How many of you edit off an external hard drive?

[Stefan B.]

Just got an external hard drive triple the size of the hard drive on my computer.
I'm thinking that after I'm done with all the projects I have going on now, to start uploading all my footage to the external and importing it into Final Cut from there.
I've never done it before, or even owned an external before this, so I'm a little worried about it just because it's something new to me.
Are there pros/cons to it or anything I should look out for?

[StarScream]

i usually have every one of my project on a little LaCie Rugged Harddrive.
And i make a copy every 2-3 days on an archive harddrive to keep it save.
Mostly cause i work on different computers and locations.

Just make sure that your whole FCP project is on the Drive, incl the capturescratch and rendervolumes etc..

[Cameron M]

This is how I do it, cause over time the hard drive on the comp's going to fill up with your footage/ projects, and I'd rather use that space for music/ pictures and such. So I work off a 360 gig right now but that's almost full. Going to buy a 500 soon.

[jonathan]

Just putting things into perspective. The time it would take to recall a clip from the external hard drive in a editing program will become very apparent. It will bog down your work flow over time. Best bet is to have teh shit locally on your hard drive, edit it out, then move all the shit to your external. But I recommend redundancy. Buy 2, maybe even 3 drives and copy the data to all of them. Yes it's 300 bucks and some time, but is it worth the $5,000 it takes to recovery that broken hard drive?

[Stefan B.]

The time it would take to recall a clip from the external hard drive in a editing program will become very apparent.

This was my exact concern.
I've got almost 400gb on my computers harddrive, and my external is a terabyte.
For example, the projects I have footage for right now are: one full 15 minute video, another video with 7 sections, and 4 other edits. All of this is currently on my computer's hard drive (on top of all my programs/music/etc.) and I've got about 60gb left. Once all these projects are done mid september I plan on getting rid of all the files and when I start the next project I'm doing in the fall start with everything going off the terabyte hard drive with some back ups in other places.

Thanks for the opinions boys, I really appreciate it.
Any other tips/ideas would still be helpful Just want to figure out what other people do and what is going to be the best thing for me.

[BEEF]

Stephan,

I'd like to think of myself as a seasoned editor... and user of comps/externals/etc.... i've rocked PCs, ghetto ass jihad'ed editing programs, into 35mm film, nice ass macbook pros and the proper final cut workflow and hard drives.

every serious filmmaker/editor/whatever uses externals. its almost a sin to keep anything on your internal (only programs should be installed on this, and things you absolutely need to be mobile...) right now i have 1 LaCie TB external (1000gigs), and 2 500gig LaCie externals... you connect using firewire 800 and it is equally as fast as having the files on your computer. I just finished editing/color-correcting a 70-minute documentary I did, and none of the footage ever was on the comp. I did another 60-min doc last year, most serious projects take anywhere from 400-600 gigs of space, so i buy(or bill) a new hard drive for every project.

ALSO... note- make sure that your render files are set to be located on your external. This also keeps speeds up & files from getting lost. Go with LaCie, they are the most reliable IMHO... also I have ghetto-rigged hardcases for all of mine so when i fly, travel, etc... they are safe. I never check them, always carry on. I'd die and never get employed again if I let one get smashed and lost a proj.



bottom line: external hard drive is the only way. You're always making tons of content on the regular, gotta get that workflow streamlined.

<3

[pHaTdProductions]

Some pros n cons...
pros- more room for your footage, back up and store,
cons- sometimes preview lags when viewing files from an external, some what slow but depends if its usb 3.0
but otherwise you shouldn't have any problem editing from an ex. HD, but i recommend putting the current files that your editing on your desktop in a folder then just back up the folder and the videos and the project files itself on the ex. HD

[George Amos]

this

external hard drive is the only way.

[Monday]

The time it would take to recall a clip from the external hard drive in a editing program will become very apparent.

You must be trollin'. Hard.

[fortunate few]

i literally have nothing saved to my mac except software and i run everything from my 1.5 tb external HD. everything runs fine, it doesnt even use firewire transfer.

[jonathan]

You must be trollin'. Hard.

no. But I think it's because my usb cannot use 2.0. I should just man up and buy a firewire external.

[George Amos]

Once you've loaded a workspace Final Cut renders the clips, converts to .mxf and saves the clips as they appear on the timeline so the edit's not reliant on the external harddrive at all. There's no slowing down because of usb connections or anything.

External hard drive is the only way to go, professionals, at editing houses never save anything locally.

[BEEF]

******only use firewire 400 / 800.

no USB with editing. not good. (especially for HD footage)