredibly helpful to at least have all of my past TH-cam content on a NAS so I don't have to go to the file cabinet to grab my archive drive when I need to pull b-roll, etc. from past videos.
And great to hear where you land on my chart - I love that you're organized as far as your gear goes but I know it can be a lot of work to keep all the files ON those drives nice 'n tidy.
Thanks for watching, Tim!
this deserves more views
i needed confirmation that if i only use 1080hd material i would still need a ssd, but i rather go for a hhd since im on a budget. thanks!
Agreed! I think my weird intro didn't help this video to go viral. Haha. Glad you got the confirmation you're looking for. I mean, I always prefer SSD over HDD, but with 1080p footage you most likely will be good to go with an HDD connected via USB 3.0 or higher. A 7200RPM disc would be best, but those typically are available only in smaller capacities. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Matthew, very entertaining intro for such an important and techie topic. In an earlier comment you said you were thinking of doing an update of this topic in 2022 - did you do so? Are NVMe SSD drives something in your editing workstation setup now? I'm working towards going from "Immobile & disorganised" to "Immobile & organised". Currently I've got too many external SATA drives sitting around that get plugged into 2 slot drive bays when needed. "Now where was that project...?"
I haven't done an update video yet, but I have one planned! And congrats on developing the skills to become Immobile / Organized - it can be tough!
Been loving your videos. Do you recommend 1 Sandisk Extreme for FCPX cache and backups, then a second Sandisk Extreme PRO for final export saves? Extreme is 550MB/s and Extreme PRO is. 2000MB/s.
Because of your awesome videos, I was able to fix my disk space issue and move cache to my external SSD. THANK YOU!
If money is no object I would look at getting the Extreme Pro for editing AND cache/render files and an Extreme for backing up the Extreme Pro (check out my video about how to backup a drive using Chronosync: th-cam.com/video/IVC8ebSyUrc/w-d-xo.html) so your footage/media and FCPX library are duplicated.
And I would simply watch my overall free space on the Extreme Pro and regularly delete unused render files using the Delete Generated Library Files feature to do so. 👌🏻
Let me know if you think that would work for you!
Great vid, I like the way you broke down different usages and which drives would likely work best in each. My G-Tech 4TB just filled up so I was thinking of getting a network device that'll sync with a cloud service for permanent backup and then based on this vid, get the 2TB LaCie Rugged or X5 for day to day projects and for FCPx's render and cache folders. My MBP only has a 512 Gig drive so I only keep 1 big project on the internal SSD at a time. Way too many times the dreaded "you're out of space" message has come up while rendering or transposing files.
Sounds like a solid plan, Jason! It's amazing that in this day and age 4TB of storage can fill up that fast. I mean, I have 21TB of on-line storage and I have about 5TB of free space currently (and that's with a fairly light project load right now). Anything to avoid the "you're out of space" warning! Thanks for watching!
@@matthewTobrien I decided to go with the OWC Envoy Pro as it's super fast and I'll move my G-Tech drive to the USB port of my router and sync it to dropbox and use it as backup only. What online storage provider to you use? I'm always moving Logic and FCPx projects back and forth since my internal SSD is only 256G.
I use Dropbox, Google Drive, and Frame.io. The first two only for docs and simple stuff. Frame.io for all project media and assets between me and my collaborators.
I'm on the same boat!
I’d say “ Stationary” vs immobile. 😊 Great video. Glad I found your channel.
Yuuuup, def shoulda gone with Stationary. 🤦🏻♂️ Thanks for watching! 🙌🏻
Thanks☺️
You're welcome!
I was just firing up FCP whilst watching you and the warning came up. Thought it was mine but it was on your video lol
Haha, yup - I think it's triggered quite a few viewers since I posted it.... 🤣
I’m a big believer in just stacks of little drives scattered across your workspace. With marker on them with goofy name and date. It’s effective and very safe. Great video. I’m the worse because when I have the pennies to get a bug network drive I go off and buy another lens.
Hahaha - I’m guilty of lens purchases too! But ditch the stacks, man! Snag a monster drive and call it good. 🤘🏻👌🏻
Once again, awesome video. I am really intrigued by swapping out the Lacie internal drive from their rugged series with a 2.5" sata ssd. I'm assuming any 2.5" sata ssd will do? Albeit Samsung 4tb is the likely choice here. Thanks!
Yup, and some of the 2.5” SSDs come with a spacer and some don’t. Not a huge issue if they don’t have it. Mine are going strong!
@@matthewTobrien How exactly do you swap it out?
@@FreshSqueezedLightning On the LaCie Rugged you need to remove the orange bumper and then on the enclosure you'll see some Philips screws. Take those out, slide out the hard drive, unscrew it from the caddy and disconnect the drive, put the new one in and put it all back together. It's pretty easy with this drive. At least it was for me.
Incredibly done video.
-mobile & organized
Welcome to the club! 💾🖥✅
I love the style of this video and the way that you presented the information. I am immobile and somewhere between organized and disorganized. You mentioned that it's risky to edit off an internal drive; why is this? I am considering editing off my internal drive, then archiving on a large HDD with backup in a cloud-based service. I don't see a need to edit off an external drive, but correct me if I'm wrong! I have little experience in this area.
