Drive & Workflow Recommendations

General Storage Workflow

How do I roll? 2x copies of everything, all the time. 

All of my personal RAIDs are RAID 0s because I prefer the size and speed. When deep in production, I run weekly(ish) backups to a second RAID 0 using a program called Sync Folders Pro which is a program where you can automate backups. Generally speaking, this RAID only carries my assets (video files, photos, etc) and project archives. I don’t wipe the source (like the SD cards), until I’ve done the backup. My project folders live on Dropbox and are constantly backed up. If I’m feeling paranoid, I might backup in a third place. I recommend this workflow. 

External SSD NVME Recommendations

Big fan of these Sandisk Extreme Pro drives. Sustained R/W over USB-C is consistent and good. 

Second to those are the non-pro version of the Sandisk Extremes. Other than them not being “Pro”, the sustained R/W seems the same. They are likely rated for less lifetime R/W, but a good value otherwise. 

After that, I recommend Samsung T7s - these tend to be more expensive, for some reason, but are easier to find. Their sustained R/W isn’t as good as the pro or non-pro Sandisk. This is true of their predecessors, the T5s, as well. These were the first mass-produced, affordable, and decent external M2s, so they were a good start. I still use them a lot but prefer those SD Extremes.

Local Backups (of Backups)

Sometimes you need to make local backups – if you have big boy exports or a ton of source footage. A local backup is a non-cloud backup that you do yourself. I use a program called Sync Folders Pro that is really great because you can set different copy times and then save that config. This makes backing up things in a really specific way, really easy. I don’t have to think about it because I have my presets there ready 2 go. It does not checksum by default but you can turn that on. Well worth the price of $8.99 plus an in-App $4.99. They have really good HELP documentation too. 

For posterity, here’s a config I use to backup my Projects folder to my secondary RAID (FWiW, my computer just got wiped during a repair and I lost all of these settings, thanks past me for providing for future me).