Thanks! It's the cloud backup part I am hoping to avoid due to costs. Was thinking that might be possible with multiple (redundant) external drives. For two years of google drive, I can have 2 x 4TB hard drives that are backups of one another. Or, way less space but SSD instead of HDD for same cost. Thoughts?
How do you process and store your Drone photos, videos, logs etc?
- Thread starter eva2000
- Start date
I still like the cloud storage as part of the solution in case of fire or power surge or something catastrophic at the house. I have Apple stuff so I use the cloud storage deal w Apple - not because of my drone footage but for all my irreplaceable family photos and digital documents - so it works for me. And I can easily access any of my cloud things from any device anywhere there’s internet.
Anyhoo…I would recommend you think a little bit about file sizes and how much video and of what quality you actually intend to keep. I have a MA2 that offers 4K but I almost never use that setting - 1080p is good enough for my needs - flying around cornfields, pastures, creeks and rivers mostly. I find that’s about 300mb/minute. So I fly for say 20 minutes per battery and take video the whole time that’s about a 6GB file. I trim down the good parts to maybe 2-3 minutes (at most!) and I have a 1GB keeper file (at most!) and trash the rest (nobody would ever go through my hours of raw footage). And I’d have to do that 1000x to get up to 1TB of drone footage. (A few times on scenic vacations I’ve taken 4K video - but not many.)
But when you’re shooting 4K that same 2-3mins of footage is like 4MB. If you think you will keep everything (and/or shoot everything in 4K) do the math and get whatever size you think you need.
I’m not saying what works for me will work for you. Just giving you my perspective. Hope it helps you think things through
Glad this thread I started is useful for other folks thanks for everyones contributions
I ended going the external HDD route too. Amazon Prime Day Australia deals allowed me to pick up 14TB Western Digital Elements external USB 3.0 drive with transfer speeds in 190MB/s range for AUD$363 WD Elements Desktop Storage, 14 TB, WDBBKG0140HBK-AESN (Australian Version) : Amazon.com.au: Computers !
The historic price of this drive floated between AUD$450-770 and this year between AUD$450-550.So check out if your locale has any Amazon Prime Day deals
Went with 14TB as a read new Seagate and Western Digital drives <8TB are using SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) while >12TB on WD side use CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) CMR vs. SMR Hard Drives: What’s the Difference?
and >12TB more likely to use Helium instead of Air and have faster transfer speeds and longer MTBF. Also read folks can rip the hard drives out of these WD enclosures to use the internal 3.5" SATA that way too if needed.
My existing external drives are ancient almost 10yrs old with Hitachi 3TB USB 2.0 drives that are slow 30-40MB/s and to the point, I don't use them much besides for archiving. Haven't bought new drives in as long too so fingers crossed the 14TB external drive is good and lasts and more than ample storage for all sorts
Most of my important data has cloud storage backup already.
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I've heard good things about Backblaze, which is $7/month for unlimited backups.
Cloud Backup: Easy, Secure Online Backup - Backblaze
Never lose a photo, video, or file again. Cloud backup made easy and automatic. Backblaze unlimited online backup for $7 per month.
www.backblaze.com
Yup been using Backblaze myself for years now. Though I have additional backups on Onedrive and Google Drive too
@BleugrassBoy @eva2000 @Robert Prior - thank you all for this feedback! I think I'll start with external HDD, figure out a filing/directory system that works, learn how to edit and force myself to purge the stuff that I will never watch in the future, keep the rest on HDD and backup the most valuable items to cloud (subscription forthcoming).
On a totally different note, I just plopped by sd card into the MA2 and started flying, never formatted it. I have a work PC that is managed by IT Admin and I am not sure on what software is even allowed, and an old personal Macbook Pro from 2015 where I probably will start learning the art of editing with a free piece of software somebody recommended (Davinci Resolve?). So, I guess I need to format that SD card. Anything special I need to know?
On a totally different note, I just plopped by sd card into the MA2 and started flying, never formatted it. I have a work PC that is managed by IT Admin and I am not sure on what software is even allowed, and an old personal Macbook Pro from 2015 where I probably will start learning the art of editing with a free piece of software somebody recommended (Davinci Resolve?). So, I guess I need to format that SD card. Anything special I need to know?
Yeah format the micro sdcard in Fly app. I just downloaded Davinci Resolve to learn as well seeing as it's free. For photos I played with Afifinity Photo's trial and like it so learning as I go
I always format cards in the device they're used in. So I'd do that when it's in the aircraft, from the Fly app.
