CALARTS SCHOOL OF FILM/VIDEO:

HARD DRIVE GUIDE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Hard Drive Types, Uses, Specifications, & Recommendations! 3

Formatting Your Hard Drive ! 7

Hard Drive Mounting / Dismounting Procedure! 9

Backing Up Your Files ! 11

Client/Server Networks & Local Storage ! 14

DISCLAIMER: This document contains information and recommendation that are accurate to the best of the knowledge of The School of Film/Video. All purchases of any hardware/software that are discussed within this document are done at the sole risk of the purchaser. The School of Film/Video does not assume any responsibility for such purchases nor does it directly endorse any hardware/software manufacturer and or retailer/vendor. The School of Film/Video does not provide direct technical support for purchased hardware/software. All data stored on local/network drives within The School of Film/Videoʼs labs are done at your own risk. Every student is responsible for backing up her/his data.

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Hard Drive Types, Uses, Specifications, & Recommendations

TYPES

There are two main types of hard drives full size and portable. They are described below.

Full Size (3.5”) drives will have faster transfer rates and power supplies. These drives should be used for your primary backups and potentially as a scratch disk. NOT ALL FULL SIZE DRIVES HAVE ADEQUATE COOLING TO OPERATE AS A SCRATCH/MEDIA DRIVE.

Portable (2.5”) drives are small, typically have slower transfer rates and may or may not use an ex-ternal power supply. These should be used for transporting large files or for on location backups. They are not typically designed to be fast enough or durable enough to be used as a scratch/media drive.

USAGE & SPECIFICATIONS

Backup: Backup drives should ONLY BE USED FOR BACKUPS, never for editing off of. Backup drives should be a full size 3.5” drive with either Firewire 400/800 or USB 2.0. The connection is less important since real time audio/video playback is not needed since you will never work off of it. It should be left off when you are not backing up your files. It should also be more than large enough to store all your data.

Scratch/Media: Scratch/Media drives will be used to edit audio/video in realtime, therefore they need to be fast and robust. Scratch/Media drives should be full size 3.5” 7200RPM drives that have Fire-wire 400/800 with a minimum of 8MBs of cache. DO NOT USE USB 2.0 FOR YOUR SCRATCH DISK it is not fast enough to provide a sustained transfer rate for playback and editing. This drive will also need adequate cooling in the form of an internal fan or heat sinks. Inadequate cooling will shorten the life of the drive and result in premature failure. If you are doing an online edit with un-compressed SD/HD/2K/4K footage you may need to a RAID. please talk to the technical staff so they can give you recommendations on hardware and workflow.

Transport: Transport drives are used only for moving files from one computer or location to another. These can be 3.5” or 2.5” drives with Firewire 400/800 or USB 2.0. They do not need to be fast since they are only used to move files from point A to B and not editing.

USAGE & SPECIFICATIONS SUMMARY CHART

USAGE SIZE CONNECTION RPM CACHE

BACKUP Full Size 3.5” Firewire 400/800, USB 2.0, Thun-derbolt

5400 / 7200 RPM Any Size

SCRATCH Full Size 3.5” Firewire 400/800, Thunderbolt

7200 RPM 8MB or Greater

TRANSPORT Full Size 3.5” or Portable 2.5”

Firewire 400/800, USB 2.0

4200 / 5400 / 7200 RPM

Any Size

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PORTS

There are five main types of ports you will see on hard drives: USB 1.0/2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, eSATA and Thunderbolt.

USB 1.0/2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) is a connection used for many different computer devices most of which do not require fast sustained transfer rates. USB 1.0 is the older less common version that has very slow transfer rates, 2.0 has significantly faster transfer rates. USB will be found on most hard drives available today however USB 1.0/2.0 cannot provide sustained transfer rates that are suitable for editing audio/video sources in realtime. USB 1.0/2.0 therefore are not a connection that can be recommended for scratch/media drives. This connection is suitable for backup or portable drives since speed and sustained transfer rates are not needed.

USB 3.0 (Universal Serial Bus) is the latest version of USB which has significantly faster transfer rates than USB 2.0. This connection is found on some newer hard drives and some but not all new computers. Currently No Mac computers ship with USB 3.0. Sustained transfer speeds vary widely between devices and cannot always provide sustained transfer rates that are suitable for editing audio/video sources in realtime. USB 3.0 therefore is not a connection that can be recommended for scratch/media drives. This connection is suitable for backup or portable drives since sustained trans-fer rates are not needed. CALARTS DOES NOT HAVE COMPUTERS WITH USB 3.0 CONNEC-TIONS SO YOU WILL HAVE TO USE A CONNECTION OTHER THAN ESATA IN ANY OF THE LABS.

