Need advice on data preservation

blackrain

Golden Member
Feb 15, 2005
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I have a lot of home videos (~4 gb each) that I am storing. I am slowly putting these on DVD's but its a slow process and I want to ensure that the data is safe until I finish. But my question really applies to data in general.

1) First, is there any benefit to NTFS v. fat32 as far as file recovery/partition corruption, etc

I just had a problem with my external Maxtor 3000DV where the partition disappeared and the only program able to get everything back was getdataback (for FAT) (www.runtime.org). erd commander couldn't even mount the volume.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1786436&enterthread=y


2) The Maxtor 3000DV has passed all hardware diagnostics which makes me think that the culprit may have been something I worried about when I first got this drive (see my post from long ago below)....it doesn't have a switch. Everytime I plug it in, i'm nervous about a spike or some other power issue corrupting my drive.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...hreadid=1540211&enterthread=y&arctab=y

Assuming that once I rewrite the boot record and partition tables of this drive and confirm that the drive works okay, is the lack of a power switch a bad thing? Is there anyway to correct this?


3) Preventive measures: There are a lot of programs that can backup or save the boot records and partitions and later restore them. Which program would you suggest using for preventive measures?


Any other suggestions?

 

halw

Senior member
Dec 22, 2005
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Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image will image an entire drive for later recovery.
 

blackrain

Golden Member
Feb 15, 2005
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I am assuming that the image will be as large the drive it is backing up...I don't have a separate drive wth that much space

I already thought of that but at this point I am really looking at things like partition and boot sector preservation and HD monitoring. Most of the time the drive won't be used....lots of downtime. It'll only be turned on and used when I am going to edit and author video. So I am more worried about another partition corruption like the one I had earlier this week.
 

bendixG15

Diamond Member
Mar 9, 2001
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If you are into video, then you need NTFS because Fat32 tops out at 4 gb.

Make sure you buy the best quality blank DVDs that you can find.
Do a google on media and make your own opinions.
Recent uproar that computer burned CDs only last a few years before they start dying.

Usually two hard drives are recommended for video so you don't read and write on the same drive else you may drop frames.

I would run that drive at least once a week, just sitting there for long spells is NG




 

blackrain

Golden Member
Feb 15, 2005
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Thanks for all of the advice:

although I am into video, everything gets chopped to less than 4GB because I only use 4.37 GB DVD's. I don't have any files over 4 GB...so I am not concerned about the file system as far as video editing goes. I was looking at the file system from the point of view of data corruption and recovery.

I scan all my DVD's for PIF's and PIE's and use only TY's and verbatim (disc quality is usually between 97 and 99)

This is really an interesting comment:
Usually two hard drives are recommended for video so you don't read and write on the same drive else you may drop frames.

can you elaborate? dropping frames occurs when you capture the video right? Are you saying that I should capture my video to a separate drive from the drive that contains my capture software?? I'm confused.

Also, thanks for the tip on the external drive....i'll make sure to run for awhile at least once a week

 

Lasthitlarry

Senior member
Feb 24, 2005
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I have had success buying Ritek/Ridata DVD+Rs...

I also heard issues with a lot of 300GB hard drive models
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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1. NTFS > FAT32. I think RFS and XFS would probably do even better for crashes and corruption recovery, but it's hard to use them well in Windows :)

Do not trust external drives as the only source of data. I've now known three people who have lost theirs. Good for transport/backup, but not sole storage!

2. Dunno.

3. Don't. Make the drive data only, so it is easy to back the files themselves up. Use a cheap drive for the OS and apps, and if that dies, it dies (I'm not speaking about frames dropping or anything, just easier backup to another drive). Use the 300GB as part of a storage solution, which should also include regular backups. Please, just go to the trouble! I speak from personal experience, here, having lost over half a year's work from not having a good storage plan. It hurts.
 

blackrain

Golden Member
Feb 15, 2005
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one point of clarification....the Maxtor 3000DV is not a 300GB HD...its an external 80GB HD with a firewire connection

It sounds like everyone is suggesting to have a second HD as a backup. Sounds good. Thanks alot