I'm planning to make long-form videos and expect to accumulate hundreds of gigabytes of footage and project files. I currently use a 1TB hard drive for older media, but I'm worried it won't be enough as my storage needs grow. Portability isn't important, though I'd prefer something durable. SSD prices seem high, so I'm wondering whether a larger HDD, SSD, cloud storage, or another option would make the most sense. I also want to avoid losing everything if the main drive fails.
3 Answers
Tape storage is generally unnecessary for a collection measured in hundreds of gigabytes. It becomes more attractive for organizations archiving multiple terabytes, but for personal video work, one or two large HDDs plus an off-site backup will be simpler and more affordable.
For large video archives, a desktop HDD is usually the best value. SSDs are faster and more resistant to bumps, but they cost considerably more per terabyte. Since you don’t need portability, look for a larger external HDD and use the SSD or internal storage for active projects. Most importantly, don’t treat one drive as a backup—keep at least two copies of anything you can’t replace.
Cloud storage is another option, especially for finished projects or irreplaceable footage. It avoids having to buy several drives at once, but uploading hundreds of gigabytes can take a long time and ongoing subscription costs may eventually exceed the price of a local HDD. A hybrid approach—local drives for working files and cloud storage for important backups—can be a good compromise.
A stronger setup is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies total, stored on two different types of media, with one copy kept somewhere else. That could mean two local drives plus cloud storage or another off-site backup.