Firewire 400 (aka: IEEE 1394, iLink) is a connection that is primarily found on computer devices that require fast sustained transfer rates. It will be found commonly on hard drives as well as audio interfaces/recorders, camcorders, professional digital SLRs, and video interfaces. Firewire 400 con-nections provide sustained transfer rates that may be used for editing audio/video and are a suitable connection for a scratch/media drive. This connection may also be used for backup or transport drives and will offer faster transfer rates than USB 1.0/2.0.

Firewire 800 (aka: IEEE 1394b) is a connection that is primarily found on computer devices that re-quire faster sustained transfer rates than firewire 400. Firewire 800 is not double the speed of firewire 400 as the name would imply, but it is significantly faster. It will be found commonly on hard drives as well as audio interfaces/recorders, and video interfaces. Firewire 800 connections provide sustained transfer rates that may be used for editing audio/video and are a suitable connection for a scratch/media drive. This connection may also be used for backup or transport drives and will offer faster transfer rates than Firewire 400 and USB 1.0/2.0.

eSATA is a connection that has the similar transfer speeds of the connection known as SATA that is used by internal hard drives. This connection is found only on hard drives currently and typically will require a controller card for the computer since eSATA ports are not yet standard computer hardware. CALARTS DOES NOT HAVE COMPUTERS WITH ESATA CONNECTIONS SO YOU WILL HAVE TO USE A CONNECTION OTHER THAN ESATA IN ANY OF THE LABS. eSATA connections pro-vide sustained transfer rates that may be used for editing audio/video and are a suitable connection for a scratch/media drive. This connection may also be used for backup drives and will offer faster transfer rates than Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and USB 1.0/2.0.

Thunderbolt is a new multipurpose connection by Apple and Intel that has extremely fast transfer rates that are many times faster than eSATA. This connection is found only on the newest hard drives and Apple Computers. ONLY A FEW COMPUTERS IN THE SCHOOL OF F/VʼS LABS ARE EQUIPPED WITH THUNDERBOLT. Thunderbolt connections provide sustained transfer rates that may be used for editing audio/video and are a suitable connection for a scratch/media drive. This

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connection may also be used for backup drives and will offer faster transfer rates than eSATA, Fire-wire 800, Firewire 400 and USB 1.0/2.0. Note: Thunderbolt is currently not available for Windows/Linux based PCs.

CONNECTOR USAGE SUMMARY CHART

CONNECTION SUSTAINED SPEED & TRANSFER RATES FOR SCRATCH/MEDIA DRIVE

AVAILABLE IN LABS

USB 1.0/2.0 NO YES

USB 3.0 NO* NO

Firewire 400 YES YES**

Firewire 800 YES YES

eSATA YES NO

Thunderbolt YES YES***

*Sustained transfer rates may be suitable for some types of media.**Some lab machines will need a Firewire 400 (6pin) to Firewire 800 (9pin) to connect.***Not available in all labs.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We recommend that you get a drive that is at least 500GBs in size, depending on your shooting reso-lution and final output. All drives you purchase should have an ON/OFF switch and an AC power adapter. THESE ARE ONLY RECOMMENDATIONS, NOT REQUIREMENTS, AND THERE MAY BE OTHER SUITABLE HARD DRIVES/VENDORS THAT MAY FIT YOUR NEEDS.

FormattingWith every new drive we recommend you format or reformat the drive before storing any data on it. Many drives come pre-formatted for Mac or PC however you may run into incompatibilities at times depending on which operating system version they were using. To ensure the maximum compatibility with the systems at CalArts we recommend you format you drives here in one of the labs. If you will be formatting at home make sure to run all necessary system updates on your computer prior to for-matting. Please refer to the section on formatting your drives which begins on page 7.

Return PoliciesAlways check the return policy before making any purchases. Some retailers/vendors will not accept returns on opened merchandise or may charge restocking fees for opened items. If it is possible try to find a retailer/vendor that does allow open box returns.

BackupLaCie D2 Quadra: 1-2TB, 7200RPM, 16-32MB Cache, Firewire 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0, 3 year warranty.

OWC Mercury Elite Pro Classic / Neptune: 250GB-3TB, 5400-7200RPM, 8-32MB Cache, Firewire 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0 (connections depends on model), 3 year warranty.

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Western Digital My Book/My Book Studio for Mac series: 1-3TB, 5400-7200RPM, 8-32MB Cache, USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800, (connections depends on model), 1-5 year warranty. (NOTE: Some known incompatibilities with Mac OS 10.5.x “Leopard”)

ScratchGlyph GT050Q: 500GB-2TB, 7200 RPM, 16-32MB Cache, 3.5”, Firewire 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0, 3 year warranty, with 1st year overnight replacement, 2 year light data recovery.

