MULTIPLE EDIUS projects on a RAID 0 advise / reassurance needed please

[Imagine Video]

Hi all I have always been used to 1 project 1 drive setup for ALL my SD work in the past. I had a few storm systems and about 10 pullout drives that were all called VIDEO D and they could be swopped around my machines as I saw fit!

Now I am HD or HDV I have a dilema! A HD project cannot be worked on from just 1 drive, well not with ease anyway with multiple streams and composites of titles +++ So I am going to capture another project on the 2 TB raid 0 I have and I am wondering is this going to be OK?

I have in the past had file problems and cross linked file issues with Premiere - Long time ago though.....

I suppose I would just like to know if anyone here works on multiple EDIUS projects on 1 RAID..........WITHOUT ISSUE

Thanks - Cath

[Bluetongue]

Cath
I have been working with RAID 0 drives for so long I almost cannot remember.
How long has it been since you lost a drive? A single one I mean
So far I have not lost a RAID drive, but every couple of days I backup my projects and files to a WD Mybook 2Tb firewire drive just in case
That is also a RAID drive but at least it is in 2 places
My set up on the computer is 3 RAID Drives each 800Gb from 2 x 400Gb WD Drives
This gives me the advantage of when I need to do a multicam edit (Max 3 cameras) each camera goes onto a separate drive reducing the problem of seek time
At the moment I have seven projects all on one drive and all backed up today
The only problem I have ever had with RAID is with a Promise controller that consistently gave me cross linked files and blue screens when exporting from Premier, fixed when I changed to a Gigabit controller
I was a bit worried with my new MB when I realised it had an Intel controller but so far has been working without hickup
I noticed you have your 4 drives making up one 2Tb drive, my preference would have been to make it 2 x 1Tb as the speed is not a problem but seek time could be!
Hope this helps Barry

[Imagine Video]

Promise controller that consistently gave me cross linked files and blue screens when exporting from Premier,

well well well I was using a Promise controller also whaen I was having all that trouble........of my own!

Never again!

How long does it take to backup to the firewire drives? and would the firewire drive be quicker than a esata external 1 TB single drive I wonder?

Cath

[THoff]

eSATA is a much faster interface than Firewire -- the former goes up to 3Gb/sec while the latter top out at 0.4 or 0.8Gb/sec depending on whether you use IEEE 1394a (FW400) or IEEE 1394b (FW800).

[GrassValley_BH]

Cooling is essential for any RAID setup. Drives that aren't cooled enough die quite quickly. Even multi-drive RAID enclosures may not necessarily cool today's high-performance drives adequately for continued use.

Adequate power is also essential if you're running more than 3 or 4 drives. My 12-drive (actually 14 if you count the system drives) fileserver has two power supplies so it can handle the load. Eventually I'd like to get a larger redundant PSU though.

Backup is important too, since all drives will eventually die.

[Bluetongue]

eSATA is a much faster interface than Firewire -- the former goes up to 3Gb/sec while the latter top out at 0.4 or 0.8Gb/sec depending on whether you use IEEE 1394a (FW400) or IEEE 1394b (FW800).

Yep couldn't agree more but I have used up all my SATA connections so added a IEEE 1394b card, that was before I found out about external eSATA enclosures and would have added an eSATA card instead
The WD Mybook is considerably cheaper and easier to get here though

Backup time with the 1394b drive for a 100G project (around 2 hours of video, used and unused) takes around 50 mins, a bit slow
Regards Barry