Backing up a hard drive - best practice?

This is kind of basic, but I just want to get it right?

I have a 2TB hard drive that is fast filling up with footage from a reality TV show. Im getting paranoid about it because it is the only copy.

I have been taking the memory cards from the cameras and importing the footage directly into FCPX. The cards are then reformatted and reused.

This means that at the moment we have not been backing up the footage onto hard disks outside of fcpx. IS that a problem I wonder?

Whats the best way to clone the external hard drives? Should I just copy and past or is there some better way to do it?

The main hard disks are firewire 800 (used for editing). The backup disks are most likely going to be USB. Mu current computer does not have USB 3 - so is there any issue with backing up large disks from firewire to USB2 (other than time which is not a problem for me)?

Thanks.

If you are talking about backing up FCPX libraries then I can recommend The app, Backups for Final Cut Pro. Available at App Store. Carbon Copy Cloner is also a good alternative for general backup.

Just connect the two drives and copy the contents of one to the other. Or using software with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to keep the back up cloned regularly.

simonpwood wrote: ...at the moment we have not been backing up the footage onto hard disks outside of fcpx. IS that a problem I wonder?

Yes you could lose that at any time. The chance of that happening is relatively low, but all hard drives have a finite in-service operational life. Sometimes by the 5th year the annual probability of failure increases to 20%.

simonpwood wrote: Whats the best way to clone the external hard drives? Should I just copy and past or is there some better way to do it?

Using Carbon Copy or SuperDuper are good choices.

simonpwood wrote: The main hard disks are firewire 800 (used for editing). The backup disks are most likely going to be USB. Mu current computer does not have USB 3 - so is there any issue with backing up large disks from firewire to USB2 (other than time which is not a problem for me)?...

That will work but USB 2 is really slow. If you can afford it, get a multi-interface HDD like this one, which has Firewire, eSATA and USB 3. That way you back up at your fastest rate now using FW800, yet the drive is not obsolete in the future when you upgrade to a non-FW Mac: amzn.com/B00CDXMAV4

OK guys thanks for that: I have got the Carbon Copy Cloner to start working on cloning the existing drives.

Just a technical point: is it ok to just have backups of the original footage by cloning the video clips inside the FCPX bundle, or is it better practice to duplicate the cards from the camera as a backup? Or there is no difference?

I've actually been making backups of the cards onto multiple drives before I get to editing. For me, the edit may not begin until 2-4 weeks after the shoot. The cost of the drives I buy for backup I pass on to the client. I'm thinking about writing a short blog post about my process.

Hi Simon
Glad to hear you are backing up your only media drive. Not a question of "If" only a question of "When" will a drive fail. Could be a new drive or old or somewhere in-between.
My own workflow is to create "Camera Archive" directly off the camera card onto an external drive. Then I import the footage into FCPX onto a different external (Media) drive. Then I CCC both of those drives onto other drives, I am not paranoid, Right?
Having a Camera Archive IMHO gives an additional safely factor as I use multiple cams all different manufactures and several different file structures. CAs are bit for bit duplicates of the card itself with all the file structure that the manufacture installs in the cam itself. Needs translation for use in FCPX so just an extra security precaution in case "Lost In Translation" happens.
I have had more than one hdd and ssd drive die on me or the Macs I maintain. Data recovery on dead drive no fun or cheap.
I keep other important files in the cloud, but normally not media files.

Hope this helps, Greg

Backing up mission critical files has two purposes: just to have a spare and to replace your system in a worst case situation. The first, as you've seen here, is relatively easy and cheap; you just need some drive space and patience. The second is a bit more complicated and your method will be based on your perceived need to adhere to established data protection practices that have been designed to protect companies from disasters. Rotating off-site backups is the best system. If you keep your only backup copies next to your Mac workstation, the results of a fire or burglary are the same as if you never had any backups.
Storage of project backup drives can become a problem for you after only few projects. Some of my buddies sell (or just give away) the backup drives to their clients so they become someone else's problem and their clients' own responsibility.