G-Drive or G-Drive Q: 1-3TB, 7200 RPM, 8-64MB Cache, 3.5”, USB 2.0, Firewire 800, eSATA, 3 year warranty.

OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro series: 250GB-3TB, 7200RPM (unless noted otherwise), 8-32MB Cache, 3.5”, USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800, eSATA (connections depend on model), 3 year warranty.

TransportOWC Mercury On-The-Go/ElitePro mini series: 100GB-1TB, 5400-7200RPM, 8-16MB Cache, USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800, (connections depend on model), optional AC adapter, 3 year warranty.

Verbatim Store ʻnʼ Go: 500GB, 5400RPM, 8MB Cache, USB 3.0, Firewire 800, optional AC adapter, 2 year warranty.

Lacie Little Big Disk & Rugged Triple: 240-1TB, 5400-7200 RPM, 2-8MB Cache, 2.5”, USB 2.0, Fire-wire 400/800 (optional Thunderbolt), optional AC adapter on most models, DOES NOT HAVE ON/OFF SWITCH, 2 year warranty.

Seagate GoFlex for Mac: 320GB-1TB, 5400RPM, 2.5”, USB 2.0, Firewire 800 (optional USB 3.0 and eSATA), 3 year warranty.

VENDORSGlyph: www.glyphtech.com (Guitar Center, Melrose Mac, Sam Ash Music & Samyʼs Camera)

G-Drive: www.g-technology.com (Apple Store & Valencia Mac)

LaCie: www.lacie.com (Apple Store, B&H Photo/Video/Pro Audio, buy.com, Guitar Center, newegg.com, Samyʼs Camera, Unitek)

Other World Computing: www.macsales.com

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Formatting Your Hard Drive

It is recommended that you format your drive for Mac. If you are working from home and are using Windows you may want to invest in MacDrive, which is a software that allows you to read and write to Mac formatted drives within Windows seamlessly. Purchasing, MacDrive ($49.95), is optional how-ever it may make working between home and CalArts easier. System requirements for it can be found at http://www.mediafour.com/support/macdrive/. If you format your drive for Mac and do not have MacDrive, you will not be able to read and write to your drive.

FORMATTING YOUR DRIVE FOR MAC

You will need access to a Mac system that is running the latest version of the Mac operating system with all updates applied in order to format your drive. Make sure prior to formatting a drive that it ei-ther is brand new or you data is backed up because THIS PROCESS WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON THE DRIVE.

1) Start up the system and plug in your hard drive. It should appear on the desktop.

2) Open up Disk Utility from the Dock. If it is not in the dock it will be found in the Utilities folder that is inside the Applications folder.

3) Choose your hard drive from the column on the right side by clicking on it. It will likely be orange in color and have the Firewire or USB symbol on it.

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4) You should now have a series of tabs in the main area of the application near the top. Click on the tab labeled Erase tab.

5) Under the Volume Format pull down make sure Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is selected. If not select it.

6) Name your drive in the Name section. Make sure that you do not use any special characters within your drive name ie. $ or ü.

7) Make sure that the Install Mac OS 9 Disk Drivers check box is unchecked.

8) You are now ready to format the drive. Click the Erase button. This will take a few minutes. Make sure not to disconnect or turn off the drive while it is formatting.

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Make sure this box is unchecked.

Name your drive. NO special characters.

Drive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Hard Drive Mounting / Dismounting Procedure

MOUNTING MAC OS

1) Computer should be off.

2) Plug in hard driveʼs power supply.

3) Plug in firewire cable into hard drive.

4) Plug firewire cable into computer.

5) Turn on the drive if it has a power switch.

6) Turn on Computer.

7) Hard drive should then mount. For Mac OS machines the hard drive will show up on the desktop.

DISMOUNTING MAC OS

1) Drag hard drive to trash can (See Figure 1.1) or click on the eject symbol next to the drive in any open Finder window (See Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.1

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Figure 1.2

2) The hard drive will now need to spin down before it can be powered off and disconnected. WAIT AT LEAST 1 MINUTE BEFORE UNPLUGGING OR YOU MAY DAMAGE YOUR DRIVE.

3) Turn off the power on the drive if it has a switch. If it does not have a power button skip to step 4.

4) Disconnect firewire cable from computer.

5) Disconnect power cable.

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Backing Up Your FilesMaking backups of your files is one of the most important habits to get into. Taking the time to per-form backups will save you time, money, and misery when disaster strikes. There are numerous ways to backup your files and this document will cover many of them.