You can absolutely edit off of your internal drive. Especially if it's a large-capacity SSD. The only issue with editing off your internal is that you have to be diligent about managing your render files in Final Cut. If you're editing (4K footage especially) you can create a TON of render files and you can max out your internal drive very quickly. When that happens, performance takes a real nosedive and then you're halting work to manage those render files.
@@matthewTobrien Sounds good, thanks so much!
Great video and channel. I have a couple comments.
First I recommend testing any SSDs you buy. An industry trick is to have a fast cache on a slow SSD. They test fast for small files BUT cannot sustain read or write. I had one drop from 320 MB/s to 40MB/s after about 30 seconds and it never recovered.
Second: On workflow. have a 2017 15" MBP and I get R/W speeds of around 1920MB/s on the internal SSD that usually has about 500Gb free. I have found a workflow that is fast and cost effective. In most cases I am editing 1080p under 10 minute segments. Post shooting I copy all source video onto an external LaCie 2Big TB with upgraded 4Tb 7200 rpm drives RAID 1 and it tests at about 220MB/s. Next I copy the source media to a working folder on the internal MBP SSD Drive. I also save the working project FCPX library to the same internal SSD folder. I work from the internal SSD with milestone backups for the project to an external drive. Once the project is finished and rendered I purge the cache and render files and move the FCPX library to the external RAID for long term storage. I find this provides me with great performance. On the backup side I have set the FCPX backup to an external drive and all drives are backed up to another external BU drive that is rotated offsite every few months.
I pose this question: In the past using an internal drive was not a good practice due to the concern about internal heat and overworking the drive. Is this still see as an issue with internal SSD's?
All GREAT info, D M. You know your stuff. Totally agree with your process for purging cache and render files and getting the FCPX library off to an archive. Sounds like you've got a great post-production workflow. I go into my data management process in a few older videos on the channel - pretty much the same as yours.
I don't think working off of internal drives is as much of an issue, especially since SSDs have come down in price and you can get a MacBook Pro with 1, 2, 4, and 8TB configurations. I think Apple has gone this route on their pro line, too, because there are so many different creators that using internal drives for editing, photography, etc. is much simpler. Who wants two Samsung T7s dangling off your computer at all times (one for working, one for a backup of your working drive)? I sure don't. Granted an 8TB config is stupid expensive, but for the user who values simplicity in their hardware, I think it's a great option.
As I look at upgrading my 2013 MacBook Pro this year, I will definitely be looking at a 2 or 4TB option because I really LOVE the idea of editing my TH-cam content in particular anywhere in the house - not anchored to my studio workstation because that's where all the horsepower is.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
thank you for this SUPERB description of your post-workflow.
I was vibing with the logic of the disorganized mobile editor needing more space than the organized one, but then you saved the biggest capacity toys for the organized immobile editor. This disorganized immobile editor is gonna be loading up on the organized hardware😅
however I think I might actually be an organized editor ( I use a strict file structure and backup process for naming things), but my physical office is incredibly disorganized😊
It's tough to pull the trigger sometimes on large capacity hard drives/RAIDs, but they are a must if you want to quell any data anxiety. And definitely get that office organized! Haha
Very informative video, I have to say my personal experience with lacie has been less than desirable. G tech and SanDisk has been great.
I have only used a few LaCie drives and my current ones actually have Samsung SSDs in them (I swapped out the hdd for the ssd). That's what I love about their rugged drives - they're easy to take apart vs. other drives that you have to damage or break to crack open.
I haven't owned any larger LaCie drives - like their larger portable drives or RAID drives so I can't speak to the quality of those.
And I don't do G-Tech because, in the past, they've always been incredibly loud and have too bright of lights. They are the standard for large capacity non-RAID drives for video professionals, though. A lot of production companies with closets full of those things.
God early on I wasn't paying attention and filled up my internal drive and locked up my machine. The only good thing is I had a T5 1TB so I was able to move stuff off pretty quickly and get back up and running. But that was NOT a good day. I think it crashed a livestream I was doing - or it was a TH-cam video I was trying to get out. It was a few years and I haven't had that happened since thing. I use DaisyDisk and "Get Info" to keep on top of the files. ChronoSync makes copy of of everything so I can remove them on the main system once I'm done with the edit and ready to archive. I also use a unix command to find and remove proxy and render files.
Nothing like learning the hard way! That's all happened to me as well, and I've been fortunate to have close friends in the biz who share tips and pointers for how to manage all that data. It's a lot of work - and I'm actually doing my data management right now!
I am organized and mobile (or will be more mobile when COVID allows for open coffee shops.) I use 1 TB and 500GB Sandisk and Samsung portable SSD's. I group the data by task for video and by year for photography. I then back them up to an external hard drive when I get home.
Sounds like both a solid AND organized workflow to me! Can't wait to go back to coffee shops to do some work...
@@matthewTobrien I may run into you since I live in the Omaha area....
THANK YOU!! Question. I want to find a work flow where I can cull my footage before I put it into Premier, and just dump all the clips im not using so I can save space. Any advice? Love the way you communicate and explain things!!!
