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Recommendations for mailing / fedex hard drives with footage

M

Marcus Struzina

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Just wondering if anyone with experience sending hard drives with red footage internationally can make some suggestions about successful ways to do it.
I'll be shooting in about a dozen countries over a 6 month period. I'm currently thinking of using WD Elements SE Portable 1tb discs via fed ex.
I'll have duplicates which I'll send in different shipments on different days. It'll be a long project so carrying the drives will not be an option.
 
First things first. If your footage is valuable and you don't want to risk it being stolen - encrypt it! This should be absolutely routine for people seeking to move any kind of data that has any value at all, and putting my data wrangler hat on I'm astonished more people don't do it; I'm paranoid about data security.

Truecrypt - http://www.truecrypt.org/ - is free, open-source, secure, and highly trusted.

As for the drives, I routinely use such drives for offsite backups. But I don't Fedex them. Even unpowered hard drives have G force limits beyond which they can be damaged; you'll probably be ok, provided it wouldn't be a disaster for you to have to re-send footage if a drive shows up damaged and unusable; since you plan to duplicate shipments anyway that shouldn't be an issue. If that is a serious concern for you, SSD might be a better option; they're more robust.

Mike
 
Thanks Mike, good points, yes I'd love to use ssd's , cost might be an issue on 2 x 10 Tb of ssd's. From a practical point of view are there any issues with de encrypted data
in post ?
 
Can't speak to encryption, we have never felt the need for it using bonded couiers and FedX to handle the media from set to (digital) lab, nor has a bonding agency asked for it so far, it may be relitive levels of paranoia in play ;-)

We do ship just as you suggest, first day = day1 copy A goes off, next day = day 2 copy A & day 1 copy B go away, day 3 = day 3 copy A & day 2 copy B, rinse and repeate

We use WD drive, cheap and chearful, wrapped in bubbles, inside a localy sourced hard case of some sorts...

Not had a problem so far, we have shot in Nigeria, Maurtainia, Pakastian, PRC, Japan, Ireland, Germany, Bangladesh, India, UAE so far this year....

d
 
Thanks Dermot, good to hear it all works safely, sounds like interesting project/s. I'm a bit concerned too that the encryption could bite me later in post.
 
Encryption doesn't bite, it keeps your footage safe from prying eyes. You decrypt, then post as usual. Zero impact. If you decrypted on the fly as you were working on the footage direct from the USB drive, yes that would slow you down a little - but you would never do that, it decrypts as you copy it from the USB to the post system. The copy you work on is NOT encrypted.

I know this stuff :-)

Mike
 
Thanks Mike, downloading True Crypt now. Time for some testing. Really appreciate the information.
I guess it's time to let go of the old idea that the camera original files are like the neg, only to be touched occasionally.
 
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