Help setting up an editing machine (HDD aspect).

[Stepan Boltalin]

Hello,

I have a Macbook Pro and some editing of RED footage to be done on it. I've got myself a Sonnet PRO esata card as well.

Now I am a little confused with the HDD setup.

Obviously I need some kind of RAID here.. I can't go with the higher-end RAID stuff. And I'm likely to get an external enclosure with eSATA port and 4 HDD bays. Most probably it will be Intel 4200SE

This RAID will be used for storing footage as well as editing..
Now I have a couple of questions:

1) If I go the route of one RAID for storage and editing, which kind of RAID should I use? Is it RAID5 or RAID10?

2) I've heard it's better to spread the workflow across several systems. Now maybe I should have 2 HDDs in RAID0 for editing and 2 HDDs in, say RAID 1 for storing projects? And thus buy 2 separate enclosures?

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

RAID-5 in a 4-bay enclosure would be a good idea, but only possible if the enclosure has an onboard RAID system to do this. Otherwise, go with RAID-0, possibly RAID-0+1 if you want to trade half your capacity for a bit more security. None of these solutions is adequate for long-term storage or reliable backups, etc.. of your footage. You will want a good backup solution in place no matter what.

It's best to spread across various systems for redundancy and security. Don't put all your eggs into one basket...

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