WHAT IS A BACKUP?A backup is a copy or copies of ALL IMPORTANT FILES. It is to be used when the media on which the original is stored is corrupted, damaged, or fails. For example when a hard drive fails.

WHY BACKUPS ARE IMPORTANT?To date there still is not a truly archival medium for digital data and therefore all types of media (i.e. Hard Drives/Removable Media) will fail at some point. HARD DRIVES ARE MECHANICAL DE-VICES THAT WILL FAIL EVENTUALLY. When they fail is unpredictable. Some drives may last many years while others will fail the day they are purchased, so one must always be backed up. This does not include accidental hazards such as dropping hard drives/computers, spilling liquids, and power outages/spikes. These can strike at anytime without warning. The costs for attempting to re-cover the data, off a failed or damaged hard drive or piece of media, is extremely costly and may run thousands of dollars and may not always work. In addition here at CalArts you may be working and leaving your files on the computers scratch drive/s. This is a bad habit since any other user can de-lete those files by accident. There is also periodic maintenance that includes removal of all files on the scratch drives.

WHAT DO I NEED TO BACKUP?Backing up may seem daunting however it can be made quite simple. You will need at least one of the following preferably more than one.

1) EXTERNAL HARD DRIVEa. This drive should be a decent size, 500GBs-1TB maybe be sufficient (this will vary from

person to person and project to project).b. This drive does not need to be the fastest drive since you will only be using it for back-

ing up your data and nothing else.c. This should ONLY be used for backing up. It should NOT be used as a scratch disk to

edit media off of.2) NETWORK STORAGE

a. Every Mac account in the School of Film/Video comes with 50GBs of storage space that is available in your users home directory.

3) CD-R/DVD-Ra. They should be used in addition to storing your files on a dedicated hard drive or net-

work drive but maybe used if costs are prohibitive.b. CDs/DVDs may only be reliable for a few years sometimes as little as 1 year. There-

fore, you should either invest in archival grade (70-100 year lifespan) CD-R/DVD-Rs or check and burn new backups every year or two.

c. Archival media that is recommended are made by Taiyo Yuden, MAM-A, and Kodak.d. DO NOT USE CD/DVD MEDIA THAT IS COLORED. They are not as reliable as regu-

lar non-archival media which will likely last 1-3 years.

In addition some people may choose to use software that is designed to automate the backup proc-ess. It is often times more convenient. Such software will be discussed at the end of this document.

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BACKING UP YOUR FILES

HARD DRIVE

One of the simplest ways to backup your data is with an external hard drive.

1) Connect the hard drive. It will vary depending on your connection and the computer; it may use USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, eSATA, or Thunderbolt.

2) Make a directory for your backup or backups. It is recommended that you create a folder with in-formation about what you are about to backup along with the date in the name.

Example: I am working on a project called “Sample Project Of Doom” and the date is December 5, 2011. A good name for a backup folder may be something like: “SPOD-Backup-12-5-11”. Remember to write down what these acronyms mean just in case you forget.

3) If you have kept track of and managed your media well you will find it should be easy to locate the files you need to backup. Once they are located you should copy them to that folder.

4) Once the transfer has completed it is highly recommended that you open up a few files or all files to make sure that they are intact and there was no problems while copying. This is rare but it never hurts to be safe.

5) Ejecting your hard disk properly is the next step and is very important. If this has not been done correctly you may damage your hard drive or the files on it.

NETWORK STORAGENetwork Storage is something that is provided to you with every Mac user account. It should be used for backup purposes only since it cannot be accessed fast enough to be a scratch disk. Your data that is stored here is fairly safe and will never be intentionally erased without advance warning. THE NETWORK STORAGE DOES NOT HAVE ITS OWN BACKUP SO IF A DISASTER OCCURS YOUR DATA MAY BE LOST AND SHOULD BE USED AT YOUR OWN RISK. THEREFORE, DO NOT USE NETWORK STORAGE AS YOUR ONLY BACKUP .

MACEvery Mac account has a minimum of 50GBs of space. The area to save items is within your home directory, which should be accessible in the sidebar. You only need to drag the files into an appropriate file within the home directory or create a new folder for files. DO NOT STORE FILES ON THE DESKTOP IT WILL SLOW YOUR USER ACCOUNT DOWN.

CD-R/DVD-RYou may create CD or DVD backups on the Mac or PC. You may use Toast or the Mac OS Finder to burn discs.

