Re: Backing up FCPX project

I have a new FCPX project and am looking for an easy way to back it up.
Running FCPX 10.1.3 on an iMac (3.4 GHz i7 w 16GB Ram running 10.9.4)

The Library for this project is currently 3.5TB and located on a RAID 5 drive (Thunderbay 4).
I ran one simple backup onto an inexpensive 4TB drive (Seagate) and it took 24 hours via USB.

I'd love to use Time Machine or SuperDuper to backup from here, so that as I work with this project and the Library changes and grows, I don't lose anything.... (and I don't have to take another 24 hours to back up the RAID drive to start).

Is there a way to now do a backup that "builds on" the previous simple backup? Or would it be starting from scratch and another 24 hour backup?

In either case, Time Machine or Super Duper, I'm not sure how I would specify to backup the external RAID drive, rather than the internal HD for the iMac.

Thanks for any suggestions.

PS - also, would it be advisable to backup externally (or on the cloud) the hourly backups that FCPX generates? Currently they are in my User folder on the iMac.

Hi fcpuser,
Sounds like you have a USB2 drive connected, not USB3. USB2 will take a loooooong time. USB3 is about 10X faster especially if the unit supports UASP transfer. Not all USB3 drives are the same.

Please be sure to Back-up your ThunderBay. Even with RAID5 you can lose the data, so make sure to back-up separately.

The hourly "back-ups" are typically smaller files and do not copy the media, just the edit changes and things like render files, waveforms, cache. Media is not changed unless you bring in additional files. Assuming you have the media files on the RAID backed up, then you routinely back-up your internal drive containing your "Library back-up" files, you should not have a catastrophic fail.
FCPX since 10.1.2 allows greater control on where files are stored.

Assuming you get a faster back-up drive, USB3(wUASP) or ThunderPort, you can also use the "Modify settings" in the inspector pane to consolidate files for a project onto that external drive(don't forget to switch back). This can with a check box(s) copy all files onto a different drive including the media, cache, render files. If that drive also has a bootable clone drive partition, this would allow you to continue to work even if disaster happens including being able to use a different mac altogether. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner allow incremental back-ups to happen, say once or twice a day. Of course this would come at a speed cost.
Time Machine in my opinion is only good for restoring a few files at a time. You should even turn it off for fastest editing resource availability. Many folks turn off background rendering or change the delay to background rendering for the same reason. Really depends on the type of video codecs, number of cams, effects you are using and how taxing it is to your set-up. If you see the Spinning Beach Ball or jittery play back, see if TM is running and check background rendering. BG rendering is supposed to suspend itself while you are doing something, but it still can slow down FCPX.

Just to reiterate that you need to back up the RAID. RAID in any form is not a back-up strategy. While RAID5 (6/10 etc…) provides some fail protection for an individual drive failure, the Bay unit itself can also fail and files can be overwritten by user error. If the unit fails on a hardware based RAID, then you have to have an identical unit with the same firmware in order to use the drives, otherwise the data is lost. Software RAIDs can be recovered with almost any bare unit/external bay.

Hope this helps, Greg

Thank you, yes, very helpful, Greg. I'm new to FCPX and how to work with Libraries.

Just to clarify, are you saying that if I get a faster backup drive, from within FCPX, I could change the settings to place the Project (Library) onto that faster backup drive? (Then switch back) and then use SuperDuper to regularly update that faster backup drive?

Thank you very much, Greg. I'll work through your suggestions. Very helpful and yes, I'm starting my FCPX experience at 10.1.3 (after years of FCP7).