My method of processing drone video and (just started this yesterday after learning how) flight record data:
(1) After I get home from a flight, the first thing I do is copy the video files from the drones' 'Micro SD card to my desktop computer. I do this both to watch the videos, as well as decide if I want to make a video compilation including any of these, to share with friends.
(2) Next, I check the flight records for the associated flights, and download those to my phone, and then transfer them from the phone to my computer. (Just learned how to do this yesterday...)
(3) I then enter the flight data into a physical logbook that I keep (handwritten, not on computer) of all flights and associated data, such as date, location, flight time, max distance and max height. I also associate each flight with a number and write down the video numbers that the DJI app has assigned to each of the videos from that flight. This can help if later on I'm trying to find the videos associated with a particular outing.
(4) Sometimes, in order to aid in organization, I change the name of the videos to add a location name, but keep the number that the DJI fly app assigned to the video.
(5) After having first copied the video files to my desktop computer, I then move those files off he Micro SD card, onto an external hard drive. In that hard drive I have separate folders for each month, and put the videos in the appropriate month. I also have a file for flight records.
(6) After I either decide to make a video compilation of flight videos to share with friends, or don't, I then move the videos off my desktop computer onto a 2nd external hard drive.
(7) I was also planning to store all the drone videos on USB sticks, in addition to external hard drives, but realized those fill up really fast, even the 256 GB ones. So I'm not sure if I will do this....
(1) After I get home from a flight, the first thing I do is copy the video files from the drones' 'Micro SD card to my desktop computer. I do this both to watch the videos, as well as decide if I want to make a video compilation including any of these, to share with friends.
(2) Next, I check the flight records for the associated flights, and download those to my phone, and then transfer them from the phone to my computer. (Just learned how to do this yesterday...)
(3) I then enter the flight data into a physical logbook that I keep (handwritten, not on computer) of all flights and associated data, such as date, location, flight time, max distance and max height. I also associate each flight with a number and write down the video numbers that the DJI app has assigned to each of the videos from that flight. This can help if later on I'm trying to find the videos associated with a particular outing.
(4) Sometimes, in order to aid in organization, I change the name of the videos to add a location name, but keep the number that the DJI fly app assigned to the video.
(5) After having first copied the video files to my desktop computer, I then move those files off he Micro SD card, onto an external hard drive. In that hard drive I have separate folders for each month, and put the videos in the appropriate month. I also have a file for flight records.
(6) After I either decide to make a video compilation of flight videos to share with friends, or don't, I then move the videos off my desktop computer onto a 2nd external hard drive.
(7) I was also planning to store all the drone videos on USB sticks, in addition to external hard drives, but realized those fill up really fast, even the 256 GB ones. So I'm not sure if I will do this....
I transfer first to desktop because I want to watch the videos and perhaps make a video compilation of parts of some. It's easier to do that with files on the desktop computer.
I’m imagining a setup where new files go from MA2 to MacBook Pro (whose storage is limited to 500GB) where I do whatever organizing and editing, then periodically move everything to the drive in question, and backup the prized keepers to cloud.
I’ll go with either one of the two from Prime Day. Thoughts on advantages of SSD? Is it worth the price premium to avoid the possibility of mechanical failure and faster read/write?
Deal of the day for Prime Members: SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2 - External Solid State Drive - SDSSDE61-2T00-G25 https://a.co/d/bAtPhjL
Deal of the day for Prime Members: WD 16TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive HDD, USB 3.0, Compatible with PC, Mac, PS4 & Xbox - WDBWLG0160HBK-NESN https://a.co/d/g5Vq6yX
I’ll go with either one of the two from Prime Day. Thoughts on advantages of SSD? Is it worth the price premium to avoid the possibility of mechanical failure and faster read/write?
Deal of the day for Prime Members: SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2 - External Solid State Drive - SDSSDE61-2T00-G25 https://a.co/d/bAtPhjL
Deal of the day for Prime Members: WD 16TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive HDD, USB 3.0, Compatible with PC, Mac, PS4 & Xbox - WDBWLG0160HBK-NESN https://a.co/d/g5Vq6yX
Yeah figured as much - maybe nice in future if DJI drones had a HDMI or mini-HDMI port so you could playback direct to a big screen without transferring files.
I thought this too faster disk transfers and reliability with SSD/NVMe but ultimately chose disk capacity for my WD 14TB Elements external drive. On a budget myself, but if budget wasn't a problem, you could go with both SSD + external drive. SSD as work disk for editing from and external for storage.
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Counter-issue: when a mechanical disk fails it can often be mostly recovered. With a solid-state drive you're out of luck.