Well look no further than excellent Media Asset Management software Kyno:
lesspain.software/kyno/
Here’s an excellent video from LumaForge about it: th-cam.com/video/7rimNbv7Vl8/w-d-xo.html
And another from NAB about it: th-cam.com/video/7K_keC_jwLM/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for watching, Ryan! 🙌🏻🤘🏻
"Immobile & Disorganized"
Haha - SSD for sure! Expensive but so much faster.
Thank you for breaking down the type of editors! Definitely helped. I'm a mobile-somewhat organized editor, and once I get an M2 I will start to shoot 4k 10 bit and will move to editing off of external SSD's and archive on large USB 3 drives. Now that this video is a couples years old would your advice change to building your own external with a Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosure with NVMe drive or still get a SanDisk extreme ssd? I want to edit without proxies and will only have 2 streams of 4k, will the extreme be fast enough?
I think the SanDisk Extreme is still a solid option for that. I think it's 1050MB/s if I recall correctly, and I would think that combined with M2 can handle two streams of 4K 10-bit no problem.
You can always spend a bit more and go with the Extreme Pro - that drive is 2800MB/s. I have heard a few users having some issues with that drive with macOS Ventura. Not sure what the root of the problem is, but I think it gets resolved but it requires some work to get it sorted. Sorry to be so vague - I've only heard things here and there and haven't worked through it myself.
One hard drive company I really like is Glyph. If I were still doing a lot of client work (especially remote), I'd pop for one of their Thunderbolt 3 Atom PRO NVMe SSD v2 drives. 4TB will set you back $1K, but they make these drives for professional workflows, and they're a smaller company so I imagine their support is much faster and it's easier for them to roll out updates as macOS / Macs get updated.
store.glyphtech.com/collections/frontpage/products/atom-pro?variant=39293453336650
(not an affiliate link, BTW, although I wish it were!)
@@matthewTobrien Thanks so much for the help! I've heard somewhere that the Sandisk extreme pro doesn't get those speeds on a mac because it is only for 2x2 ports and it really will only get 1,050MB/s anyway, do you know anything about that? It sounds like the extreme will be enough for now and hopefully I can get a TB3 drive as they get cheaper... not sure if I want to risk building my own with potential heat issues if I don't need the speed yet. Thanks!
I have heard about that as well but not in great detail. I'd love to get with some engineering minds that have tested this out and have some hard data on it. I'm reluctant to update this video and talk about these fast drives when they're theoretical speeds and not something drive can realistically achieve.
And yeah, the DIY approach is risky. A good buddy of mine tried making an 8TB drive using two 4TB SSDs and it would overheat and unmount and it was more trouble than it was worth.
I just do it the cheap way, a couple of usb3 docking station's with several western digital blue mechanical drives 7200rpm rated at 6gbs. Editing 4k video files with davinci resolve studio with no issues at all. The good thing is ,if one drive fails out of my hole archive i still have most of my work .Hardly cost me anything as most of the drives were second hand .Anything seriously important is double backup. Haven't lost any data for years. Made a mistake some yrs back with one massive single drive and lost everything. These small cheap drives tend to be more reliable than these large expensive drives. Was using ssd for continuous write for editing but found a couple of drives started to slow up and wear out so decided to use my storage drive for the editing as well, im no expert but as a hobbyist it works for me .Most of my 4k video final render output is 1080p to save space and easer to share
Glad that's working for you with your 4K workflow in DaVinci! Using bare drives with a USB 3.0 dock is certainly an affordable option for Stationary editors. I use that system for my archive drives, and it's worked very well for me. Not as inexpensive as LTO in the long run but a good solution nonetheless. Thanks for sharing your workflow! And thanks for watching my video!
Which drive did you find to be the fastest overall? Without considering anything other than speed...Great video and content.
I believe the Samsung XD is one of the fastest consumer externals. I imagine there may be a few very expensive “pro” SSD externals that may be a bit faster from more niche manufacturers. And then on the RAID side you’d be looking at any TB3 enclosure outfitted with SSD drives at RAID0 hitting 3 GB/s or higher. But don’t hold me to that! I’d have to double check the numbers.
@@matthewTobrien Thank you for the info, very helpful.
Hi Matthew. Thanks for the detailed video. We're now a couple of years out from it and there is now the Apple Mac Studio line. I am looking at the M1 Ultra set up and considering a 4TB hard drive so that I can work with my 4K footage in Premiere locally rather than using an external, at least during the actual edit process. I saw a comment below in which it sounds like you're a fan of that idea. Is that still the case? I ask because I think I want the r/w speed of an SSD drive but I can't seem to figure out which to get. Poking around your links and the various drives you describe, I am finding most are HDDs or low storage SSDs neither of which seems ideal. I scrolled for sometime through the comments to see if you have addressed a similar question but I didn't see one so I apologize in advance if this is a repeat scenario. Thanks for your time. Great channel btw!