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ADDITIONAL BACKUP SOFTWARE

Backup software is not essential for making a backup but can help ensure that regular backups are made as well as simplify the entire process. There are numerous software packages available each with their own capabilities, way of performing backups, and price point. BEFORE PURCHASING ANY BACKUP SOFTWARE please consult the technical faculty in order to determine what software may work best for your situation. Especially since opened software is typically never returnable and you may be stuck with software that may not be suitable. Below are some commonly known backup softwares for both Mac and PC computers. Any questions about terminology should be directed to the technical faculty.

MAC

Carbon Copy – Free - http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html– Automated scheduled backups– Bootable clone of hard drive– Incremental backups– Network backup

Super Duper – $27.95 – Super Duper - http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper– Automated scheduled backups– Bootable cloning of hard drive– Incremental backups

Time Machine (Mac Os 10.5.x and later) – $129 or Free - http://www.apple.com/macosx/– Automated scheduled backups– Incremental backups– Real-Time continuous synchronization

WINDOWS

NTI Shadow – $40 - http://www.ntius.com/shadow.asp- Automated scheduled backups- Incremental backups- Network backups- Real-Time continuous synchronization

NTI Backup Now - $70 - http://www.ntius.com/backup_now.asp- Automated scheduled backups- CD/DVD burning support- File compression- Hard Disk spanning- Incremental backups- Network backups- Real-Time continuous synchronization

Symantec Norton Ghost – $70 - http://www.symantec.com/norton/ghost- Automated scheduled backups- Bootable clone of hard drive- CD/DVD burning support- File compression- FTP backup- Hard Disk spanning- Incremental backups- Real-Time continuous synchronization

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Client/Server Networks & Local StorageWhat follows is an overview of how Mac network accounts, network storage and local storage oper-ates on lab computers here in the School of F/V, along with other general information. These drives/storage devices also have rules for usage e.g. how long one may leave files on the drives so make sure to read over these rules.

THE MAC NETWORKAreas Affected: HFPADL and HFPADL teaching lab E-60, Sound Department, Character Animation Labs, Experimental Animation Labs.

General Info1. Usernames and Passwords are maintained by Nathan Crow (E104) and Scott Kozberg (F106).

Usernames are the same as your CalArts email username. The default password that is set before your first login is your Student ID number. Passwords may be reset by Nathan Crow and/or Scott Kozberg.

2. A userʼs Home is located on the Server, and users are granted a minimum of 50GBs of stor-age. This includes any files located in the Userʼs Home, such as files placed on the desktop, the userʼs drop box.

3. Users are permitted to install internet plug-ins as well as fonts.4. A user may access another userʼs Drop Box by connecting to the server. This may be done by

clicking on Finderʼs “Go” drop down menu, then selecting “Connect to Server” (or hitting Ap-ple+K). Then type in “asimo” for the server. Once connected, the list of user groups is popu-lated by area. To select the users within the Experimental Animation Program, for example, select that program from the list. The user may then access the Drop Box by browsing to the selected userʼs “Public” folder and dragging the file into the Drop Box folder.

The DesktopThe Desktop is always a live connection to the Server. This means that files dropped onto it (or cre-ated on it) are actually being copied across the network and stored on the Server. This means that the user cannot edit footage or do any other “live” action using data stored on the Desktop or any other folder in the userʼs Home.

Mac Network Summary1. Do not store large files on the Desktop.2. Never use your Desktop or Home directory as a Scratch drive.3. You are responsible for backing up your data on all local drives as well as on the server.4. You are given a minimum of 50GBs of storage space.

LOCAL STORAGE DRIVESAreas affected: A109, A115-D, A115-H, A115-I F101, F103, F104, F105, HFPADL and HFPADL teach-ing lab E-60, Sound Department.

There are two types of local storage drives that you will come across in the F/V labs, these are: Scratch or Media drives and System drives. Their differences are discussed below. Scratch/Media DrivesThese drives are to be used for temporary storage of audio/video files that you will be editing. After you have finished editing move your footage to your backup drive or home directory. The files on these drives are deleted on a regular interval which maybe as short as 1 week. In addition other us-

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ers of the computer have the right to delete any files on the scratch or media drive if there is insuffi-cient space. THERE IS NO WARNING PRIOR TO THE DELETION OF FILES ON SCRATCH OR MEDIA DRIVES.

System DrivesThese drives are NOT FOR STORAGE OF ANY FILES. These drives are for applications and the operating systems. They may only be used by System Administrators. DO NOT STORE FILES ON THESE DRIVES UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Local Storage Summary Chart

DRIVE PERMISSION TO USE DURATION

Scratch / Media YES - 1 Folder Short Term (next user or maximum 2 weeks)

System NO N/A

ALL DATA STORED ON LOCAL/NETWORK DRIVES ARE DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BACKING UP YOUR DATA.

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