Damian F

Q: external drive

I want to use an external drive with fcpx. Should I go for a Raid 1 or Raid 5

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Jul 14, 2016 11:38 PM

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Q: external drive

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  • by Karsten Schlüter,Helpful

    Karsten Schlüter Karsten Schlüter Jul 15, 2016 9:23 AM in response to Damian F
    Level 7 (32,668 points)
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    Jul 15, 2016 9:23 AM in response to Damian F

    Raid 5

     

    Raid1 has no effect on speed, just doubles the fail-safeness.

    Raid 5 is safe AND fast.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jul 15, 2016 1:42 AM in response to Damian F
    Level 6 (11,859 points)
    Jul 15, 2016 1:42 AM in response to Damian F

    What Karsten said.

     

    Depending on what work you do, an external SSD or a RAID 0 may be a better option.

    Remember that redundancy is not backup.

    If your productions are relatively small and independent from one another, they may well fit inside an external SSD.

    You could work on that, and have large HD (no need for RAID there) for backup and archive.

    If an SSD is too small, a RAID 0 gives you both space and speed. There is a certain lack of safety to it (if just one drive fails, the RAID content is lost), but if you back it up consistently, this is quite manageable. Don't be fooled into thinking that "since you have RAID 5, you don't need backup".

  • by Russ H,

    Russ H Russ H Jul 15, 2016 5:41 AM in response to Damian F
    Level 7 (21,770 points)
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    Jul 15, 2016 5:41 AM in response to Damian F

    Also, what model is your Mac and what are its specs?

     

    Russ

  • by David Bogie Chq-1,Helpful

    David Bogie Chq-1 David Bogie Chq-1 Jul 15, 2016 9:23 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 7 (25,772 points)
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    Jul 15, 2016 9:23 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Your need for speed is reduced by your need for security. If your media is critical to your business, you must have secure back ups of the material as well as your operating system's main drive. Your back up regimen should be set up so, when you recover from the shock of the robbery/flood/fire, you can move to a new location and, within a few hours, be ready to get back to work and send out your invoices.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jul 15, 2016 8:15 AM in response to David Bogie Chq-1
    Level 6 (11,859 points)
    Jul 15, 2016 8:15 AM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

    I totally agree.

  • by Damian F,

    Damian F Damian F Jul 15, 2016 9:29 AM in response to Russ H
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Jul 15, 2016 9:29 AM in response to Russ H

    Hi

     

    I work on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015), 3,1 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3. Also iMac 3.06 Intel Core 2 Duo, 12GB 1067 MHz DDR3.

  • by Damian F,

    Damian F Damian F Jul 15, 2016 9:41 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Jul 15, 2016 9:41 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Hi

     

    So if I choose Raid 1 it will speed things up, but if one drive fails I would loose any work not backed up. If I choose Raid 5 Its fast and I don't have to worry about losing any work if a drive fails, though I should still back up to a separate drive and keep that at a separate location in case of theft/fire. I work from home so I guess I'd have to back up and take to a friends house a couple of times a week.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jul 15, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Damian F
    Level 6 (11,859 points)
    Jul 15, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Damian F

    It is more or less what you wrote, except that it would be Raid 0 instead of 1.

    (Raid 0 is for speed; Raid 1 for redundancy)

    With Raid 1 (mirror) there is no loss of data if a drive fails (they both contain the same information).

    Raid 0 (striped), information is split between the two drives, so if one fails there is no way to recover.

     

    Raid 5 is sort of a mix of those; it also requires at least three drives to work, but you can have one drive fail and not lose  data.

     

    You can read more about RAID here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID