Editing Feature - External Hard Drive

Hey gang!

I'm getting ready to edit my first feature on FCP7 and will be using an external hard drive to hold all my footage. I want to avoid any future problems from editing off the hard drive so feel free throw some pointers my way.

I wll also be using a backup hard drive just in case drive #1 crashes. Is there a setting that will automatically backup all my files & footage to drive #2?

FCP 7 does have an auto-backup function you want to go into preferences and point it to the backup drive. Get a good backup app like Carbon Copy Cloner (way worth the price) to do an initial full backup, which will take a good while. Then schedule automated "appended" backups (which go fast, only backing up what has changed) for once or twice a day. It'll run in the background while you edit just fine. I have mine set up to backup in the middle of the night.

Thanks BenB! That's exactly what I need. I'll check out that app asap.