Yes! I am doing the same thing with both of my new M1 Macs. I got the 1TB M1 Pro 14" MacBook Pro and although 1TB is a bit too small for my paid client work, it's plenty of space for my TH-cam content. I opted for the 2TB M1 Max Mac Studio, and I've been using the internal SSD for all of my TH-cam content as well. With 7.4GB/s speeds on that internal 2TB SSD, you just can't come close with anything external. If I really had my way I'd get the 8TB internal drive, but unfortunately that's waaaaay beyond my budget.
If you need to go with an external SSD that you can RAID, you can look at OWC's Thunderblade or Express 4M2. They can achieve speeds up to 2800MB/s. They also sell traditional portable SSDs that can hit 2800MB/s - their Envoy Pro FX and Envoy Pro SX are solid options there.
SanDisk sells a $599 4TB SSD that can hit speeds up to 2000MB/s | amzn.to/3wHP6o5
Glyph sells a $799 4TB SSD ("Atom RAID") that can hit speeds up to 950MB/s | amzn.to/3LLOLGi
LaCie sells a $999 4TB SSD that can hit speeds up to 2800MB/s | amzn.to/3MGNfqc
Here's another Glyph at 4TB for $799 (not sure what speed) | amzn.to/3lCWqw1
Let me know if any of those fit what you're looking for! The links are Amazon Affiliate links, BTW, so if you purchase I'd get a small commission.
@@matthewTobrien Thanks for this great info. It feels like there's an update to the above video somewhere in that reply you sent (unless of course you've posted something like this already and TH-cam simply showed me this previous one). Do you mind if I ask what sort of work you do for clients? We mostly edit traditional real estate photos and produce real estate videos that have some minor graphics but nothing too fancy and we're debating btwn the Max and the Ultra. My gut says the Max is just fine but I'm wondering about future proofing - we've been feeling the limits of our top level Intel Mac for some time now. We're in a position to buy the Ultra if we really have to but could use the money saved to buy a large back up drive which we also going to need pretty soon (probably an HDD since it looks like - thanks to your reply - that we're going to use the built-in Apple SSD when actually editing). Thanks again for your thoughts. (and any links you want to share for back up HDDs who be appreciated - happy to support you if we can. just something to store old footage etc. it was researching all of that which led us down this rabbit hole.)
EDIT: JUST WATCHED YOUR DESK TOUR. YOU COVERED ALL I NEED TO KNOW IN TERMS OF BACK UP. THANKS FOR ANOTHER HELPFUL VIDEO!!
Most of our client videos are documentary-style branded content. But our biggest recent project was a 22 min documentary film for a local museum. You can view it here: vimeo.com/622537380
We have done a few bigger shoots where we're just filming and then delivering the media to the client or post-house.
Early on we were helping a large church here in Omaha with a ton of their weekend content. Documentary-style storytelling about the church, their various projects, stories about specific people in their congregation. We also produced a lot of videos for a local non-profit that was rehabilitating dilapidated properties.
But once the pandemic hit everything really shifted because all the client work stopped abruptly and never really resumed again. So I went all-in on TH-cam and have not pursued much client work locally since my channel started earning revenue.
I can certainly see an argument for the Ultra with regards to future-proofing. Personally, I know that I'm on a 3-ish year upgrade cycle so the M1 Max will most likely carry me no problem through the next 3 years and then I'll be looking at selling it and putting the proceeds toward a new desktop Mac. I would definitely consider allocating some of the savings toward a large back up drive. I prefer a RAID hard drive personally, but there are 14TB Seagate & Western Digital drives that are more affordable.
The ideal option would be something like this Promise Pegasus32 R4 | amzn.to/3wTPEIx
Here's a 14TB Seagate | amzn.to/3z6bbPU
And a 14TB Western Digital | amzn.to/3ahvjEe
I’m in a weird class because I’m a mostly immobile editor, but I edit in two locations 400 miles apart, so I have to transport my laptop and drives between the two every few months. So usually I edit on a Samsung T7 and have 3 backup drives for that current set of projects, but just WD P10’s that are in cases for travel
Any friction points you're experiencing where you're hoping there's an ideal product(s) that will greatly improve things?
What do you suggest as a backup archive for a mobile organized very small filmmaker? I’m super impatient but as I grow my business I realize the importance of redundancy. I’ve had a LaCie 4TB crash and a WD 2TB crash. 🤯 I need something really big like 16-18 TB for archived footage/projects and also something to backup daily from my Sandisk Pro SSD. I kind of want my archived hard drive to be somewhat fast bc I have no patience lol. Thank you!!
Well, if you don't mind a big price tag, I'd take a look at one of OWC's new Thunderblade SSD RAIDs. They're only $2k for 8TB! You can configure them for more. Not an affiliate link: bit.ly/3HFi9ww
Hey Matthew! .. congrats on 15k! .. just wondering.. I have a Mac mini M1 and use a Sony A7S3 .. what read and write speed is good enough for these large 10bit 22 4K files .. curious if the LaCie 2dock or 6dock is the go .. big price difference though lol .. 🤷🏽♂️
This is a great question, Ak. I took a look at the LaCie 2dock and the max speed is 550 MB/s which should be plenty fast enough to read/write Sony 4k footage. Is it the faster for actually transferring all that data? No. But playback? You should be good. I'd go with the Thunderbolt version, personally.