Oh +1 definitely, was just reading Amazon reviews for 2TB Crucial P2 NVMe M.2 drive - so many failed within 1st year apparently and zero probability of recovery!
Solid state for a working drive, mechanical for long-term storage and for backup is what I do.
That's basically my approach. I use two 4 TB HHD hard drives to keep redundant copies of all drone videos. If one drive fails I still have the other drive, and can then get a replacement drive and copy all the files over to it, etc.
I started using Western Digital NAS systems a couple years ago as I quickly realized that the amount of external drives I have and would be accumulating would get ridiculous.
I started out with this one with four 6TB Red drives. Keep in mind that the actual capacity will be less depending on the RAID setup you choose to use. Back around Christmas WD had a pretty good sale on Red Pro drives and I pulled the trigger on four 18TB Red Pro drives which provided 7200RPM (old ones were 5400RPM). All four drives are configured in one volume with a RAID 5 configuration giving me quadruple redundancy. Theoretically, the only way I'd lose data would be a fire.
It took over a week to integrate the new drives into the NAS migrating all of my current data from the old drives. It has been an invaluable investment not only for aerial content, but also my entire lifetime of photos and video, old reel-to-reel, slides, documents, music, EVERYTHING.
I can access it from anywhere in the world and provide shares (folders) to up to 512 different users with secure authentication. It's basically a server. Setup isn't exactly plug and play, but I'm an old IT guy so it wasn't much of an issue. Several switches around the house provide fast access via CAT9 ethernet cables. The unit provides link aggregation so two dedicated cables run from the NAS to my router's dedicated aggregation ports doubling the throughput.
TL;DR It was a life changer and I would be lost without it.
I started out with this one with four 6TB Red drives. Keep in mind that the actual capacity will be less depending on the RAID setup you choose to use. Back around Christmas WD had a pretty good sale on Red Pro drives and I pulled the trigger on four 18TB Red Pro drives which provided 7200RPM (old ones were 5400RPM). All four drives are configured in one volume with a RAID 5 configuration giving me quadruple redundancy. Theoretically, the only way I'd lose data would be a fire.
It took over a week to integrate the new drives into the NAS migrating all of my current data from the old drives. It has been an invaluable investment not only for aerial content, but also my entire lifetime of photos and video, old reel-to-reel, slides, documents, music, EVERYTHING.
I can access it from anywhere in the world and provide shares (folders) to up to 512 different users with secure authentication. It's basically a server. Setup isn't exactly plug and play, but I'm an old IT guy so it wasn't much of an issue. Several switches around the house provide fast access via CAT9 ethernet cables. The unit provides link aggregation so two dedicated cables run from the NAS to my router's dedicated aggregation ports doubling the throughput.
TL;DR It was a life changer and I would be lost without it.
Nice, I was thinking of going the NAS route but it wasn't really in my budget right now. I also use Backblaze Personal backup to cloud which allows for unlimited storage and it seems it doesn't support NAS/network storage but does support external drives.
So in theory I could add my 14TB Western Digital Elements external drive as a drive letter for Backblaze Personal backup to automatically backup too! Luckily, 6 months ago I upgraded from 250Mbps/25Mbps down/up NBN HFC connection to 1000Mbps/50Mbps down/up NBN connection. So in theory can upload ~300GB/day. It beats my old 100Mbps/5Mbps cable connection with a puny 5Mbps upload!
I ended going the external HDD route too. Amazon Prime Day Australia deals allowed me to pick up 14TB Western Digital Elements external USB 3.0 drive with transfer speeds in 190MB/s range for AUD$363 WD Elements Desktop Storage, 14 TB, WDBBKG0140HBK-AESN (Australian Version) : Amazon.com.au: Computers !
My 14TB Western Digital Elements USB 3.0 external drive arrived and the reported speeds are spot on it seems ~186MB/s reads and ~185-212MB/s writes. Way better than my existing external drives in 1-4TB range which only manage 30-80MB/s. Perfect for storing my Mini 2 generated photos and videos
Write test is going to take a while to complete
Thanks to folks' feedback in this thread, I've settled on using Davinci Resolve for the video side and Affinity Photo for the photo side. Still keep sharing your folks' workflows and storage setup and ideas. I'm sure a lot of us will learn from them
I have a DS218 NAS (network attached storage) from Synology. The two drives are mirrored.
I also have a pair of USB drives of the same size one of which is stored offsite. I do a nightly clone and a weekly swap of the offsite drive.
I also have a pair of USB drives of the same size one of which is stored offsite. I do a nightly clone and a weekly swap of the offsite drive.
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