Adding RSX Files To 2nd Copy Of Data?

[Harry Clark]

OK, here's a sticky one...
Workflow now for us with Rocket goes:
1. back up Red media to 2 drives ("Editor Copy" and "Safety Copy")
2. use Rocket to transcode to ProRes on drive 1, copy to drive 2
3. have a beer
Here's the rub: the .RSX files that are created exist only on drive 1 ("Editor Copy") and are nestled deep in the folder hierarchy (each clip folder) If drive 1 fails, the .RSX lookup files are gone too.
Anyone know of some file-copying program for Mac OSX that allows selective files to be copied, maybe like a macro or something? It would be nearly impossible (and certainly life-draining) to copy those files one at a time...
I also think it's a bad idea to transcode from the original media, as tempting a solution as that might be... seems like job #1 is to get the valuable data off the Red media and backed up ASAP.
Cheers,
Harry

 

[Cail Young]

Rsync is your friend.

 

[Harry Clark]

I thought of that, but I'm command-line phobic. Is there a nice GUI version?
Or have you tried tri-backup?
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/4874/tri-backup
It seems like a solution. It can sync directories or folders, and make incremental changes.
Cheers,
Harry

 

[J. Eric Camp]

I don't like the idea of a sync app because it will be looking at all the files in the directory and trying to sync them, including r3ds. Now, if there is a difference in the same r3d on the two drives it will replace the destinations r3d with the one from the source. Now, if there is a difference, how do you know the source one is the one you want?

Two independent copies is vital. If you are checksuming then this shouldn't be an issue but still I don't want yet another app looking to challenge the integrity of my media.

What this problem needs is something like an apple script that will look at only rmd (or rsx if you still swing that way) files and move them in to the folders with the same title in the directory you point it at.

That's what I've been looking to do.

 

[Harry Clark]

I agree, Eric. It seems like a slightly risky proposition. Maybe the trick is to make a third backup, time-permitting, after the color correct.
I did a couple of tests with tri-backup and it seems to only add the missing RSX files to the destination drive, not replace the r3ds or any other file... can anyone think of a reason why this would be a bad idea (other than the obvious random replacing of r3ds or otherwise altering the original clone)
I actually really love that the RSX or other types of LUTs travel with each individual clip. It's a very clever way of ensuring that any intentional color-correction (other than what is in camera metadata) gets automatically communicated within the Red toolset.
However, the issue of syncing an original clone of a drive with one that has had color correction applied to it seems like a real conundrum.
Maybe this is a good feature to request from The Foundry for integration in STORM.
Cheers,
Harry

 

[Wolfgang Woehl]

What this problem needs is something like an apple script that will look at only rmd (or rsx if you still swing that way) files and move them in to the folders with the same title in the directory you point it at.

Do yourself a favor and look at rsync again, like Cail suggests. rsync is serious gear. Checksums, extensive exclude/include options, network. Trust me, you don't want to do this with apple script.

Harry, commandline is your friend, too Start with something simple like

$ rsync -av --exclude='*.R3D' original/ copy/

which will mirror your tree of directories and put stuff in the right places. Problem solved.

 

[rick youck]

Being a little command line "phobic" myself, i've been using a program called chronsync

http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html

It allows me to backup or synchronize disk, folders, files etc. As well as create rules, such as only copying files if the extensions are .rsx etc......

Though I still use R3D manager for on set backups, this is a usefully tool when moving files around and verifying versions are the same in post.

rick

 

[M Most]

I thought of that, but I'm command-line phobic. Is there a nice GUI version?

Actually, there is. Type grsync into Google and you'll find a few different prebuilt versions. I don't recall if there's one for Windows (probably not, as it is simply a graphical front end for the Unix rsync utility) but you'll definitely find versions for OS X and various flavors of Linux.

Being command line phobic is counterproductive to being efficient in an IT based world, which like it or not, is where everyone dealing with digital imaging is living. Learn basic command line commands. Learn them, live them, love them.

 

[Harry Clark]

Thanks for the responses guys! Much appreciated...
Cheers,
Harry