The 6big is definitely more expensive, but I think it covers you for future growth much much better. Its max read/write speed is 1400 MB/s which at 3 times faster than the 2big is pretty great. Now that speed will probably take a hit if you configure to RAID5 which I'd recommend even if you're going to attach a 2nd drive of equal size to it for backing up. And that's another big aspect of this - you MUST MUST MUST have a second drive in your edit bay to back up whichever LaCie you purchase. Just because RAID5 allows a drive to fail in the enclosure, doesn't mean your data is as safe as it could be if you either backed it up to the cloud with Backblaze or if you had a 2nd large capacity drive backing up the LaCie.
If you can afford it, I'd go with the LaCie 6dock. But I use Promise Pegasus2 RAIDS in my edit bay. 🤘🏻🙌🏻
@@matthewTobrien WOW .. thank you Matthew! .. 🙏🏽 .. always so informative .. that made things much easier 😊🙌🏽
You're welcome, Ak! Let me know what you end up doing!
This is a very helpful video! I'm looking at getting the Pegasus 32 R6 24TB as it says "Connect Thunderbolt 3-enabled Macs at 40 Gbps" which would be enough to edit 6K RAW off of I'd imagine? Would be interested if you thought so too! Thanks
40 Gbps is always a theoretical speed - there really aren't drives fast enough to use every bit of that data bandwidth. My Pegasus2 R8 connects via Thunderbolt 2 which is 20 Gbps (=2.5 GBps) but my drives at RAID5 get nowhere near that. I'd say about 550 MBps which less than a quarter of what the connection is capable of. If I had SSDs instead? I'm sure that would be quite a boost but very, very, very expensive.
The real limitation of these big RAIDs is the RAID configuration combined with 7200 RPM spinning disk drives. They're much more affordable but there's a real trade-off with speed.
Without knowing what codec your 6K RAW is - is it CanonRAW Lite or RED RAW? - it's hard to know how well it'll play back from a Pegasus32. Get one configured with SSDs? That'll give you 2.8 GB/s ⚡️⚡️
@@matthewTobrien Yes makes sense, I use Blackmagic 6K Braw. I think I'll stick to editing off SSD's and then RAIDS for backup! Thanks so much though that's a very helpful in depth answer! :)
Great vid! 😂
Thank you!
Good analysis, what about 10GBe NAS? I feel like this is the main way forward for the future.
Thanks! 10GBe is a solid choice for multi-editor workflows or creative studios with employees/freelancers who all need to access the same drive. If I really had my choice I’d get a Jellyfish - great support and much easier to use and setup than a NAS. If you’re a solo editor do you need a NAS? Maybe if you have a couple workstations or if you want to be able to access it remotely. I personally haven’t used a NAS - always been Promise Pegasus RAIDs.
This was very helpful. Static would be better than immobile...
Yup, static was the way to go. If only I had a DeLorean and a crazy scientist friend! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for an excellent video …. I’m primarily a stills shooter and looking to move to an M1 iMac or MacMini and trying to find a similar video for recommendations for photo editing in LR. At the moment looking at a 1TB internal plus I ideally need 3-4 TB external …. Mainly archive, but will often go go and edit older images, so can’t be too slow
For me, personally, if I was doing my photo post-workflow on a desktop I would have a small 4-bay RAID where all of my photos lived. If I had a new iMac or Mac Mini, I'd go with a Promise Pegasus32 R4. It's big purchase at $1500, but I like the idea of having a central repository for all of my photos but one that is safer than the internal drive on my computer. You could argue this drive is overkill size-wise and I'd agree (you can't really get configs of RAIDs much smaller unless you buy used it seems - and that's because internal drives start out now at around 4TB each). But having your photos on a RAID system is not only fast it's safe. Especially at a RAID5 config. One drive can fail and you can replace it and you're good to go. What I don't like about storing internally is it's incredibly expensive to get 2TB and above storage options for Macs (you're maxed out at 2TB on the M1 iMac and Mac Mini). Even though it sounds like it might take forever to use that space, I always find myself consuming it much sooner than I'd think and then I'm dealing with offloading it, archiving it, organizing it, etc. With the big RAID, you can just keep it all there and have years of work and personal photos at the ready.
I'd add something like a 14TB Western Digital or Seagate external hard drive to that setup and use an app like Chronosync to schedule daily backups of the RAID to the large external. If your Internet connection allows for it (no data caps, fast upload speeds) I'd also look at setting up Backblaze to back up the RAID to the cloud.
This may make for a bit of a crowded workstation - I actually have my large RAID drives (3 of them) plus a 8TB seagate external mounted below my custom-built heavy duty desk.
But again, this is what *_I_* would do - with all of my preferences, my anxieties, my desire to have a BIG solution to make my workflow a bit more "set it and forget it" so I'm spending more time in the creative flow with my craft and less time managing storage, transferring files, archiving old projects, etc.
I mean, I do that, but with a 24TB RAID I don't have to do it ALL THE TIME just to make sure my drives don't get full.
My two cents.
