Media Hard Drive Recommendations

I currently have a SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO Portable External SSD that I use as my working drive for video projects. It fills up pretty quickly, tho, so when I need to make room, I archive my video projects and files on a Western Digital 4TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive. I'm starting to run out of room on that drive as well, however, so wondering if anyone can recommend any good hard drives for storing media, and possibly as a work disk so I don't have to move files from the SanDisk to the larger hard drive. I'm thinking at this point I should just get 8-12 TB drive so it'll last for a while without filling up.

Also, Is there a better way to archive FCP projects than simply moving the files over to a different disk? The reason I ask is because whenever I need to open an archived project, all the links to the media are broken and I always have to relink all the files. I normally store all media externally from the library file, but keep all the files within a single folder on the hard disk. This is my typical file structure on the disk for a project:


Pretty simple.

Thanks!

 I'm thinking at this point I should just get 8-12 TB drive so it'll last for a while without filling up.

Video editing does use up a lot of data space. And on top of that it is vital to make backups as all disks will fail at some point and once digital data is gone that is it.

So... as well as getting 8-12 TB to allow room for your projects going forward, you also need to consider how you are going to backup those projects. And that backup should be an ongoing daily process - not just something to consider once projects are finished.

And as a single backup copy is not really a backup... (as we probably have all learnt at some point) you need to consider how you are going to give yourself another level of backup.

Yes, I realize I need to have a backup solution. I currently have an 8 TB disk I'm using for backup of all my data, but know I'll need to get a larger one. Or what I may do is get a 16-20TB drive and use that as backup, and convert the 8TB backup drive for my video media if it's fast enough. I also have CrashPlan for off-site backup, so I'm well backed up.

What I'm looking for is recommendations for disk drives that are fast and would work well with an M1 iMac and FCP. 

A HDD maxes out anywhere from 75 MB/sec to 150 MB/sec in typical real-world usage scenarios. Most likely, any USB3 device/enclosure would be faster than what the HDD can fully utilize. Thunderbolt 3/4 would be even faster. So, you'd need to consider the enclosure and its connection to your computer and the ports/buses being used.

The same HDD in an older USB2 case or one in a USB3 enclosure connected to a USB2 port will both be limited to USB2 speeds. The same HDD in a USB-C/USB 3.2/4 or Thunderbolt  3/4 enclosure and connection to the computer will not limit the HDD.

Maybe the best place to start would be in considering your media. What is the bit rate of typical media you work with when editing? You can use Invisor or MediaInfo to look at the file specs and see what the bit rate is (or find an article that discusses this stuff).

An HDD would be adequate, if not slow in some cases, for backing up data.

But, depending on your media, an HDD may not be fast enough, even with a fast enclosure and connection. If you do multiple streams (think layers or multicam angles, as well as audio), you'd likely need a multi-HDD RAID system to get more bandwidth. Non-RAIDed HDDs aren't as capable for multi-stream editing as they have latency moving heads around when reading and writing, which reduces effective bandwidth when working with multicam clips, for example. High bandwidth HDD RAID systems DO NOT include a two drive setup in RAID-0 or RAID-1. You'd be looking at RAID-5 or RAID-6 systems with 4 or more drives.

Some sort of SSD setup would be ideal for storage of media when editing. Of course, it depends on what you're editing, how many concurrent streams, etc.

If you do an Internet search for "larry jordan storage requirements" the top 4, or so, results should be links to informative articles, in which this topic is covered pretty well (and is understandable by most people).

This video, , from Ripple Training gives a through explanation of how to archive your Final Cut Pro projects.