Comments on: Backup and Archive SDHC Cards

By: Stephen Downs

Stephen Downs — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:01:43 +0000

I am so glad to have this article. Thanks for taking the extra time to clearly explain your strategy. I am going to implement archiving my AVCHD SDHC in this manner from now on.

The difference in my setup is that I'm using a Drobo as my Time Machine backup target, which provides built-in data redundancy so there is no need for additional external drives and rsync.

Your video logging approach doesn't appeal to me, but it's a problem I'll soon have to take on once more. With an older camcorder I solved the issue by grabbing thumbnails of the video and importing them into iPhoto. These video thumbnails can then be organized into albums and given all the relevant metadata using iPhoto keywording and location tagging. Keywording can be performed on large groups of files just by clicking, which I find to be far less laborious than entering text in a spreadsheet. You then have a nicely useable and pleasant to use interface for searching your video archives with all the iPhoto goodies included. I'll have to revisit this workflow.

By: Stephen Downs

Stephen Downs — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:01:43 +0000

By: Khürt

Khürt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:20:51 +0000

Got it. I don't store anything on a laptop. Too prone to failure. All critical data (critical to me) is stored on large external FireWire drives. Then I have software creates a backup to online (cloud) storage.

https://www.backblaze.com/internet-backup.html

By: Jonathan Brown

Jonathan Brown — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:52:20 +0000

Essentially I'm doing the same thing as you–copying the cards to hard drive, then back it up a couple times. However, my main machine is a notebook w/ 320GB drive and I don't want all my archived video living on a notebook. The imaging of the card is to package the card contents in a single file than a straight directory structure copy. In my opinion, and that's why I did this, it's a tidier solution for me.

By: Khürt

Khürt — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:23:48 +0000

I guess I'm not understanding why the data can't be moved/copies/transfer to the computer hard drive. I dump my SDHC cards to my iMac, check to be sure I have my data is transferred correctly, and then re-format the SDHC card. I also have automated processes that backup the iMac to near line storage (Time Capsule) and 0n-line (BackBlaze). I am trying to understand what problem/concern your solution is meant to solve.

By: Jonathan Brown

Jonathan Brown — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:10:15 +0000

Khurt, I was not reusing my SDHC cards because I didn't have an archiving process in place that I could trust. With the introduction of my NAS and its secondary backup, I now have a trusted system and two copies of the cards on permanent disc.

By: Khürt

Khürt — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:48:54 +0000

John,
I'm a little confused. Are you using your SDHC cards literally like digital film? You don't move the content to permanent disc/disk storage and re-use the cards?

By: Keke

Keke — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:57:06 +0000

Very good post. I will keep this end mind for use in the future. Thanks!