@@matthewTobrien many thanks for your reply….. excellent detail and a great set up, but would be overkill for me - I have just over 1.5 TB of files accumulated over 15-20 years so not expecting massive growth…… @ 2TB external would cover for now but prefer to give more headroom (it would be full in a couple of years, hence looking at 4TB. I have a 4TB portable HDD for my offsite backup and 2 * 2TB older HDD for backups stored at home.
And I get all that - older versions were configurable with 1TB drives (so 4TB total) and perhaps that may be a route to consider. Getting an older unit on eBay and adding drives yourself. My point is that having a RAID array with RAID5 configuration gives you a lot of protection for your data and your workflow.
But the fact that you said "offsite backup"? That's music to my ears. I think you're in good shape, Grant.
When you edit 1080 footage but intend on uploading 4K, do YOU edit in 4K timeline and export. Or edit in 1080 timeline and then export like prores 4444 HQ then upscale 4K before uploading? Thanks. Curious what is the more efficient way / vs possible loss in quality?
Yup, I edit in a 4K timeline and export using FCPX’s new TH-cam preset (had my own custom one before). Mine was just H.264 QuickTime (.mov) with a high-ish bitrate. I personally don’t have any issues with the quality when I watch it in a browser or on my AppleTV, and I know a few other TH-camrs who do it this way too and struggle to see any real difference in the look of their footage. Plus I don’t have all the added costs and issues related to the data needs of a 4K TH-cam workflow.
You are Awesome dude
Appreciate that, Patrick! Thanks for watching!
I may need your help with the best way to upload video to you tube with the best audio settings if you can help?
I just use the TH-cam/Facebook option built into Final Cut Pro and it works great. Are you editing in Final Cut Pro?
No I am using iMovie. I am an audio engineer video is really foreign to me. I was told export a file first then upload to TH-cam for the highest resolution. I shoot in 4 k but export 1080pm for smaller file size
The Samsung x5 is really fast. As fast as my MPB and at 2TB, the same size, so cleaning and clearing is a snap. It does get warm.
I’ve read that about the warmth. Would love to take one for a spin when a new 16” M1 MacBook Pro! #2021goals
@@matthewTobrien welp (that’s my ONE “welp” for 2020... it may get warm but I just transferred 110gigs off my desktop in less than 1 minute. (Regular WD 5tb usb3.1 storage drive said 8 min)
WELP worth it!
@@ENTERTAINER88 Definitely worth it. 👌🏻🤘🏻
Great video. If I'm immobile, disorganized, *AND* on a budget, what would you recommend for 1 or 2 TB? Additionally, if I'm doing video editing (not as a career, just hobby/projects here and there), and I plan on getting one of these external drives, how many GB would you recommend for internal? I don't know if I should splurge on 512 GB or if 256 GB will suffice considering that I'll be using an external hard drive for video editing anyways.
I've also liked and subscribed!
I wouldn't get anything less than a 512GB SSD. For me, my new minimum is 1TB but if I really had my way given my financial constraints I'd get a 4TB SSD.
Personally, I probably wouldn't go below 4TB for an external drive even if I'm Stationary, but a 2TB Samsung T5 or T7 is probably your best bet. I've been hearing that some people are having issues with SanDisk's SSDs with macOS Ventura.
Thanks for subscribing - welcome to the channel!
@@matthewTobrien Appreciate the guidance! Thank you!
dumb question...I watched this vid a while ago so I can't remember if you talked about it....how much of an archive do you keep? My 4TB backup just filled up and I know I don't need an FCP project from 3 years ago anymore... How long do you keep the original footage, libraries, projects etc after you release them? I will keep any b-roll stuff, stock audio/video just in case I want to re-use them, but I just deleted about 2 TB of old libraries and files, which of course guarantees I'll need something from those folders within the next few hours!
I keep EVERYTHING. I have well over 80TB of archive drives (which are also backed up to a second set of archive drives). The only thing I delete is render files and any optimized or proxy media made in Final Cut, otherwise everything gets saved. Especially client work. You just never know when a client needs to come back to revisit a video, and I want to be sure that can be monetized.
Thank you for the video! I am a beginner when it comes to video editing. I have a MacBook Pro and use Final Cut Pro for editing. Due to my small internal storage, I end up deleting project files and the media used after the project is completed. I know this isn't ideal especially in case clients may need future revisions. Which hard drive option would you recommend?
I definitely don't advocate for deleting *anything* that's for a paying client. Something I do is I work the cost of data/storage, backups, and archiving into every project. If you've resisted purchasing external hard drives for editing or for archiving, it may be because you're not charging enough for your projects. And that's a whole other conversation.
As far as drives go, there are a lot of variables. The biggest one is what *type* of video editor are you? Mobile Disorganized, Mobile Organized, Stationary Disorganized or Stationary Organized? What's the typical size of a project you work on? Less than 1TB? More? More than 2TB?
@@matthewTobrien Thank you for your reply and the pricing tip! Since I am a beginner and all of my clients are family/friends, it's difficult for me to determine what is the appropriate amount to charge them. Most of the time the amount I am inputing is less than what I would output to purchase an external hard drive.
According to the video, I am a mobile organized editor. I work on a 16 inch MacBook Pro and I always organize my media into folders so I can find what I need quickly. To give you an idea of the type of videos I create at the moment, it is mostly anniversary and memorial service videos that are less than 10 minutes in duration. This includes a lot of photos (about 100 or less) and video clips. I tend to use various generators to make the video look more appealing. The most recent anniversary video I made was 135 GB in size.
You could probably go with a 1TB Samsung T5 or T7. I always try to get the largest sizes possible just to be future proof. I think both come in a 2TB option. The T7 is faster and of course more expensive. I have a T5 and I’ve been happy with it for editing 1080p footage for my channel.
Hi Matthew, thank you for this simple and sympathic video. We feel it that you care to help people.
I will ask you a question because I see you have an old computer too.
I am wondering. I got a Macbook Pro mid 2012, 2,6 ghz processor, 16 of ramme, 750gb intern SSD. The computer is still quite slow and it is not that agreable for editing video. Would you just recommand me to buy a newer computer. I think I must face this reality, but I am not completely sure.
Thank you ifever you find a time to answer, if not I understand completely. Have a good one!
Well, I just updated my 8 yr old 2013 15” Retina MacBook Pro. It works well enough for web browsing, writing, general use… but it struggles mightily with photo editing and video editing. I suppose I could still use it if I made proxies in Final Cut for all my vids. And I’m sure you could too. Especially if the proxies are 960x540 ProRes. Export times, of course, would be pretty dang long. If you have the patience for all that I think you could make it work. But if you can afford to upgrade OR can’t afford NOT too, then I would look at getting a new M1/M1 Pro/M1 Max MacBook Pro.
For me, I couldn’t afford NOT to upgrade, and I could recoup some of the cost by making TH-cam vids about the computer and my workflow.
I love my 14” M1 Pro MacBook Pro, and I can’t imagine dealing with my old one anymore. The new one is even making my 2013 Mac Pro a struggle to use.
Let me know what you end up doing!
I literally Laughed out Loud when you said that "if your disorganized, you may not be terribly careful with an external hard drive that has a spinning disc inside." bahahaha
Like, in a good way or in a "this idiot has no idea what he's talking about" kinda way....? 🤔
I don't think this video was meant to be funny but I was laughing so hard! He called me out on so many things.
Haha - I got a little "scoldy" in this one. Coming down hard on anyone who's disorganized! Haha.
@@matthewTobrien I'm disorganized af so I deserved the scolding 🤣 🤣 haha thanks for the video I'm a wedding videographer so this helped a lot.
Glad to hear it! Now clean up your room! 🤣
Oh, and this other vid I made about getting organized in Finder & Final Cut Pro (if you use FCP) might be helpful as well. Even if you're a Premiere Pro editor, my Finder organization template could be helpful! th-cam.com/video/jxgKjjKhsoU/w-d-xo.html
What format should I give it to my SSD to work with Final Cut Pro. I’ve been using the Exfat format and it works good but after the latest update for Ventura I have issues deleting files.
I’m all-in on APFS in order to have the best compatibility and speed. I’ve been using APFS since it launched with macOS 10.13 👌
You recommended the T5 samsung, do you recommend the T5 over the T7. I’m shooting and editing on my iPhone. And I’m running into a storage space issue on my iPhone. I have 2TB of iCloud space. But for some reason the iCloud files are still on my phone. Anyways. I think an external drive is the way to go, that way I can dump footage while on a shoot on the go. If I’m not connected to wifi is that even possible?
I think if you're looking at storing iPhone footage it's kind of a wash when it comes to the T5 vs the T7. Even if you're recording in 4K on your iPhone, the T5 is plenty fast enough to handle playback of that footage without dropping frames, especially if you're on a Mac using iMovie or Final Cut Pro. The biggest difference between the T5 and the T7 is speed - the T7 is twice as fast with read/write speeds. If you need to transfer footage from your phone to your computer to your hard drive fast, then get the T7. If you want to save a little money but have longer transfer times, the T5 will be just fine.
If you're not connected to wi-fi, you can always connect your phone directly to your computer using your USB-C (or A) to lightning cable and use the built-in macOS app Image Capture to import your footage. To learn how to do that, check out Apple's support article here: apple.co/3BePmeC
Thanks for watching my vid!
I'm looking for a drive with at least 5TB of storage to use for editing raw 6k video from a Red Komodo, but I don't have a dump truck of money to spend - Do you have any recommendations for this scenario? I've been looking at the LaCie d2 and 2big drives, but I am feeling very indecisive as hard drives are not my area of expertise. My ideal budget is no more than $500.
Going to be brutally honest with you... If you're going to have a Red Komodo in your workflow, you're going to need a drive (or two) that are on equal footing with that camera. I don't know that there's an option that fits your needs for under $500. Glyph is running a pretty great sale right now on their pro portable SSD drives. Their Atom PRO portable Thunderbolt 3 SSD is $599.95 for 4TB or $1399.95 for 8TB. You may be able to get an extra 10% off if you sign up for their newsletter/marketing emails.
glyphtech.com/collections/portable/products/atom-pro?variant=39293453336650
I don't personally own a Glyph drive, but I know a lot of DITs use them and they're one of the last storage companies that's still independent. I spoke with them at NAB and am hoping to partner up with them to get my hands on some of their drives.
should I buy lacie d2 (5 years) or SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE (3 years)
Would you also recommend a 500GB for the organized editor with 1080p?
Personally, I'd just try to get at least a 1TB drive. If budget is the real issue, you can absolutely make due with 500GB but it'll be a bit more work to manage your storage because even with 1080p 500GB can go quickly.
You should do a video about folder structure and what your workflow is from the time you pop out your camera card.
Agreed! I have something close to that:
th-cam.com/video/GET0s8-lUhg/w-d-xo.html
But I definitely want to do a vid on how I capture from cards, import to FCPX, and then prep my Library for archive and the archiving process. Thanks for watching!
Might I suggest the word stationary as opposed to immobile;) Thanks for the video.
Haha - yup! You and everyone else in the comments. 😝 Thanks for watching the vid!
Hey man I'm new to this video editing thing, I'm currently using Adobe Rush on my Samsung tab s7 plus and i record 1080p videos usingSamsung note 20 ultra. So my question is can i use 1TB Samsung ssd for video editing and 5TB HDD for storing the videos after editing the videos on my SSD?. Also is there any specific way to transfer data from portable SSD to HDD ?.
Please reply,
Thank you.
I think that configuration should work just fine, Angelo. 1TB Samsun with a 5TB HDD for archiving. I think that's a solid route. As far as transferring the data goes .... I would just connect both drives to your computer and use Finder to copy your files for a project you're archiving to the HDD. I use Chronosync to sync them if I make changes after I've already copied the files over.
You can check out Chronosync here:
www.econtechnologies.com/about/products.html
@@matthewTobrien thank you so much for the reply man i really appreciate it😊.
I really like your Videos. Well thought out and helpful in my opinion.
Is there a way to only delete "unnecessary" Files ?
2:58 what happens when I delete the render files folder of an actual project ?
The performance of Fcp is great, but it eats hard disc space like crazy - even if I do not allow to copy the files when importing media.
Watch this video of mine to get a better handle on how to manage all of that so you don’t run out of disk space. 👌🏻
th-cam.com/video/Q2jEybP0byo/w-d-xo.html
@@matthewTobrien Thank you very much but that is too much Information for an old and simple guy ;)
Makes it even more complicated for me.
Never delete the render files folder, right ?
I wouldn’t. You can delete its contents through FCPX by selecting the Library and then going to File < Delete Generated Library Files. From there you can choose to delete all render files or just the unused ones. I wouldn’t ever going into the Library file and delete them in Finder. No need to. And unnecessarily risky.
@@matthewTobrien Thank you so much.
To the point and very helpful !!!
"unused ones" is what I was looking for I think.
I will try that.
Good job with presentation..Presently I edit 4K video (FCPX) on a iMacPro (2017) 3.2 Ghz 8 core...with (3) LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 Desktop drive 10TB, 6TB and 4TB capacities. I arrived projects with these and have daisy chained them. I have a LaCie Rugged SSD Pro 1TB as a quick turnaround editing work... Thinking of adding your suggestion (LaCie 6 Big Thunderbolt 6 Bay Raid unit)-- Is it wise in your estimation??? Obviously I like LaCie...is Pegasus worth considering?
Thanks for the kind words, Len! Sounds like you've got a cool setup with all those externals, and I love the idea of that LaCie Rugged SSD Pro for quick editing - I actually use my LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt (where I swapped out the internal hdd for a 2TB SSD) for occasional mobile editing or when I'm on set doing data management for the camera team.
I will say that the only friction point I see in your setup is that you have 3 large externals that can make keeping track of what's where a little tricky or perhaps slightly inefficient. It's also A LOT more work to keep all of them backed up, unless you back them up to one single large capacity drive. I would definitely consider getting a single large capacity RAID at 20TB. I definitely like the LaCie 6Big - mostly because LaCie (being owned by Seagate now) is a larger company that can keep up to date with all the advancements Apple puts out there with macOS and now their own silicon. Whereas Promise is a smaller company, and we're all still waiting for them to roll out driver updates for their older and legacy enclosures to be compatible with the M1 Macs. They can also, on occasion, take a hot minute to roll out firmware updates when big changes are made in macOS (like when AFPS came out a few years back).
But, for me, I have used Promise enclosures for nearly 10 years and have LOVED them. Plus they have the R8 which is easier to configure for larger capacities while maintaining higher read/write speeds. Feels like LaCie with only having the 6Big and 12Big doesn't have that "Goldilocks" option that's "just right" for me. That 12big is huge! I don't know if it would fit under my desk!
Let me know what you end up doing!
@@matthewTobrien Matthew - REALLY impressed with your timely reply and the way you present...You have a seasoned dedicated viewer here..Never underestimate the way you present..it's EVERYTHING!!!!..
Further intrigued with your Promise investment.. Thinking of this...Investing in Promise (since it looks like a better "bang for the buck option AFTER investigating) ...I'll keep using the LaCie 1 TB SSD for quick projects...Archive (unplug until I need them) the LaCie d2 externals...then jump whole into a huge promise RAID...what to you think...and/or recommend.... Again...thx!